A media announcement will follow next week.
For each person struggling with a gambling disorder, 8-10 other family members and friends are also enduring severe gambling-related harm. In FFOG, they now have a collective voice to support the burgeoning public health movement.
BOSTON, Oct. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Family and Friends of Gamblers (“FFOG”) has officially launched and is poised to become a powerful voice in the movement to bring comprehensive public health regulation to the online gambling industry.
FFOG is a non-profit organization formed with the mission to give voice to the countless people and families suffering gambling-related harm directly related to the out-of-control conduct of the online gambling industry. FFOG is supported by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), a nonprofit advocacy organization that continues to lead the movement to develop a comprehensive public health response to the threat posed by the gambling industry.
In just over seven-years since the United States Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), sports gambling has been legalized in thirty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Online casinogambling is now legal in seven states with more to come. Recently, so-called “prediction markets” have sought to offer a host of additional gambling products, with little to no regulation, to further inundate the nation with a known addictive product.
During this same period, we are seeing overwhelming evidence that gambling addiction and gambling-related harm are becoming a widespread societal problem and threat to public health. Medical science has known for more than twelve years that gambling is an addictive product similar to heroin, opioids, tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine. Online gambling delivers this addictive product to the public with a business model designed to keep people in constant action. The result has been a dangerous and unacceptable level of gambling disorder and gambling-related harm.
For each person struggling with a gambling disorder, 8 -10 other family members and friends are also enduring severe gambling-related harm.
FFOG will become a leading advocacy organization dedicated to “lifting the fog” from the gambling industry and exposing the truth to the public and policy makers. According to Mark Gottlieb, a founding board member of FFOG and executive Director of PHAI, “we know that the suffering related to the conduct of the online gambling industry impacts countless people beyond those struggling with gambling disorder. The voices of the parents, spouses, partners, siblings, children, friends, and community members must and will be heard. We recently commemorated the forty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). MADD fundamentally changed alcohol policies in this country and FFOG stands ready to help bring comprehensive policy change to the gambling industry.”
According to Dr. Harry Levant, secretary of FFOG, “this organization will become a powerful and leading voice in the public health movement. The family and friends of gamblers will no longer tolerate the gambling industry acting with impunity and disregarding the pain and damage being suffered by far too many people. When our elected officials begin to understand the magnitude of the problem and the scope of harm, it will result in comprehensive policy change and public health regulation”.
FFOG is the vision of its president, Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Law, Richard Daynard, who brings decades of experience leading the public health movement against the tobacco industry. According to Professor Daynard, “the gambling industry has largely followed Big Tobacco’s playbook, and the result is unacceptable levels of public harm across the country. Much like how growing awareness of second-hand smoke affected public acceptance for tobacco policy change, FFOG will be instrumental in bringing a seismic public health response to the gambling industry.”
FFOG will be governed by its motto: Hurt by Gambling. Silent No Longer.
About FFOG and The Public Health Advocacy Institute –
Founded in 2025, the Family and Friends of Gamblers (FFOG) is a nonprofit membership organization created to give voice to the countless families and friends of people struggling with gambling disorder and gambling-related harm. FFOG receives support from the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), a nonprofit legal research center focused on public health law and based at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.
To learn more about FFOG and see short videos featuring our members, visit https://www.hurtbygambling.org/
Contact:
Public Health Advocacy Institute
Harry Levant, [email protected]
267-386-5252
SOURCE Families and Friends of Gamblers
