Calls to 1-800-GAMBLER have soared in recent years as gambling addictions mount. The helpline is now at the center of a national dispute. By Nick Devor

A national group fighting gambling addiction lost control of the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline on Monday after a New Jersey court agreed to give it back to a locally run nonprofit, which first launched the number in 1983.

The number has become ubiquitous across U.S. advertising for casinos and sportsbooks, which urge responsible gambling alongside their advertising. Calls to the helpline have soared since the National Council on Problem Gambling licensed control of the number from its New Jersey affiliate, the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, in June 2022.

But local problem-gambling groups have been increasingly at odds with the well-funded National Council, which calls itself "gambling neutral" and partners with casinos and sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel.

Over the past three years, National Council has invested heavily into its operation of 1-800-GAMBLER, bringing online nationwide text and chat functions, developing new standards and data collection efforts for the helpline, and setting off an advertising blitz to get the number in front of as many help-seekers as possible.

The National Football League has backed those efforts through $12.6 million in grant promises over the past four years.

Phone, text, and online chat traffic to 1-800-GAMBLER has exploded in recent years. 19,000 people dialed the number in June, nearly four times the monthly level in 2022, when the National Council's work on the helpline began, according to data from the National Council.

Advocates attribute the surge to higher visibility for the number and increased gambling addiction as sports betting entered the mainstream in the U.S.

Helpline calls are routed based on a caller's area code. In its efforts to nationalize problem-gambling treatment, the National Council implemented universal standards for more than two dozen call centers answering 1-800-GAMBLER and rolled out new data collection efforts.

Problem-gambling groups in Florida and New Mexico have pushed back against those National Council requirements, Barron's has learned.

The National Council, in an effort to enforce standards, says it rerouted 1-800-GAMBLER calls away from local helplines in Florida and New Mexico to a call center in Louisiana.

State advocates say the national approach has impeded their long-running efforts to help local communities.

Monday's decision by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Douglas H. Hurd will give routing control back to the New Jersey council. Luis Del Orbe, the council's executive director, says his group will restore direct access to Florida and New Mexico.

"We should not be disconnecting states. It's against what the number stands for," he told Barron's after the hearing on Monday.

The changes, though, could add further strain to the national system of gambling treatment.

During the hearing, James Tarnofsky, a lawyer for the National Council on Problem Gambling, said that returning control of the helpline number to the New Jersey group would be complex.

"The entire network is under the domain of National -- the texting, the chatting, in 49 states and territories," he said at Monday's hearing. "It's not really 'Just flip a switch and it goes to CCGNJ.' The network will fall apart for a period of time. People will be without the services."

"Certain functions based on proprietary systems will cease to work right away," Tarnofsky later told Barron's.

Del Orbe promised that wasn't the case. He said after the hearing that the New Jersey council would immediately pick up the contracts to handle all helpline operations.

"There will be no lapse," he says.

The New Jersey group had revenue of $3 million in 2023, according to federal tax filings. The National Council's revenue was $2.3 million.

"This is not rocket science," Lionel Frank, a lawyer for the New Jersey council, said at the hearing. "This is just electronic connections to 800-numbers in local states."

The National Council said Monday it intends to appeal the decision and will ask the court to stay a Sept. 29 deadline for the helpline's handover.

"NCPG remains committed to ensuring that people impacted by problem gambling have access to timely, confidential, and high-quality support," the group said in a statement. "We stand ready to work with all parties to safeguard this critical resource."

The NFL told Barron's the National Council had "transformed 1-800-GAMBLER into a vitally important national resource. Any disruption or degradation of that service is deeply concerning."

DraftKings and FanDuel-parent Flutter didn't respond to requests for comment.

Write to Nick Devor at nicholas.devor@barrons.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2025 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT)

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