PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCACY INSTITUTE (PHAI) AND FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF GAMBLERS (FFOG) LAUNCH "TRUTH AND INTEGRITY: THE MOVEMENT FOR GAMBLING REFORM"

National movement led by PHAI and FFOG will kick off on September 23, 2026, in Washington, D.C.; Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform will bring accountability and comprehensive federal and state regulation to the gambling industry, prediction markets and their sports and technology partners

BOSTON, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) and Families and Friends of Gamblers (FFOG) today announced Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform—a new national movement calling on the public—along with US lawmakers at the federal and state levels—to band together to expose and confront sports leagues, online gambling companies, and other institutions that are fostering a mental health crisis around online sports betting.

Powered by PHAI and FFOG, the movement will kick off on September 23^rd in Washington, D.C., in the Russell Senate Office Building. The launch event will bring together families, advocates, policymakers, and members of the public to demand accountability and action.

"For more than 150 years, sports belonged to the American people, shared by grandparents, parents, children, siblings, and communities," said Dr. Harry Levant, PHAI's Director of Gambling Policy. "Today, our professional sports leagues, the NCAA, and individual teams have become full-fledged members of the gambling establishment."

"By partnering with gambling companies, prediction markets, and powerful AI-driven technology companies, these institutions have become part of an interconnected gambling-industrial complex that has transformed sports into nonstop gambling platforms where every pitch, pass, possession, shot, and play presents another micro-betting opportunity," said PHAI's Executive Director, Mark Gottlieb.

"In the end, sports leagues and other institutions have become nothing more than delivery devices for more efficient and addictive online gambling products," added Dick Daynard, President of PHAI.

SEPTEMBER 23^rd: THE MOVEMENT KICKS OFF IN WASHINGTON

On Wednesday, September 23^rd, PHAI and FFOG will officially launch Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform, in Washington, D.C. This kickoff will mark the beginning––not the culmination––of a national effort to bring change through government action and public advocacy.

The movement will advance on three fronts:

• The United States Congress, through investigative hearings, the creation of minimum federal safety standards, and legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives;
• State governments through comprehensive regulatory reform, with the option for safety standards above and beyond those required by Congress; and 
• The American people, through advocacy, public education, and direct demands for action and accountability.

September 23^rd is the next step in a burgeoning nationwide movement and call to action, bringing together those seeking to expose the forces reshaping sports and protect the public from the harms of an increasingly powerful and interconnected industry.

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS AND THE NCAA HAVE SOLD THEIR INTEGRITY AND BECOME PARTNERS IN THE GAMBLING INDUSTRY

For decades, leaders of America's major professional sports leagues understood that legalized betting posed a direct threat to the integrity of the games they were supposed to protect.

In sworn testimony related to Murphy v. NCAA, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked what threats there are to the integrity of professional football in the United States. His response was unequivocal: "Gambling would be number one on my list."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman raised a similar concern, questioning whether sports would continue to be viewed through competition and teamwork or instead become vehicles for betting. Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig similarly testified that "gambling is the deadliest of all things that can happen to a sport."

Those warnings, the movement argues, were true then and remain true today. What has changed is the relationship between sports and the gambling industry. The same leagues that once sounded the alarm have since entered into multi-billion-dollar commercial partnerships with the very industry they warned against.

PHAI has already challenged elements of this system through litigation. In March, PHAI filed a landmark product liability lawsuit against DraftKings, FanDuel, Genius Sports, and the National Football League alleging that the defendants developed, distributed and profited from online sports betting platforms that relentlessly push addictive live in-game microbets.

The complaint details how the NFL not only licenses player and game data to Genius Sports, but was also the company's largest shareholder from 2021 to 2025 and remains its second-largest shareholder. Genius Sports is the exclusive supplier of the NFL's live data and statistics and supplies sportsbooks with the officially licensed data needed to support online sports gambling.

Together, PHAI's public health, legal, and policy advocacy and FFOG's family-centered advocacy will power a movement intended to turn growing public concern about gambling into sustained demands for action.

JOIN THE EVENT. JOIN THE MOVEMENT.

Families, advocates, policymakers, and members of the public are invited to join PHAI and FFOG for the September 23^rd kickoff in Washington, D.C., and become part of the broader Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform beyond the event itself.

Learn more and join Truth and Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform.

About The Public Health Advocacy Institute

As a nonprofit legal research center focused on public health law, PHAI is uniquely suited to bring this lawsuit. PHAI was founded and is led by Dr. Richard Daynard, whose pioneering work on tobacco product liability litigation in the 1990s led to multibillion-dollar settlements with companies that had evaded liability for selling dangerous tobacco products for decades. In 2014, PHAI formed the Center for Public Health Litigation, a nonprofit law firm, which uses the civil justice system to improve public health by focusing on litigation targeting tobacco industry products, unhealthy foods, deceptive health marketing and deceptive gambling practices.

In March 2026, PHAI filed a landmark product liability lawsuit against DraftKings, FanDuel, Genius Sports, and the National Football League, alleging that the defendants developed, distributed, and profited from online sports betting platforms that relentlessly push addictive live in-game microbets. The case is Sage and Thompson v. DraftKings, Inc. et al. 

For more information on PHAI and its work, visit phai.org

About Families and Friends of Gamblers

Families and Friends of Gamblers (FFOG) is a nonprofit membership organization representing families and friends impacted by gambling addiction. Founded in 2025 with the support of the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), FFOG was created to give voice to the countless families and friends of people struggling with gambling disorder and gambling-related harm.

Through advocacy, public education, and community organizing, FFOG works to raise awareness of gambling-related harm, demand accountability, and advance comprehensive public health reform and regulation of the gambling industry and its sports and technology partners.

For more information or to join FFOG, visit hurtbygambling.org

SOURCE Public Health Advocacy Institute