The National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) is a non-partisan organization of state lawmakers in the United States that meets regularly to discuss gaming issues. It serves as a forum for legislators who chair or serve on committees responsible for gaming regulation. Each year, the NCLGS holds a winter meeting. The four-day conference invites U.S. lawmakers, regulators, and gaming industry stakeholders to discuss legislation, regulation, and effective public policy regarding regulated gaming across America. The most recent meeting was held this past December 11-14, 2025, in Puerto Rico.
Kindbridge Behavioral Health’s Daniel Umfleet (Founder and CEO) and Rick Griffin (Director of Business Development,) spoke at the winter meeting’s Committee on Problem Gambling panel. Umfleet entered the NCLGS winter meeting after a string of insightful appearances from Q4 of 2025. These include an interview on Gambling.com’s “The Edge” (view here) and inclusion on the Ohio State University (OSU) panel titled “Betting Beyond Your Means: The Cost of Problem Gambling” (view here).
Among the notable topics discussed at the Puerto Rico panel were those that Kindbridge has covered extensively from a public health perspective.
Sweepstakes Casinos
Operators of sweepstakes casinos were invited to speak at the NCLGS after a considerably tough year on the regulatory front. For the uninitiated, sweepstakes casinos (aka social casinos) have become a point of contention across the USA, as they are marketed as being free-play casinos, and are therefore able to navigate through the legalities of America’s strict laws against online casinos. However, sweepstakes/social platforms do contain a real money element that does have public health implications. The latter was the motivation behind the creation of our resource page (view here) which delineates the legalities of traditional real money online casinos and sweepstakes casinos, referencing the legal challenges the latter have been facing. After a challenging year of being spoken about with little opportunity to provide their perspective, advocates of the sweepstakes model were represented at the panel in Puerto Rico:
“We want to be regulated, we want to pay taxes. We’re advocating for a modernized regulatory framework that reflects social games’ role as a safe and growing component of an interactive entertainment industry. We want you to go after the bad actors […] The definition of what gambling is, modernizing that for a digital 21st-century era is very, very important. I think in a lot of situations, they’re dealing with antiquated laws on gaming. As a former legislator, I know it’s tough to get good legislation passed. Regulators are doing the best they can. Maybe new legislation is needed.” (Jeff Duncan, Executive Director, SGLA)
No definitive conclusions were made, nor expected, but both sides of the conversation were heard at the 2025 NCLGS winter meeting.
Sports Trading
Another notable topic discussed in Puerto Rico is another public health concern that Kindbridge has covered extensively – prediction markets. Prediction markets are exchange-traded platforms where participants “invest” on the outcome of a variety of events with an unknown future. Trades are typically made on “Yes / No” and either/or poll-type predictions relating to everything from weather events to political election outcomes. While they have existed in the U.S. for some time, debate over whether or not what prediction market operators are offering is a gambling product has recently increased when in the first fiscal quarter of 2025, online sports trading was added as a product offering. The latter was the motivation behind the creation of our resource page (view here) which delineates the legalities of traditional sports betting and sports trading, and also references the legal challenges sports trading operators are facing.
Prediction markets were discussed with fervor at the 2025 NCLGS winter meeting. Legislators, regulators, tribal gaming representatives, and other stakeholders offered their opinions. There was back-and-forth discourse regarding both questions of legality and opportunity for growth within the gaming industry. As with the sweepstakes conversation, no definitive conclusions were made, nor expected. That being said, one message was heard with more clarity – traditional online sports betting must find a way to move forward with sports trading concurrently garnering attention from the gaming public. Jay Atkins, Director of Government Affairs for FanDuel (which is launching a prediction market product in states where sports betting is not legal) loosely echoed this sentiment:
“Prediction markets are, in fact, not illegal at all. They are regulated by the CFTC. The question the courts are wrestling with is whether sports contracts are proper derivative contracts or gaming regulated by the states.”
2026 will unveil how prediction market sports trading fits into the nation’s gaming landscape, and what interventions will be required to mitigate potential risk to public health. An overview of mental health considerations for online sports betting compared to sports trading can be found right here.
Stay tuned for more as the leaders behind Kindbridge are invited to participate in important discussions about Responsible Gaming in the United States. Meanwhile, if you or someone you care about is in need of help to navigate through the struggles of problem gambling, reach out via your preferred form of contact below.
