How We Work

Who We Are

  • Our members work to reveal the truth behind commercialized gambling operators to prevent more victims.
  • A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, we are a national advocacy network of individuals and partner groups with members in all 50 states.
  • We are one of the most diverse organizations in the United States, one in which citizens of all political stripes and life circumstances, from every corner of the country, work side-by-side.
  • Our funding comes from the selfless giving of every member of our national board; individual donations from hundreds of concerned citizens as well as people with the lived experience of predatory gambling from across the entire United States; gifts from a few smaller foundations; and support from members belonging to every major faith group in the country. We don’t accept funding from commercialized gambling interests.
  • You can read more about our history here.
Members of our network in front of the U.S Supreme Court.

What We Stand For

  • We believe people are worth more than money.
  • We believe in the inviolable dignity of the human person and that no one is expendable.
  • We believe everyone in America should have a fair opportunity to get ahead and improve their future.
  • We believe that a good society depends on the values of honesty, concern for others, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, and a work ethic that connects effort and reward.
  • We believe no agency or entity of government should depend on predatory gambling to fund its activities.
  • If you believe what we believe, sign An American Declaration on Government and Gambling today.
Gambling has been transformed from a private and local activity into the public voice of American government, such that ever increasing appeals to gamble, and ever-expanding opportunities to gamble, now constitute the main ways that our government communicates with us on a daily basis.

What We Do

  • We are the go-to-independent-source for revealing the truth behind commercialized gambling operators for national, state, and regional media in the United States. In 2022 alone, we were interviewed by and provided background research to more than 110 international, national and regional journalists and documentary film makers and more than 1100 journalists since 2010.
  • We produce fact sheets, op-eds, webinars, white papers, and other educational materials on the various forms of commercialized gambling being marketed to the American people today and the severe harms that more than 40 million Americans are experiencing because of it.
  • We support and collaborate with our members, either in person or virtually, including more than 1700 citizen leaders and groups running their own affiliated efforts across all 50 states.
  • We present expert testimony before Congress, state legislatures, local governments, and other public agencies and commissions on why commercialized gambling should be dealt with the same way we deal with other dangerous and harmful industries.
  • We use our Stop Predatory Gambling and Gambling-Free Kids websites to educate the public on the truth about commercialized gambling.
  • We manage a national organization built on trustworthy footing, both financially and operationally, earning GuideStar’s 2023 Gold Seal of Transparency awarded to charitable organizations who have demonstrated nonprofit transparency and accountability.
Commercialized gambling has become so normalized today that the vast majority of us never question it. Our members work to change that. Here is an actual billboard ad used by the Oregon State lottery during the holiday season to market highly-addictive lottery scratch tickets. Even the infamous Joe Camel campaign created to lure young people to smoke didn’t go this far.

How We Stop Predatory Gambling – Our Goals

  • Protect the health and well-being of kids and their families by restricting gambling advertising, marketing, and sponsorships, like we do for other dangerous and addictive products.
  • Dramatically reduce poverty in the US by cutting commercialized gambling losses 50%, allowing families to keep $500 billion of wealth over the next eight years.
  • End the practice of gambling operators reaping half their profits from citizens who have been turned into addicted gamblers.
Because of the powerful interests opposing us, our mission is one of the toughest in America today. Yet it remains vitally importance to the country’s future. No quote better captures the doggedness of our members than that of Jacob Riis, the famous social reformer who would likely be a Stop Predatory Gambling member if he were alive today: “A stonecutter hammers away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, the rock will split in two, and we know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
CkirbyHow We Work