Ted Hartwell
Executive Director, Nevada Council on Problem Gambling
Mr. Hartwell has a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Texas Tech University and he recently retired from a 32-year position on the research faculty of the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of the Nevada System of Higher Education to become the Executive Director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). He is a longtime member of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Mr. Hartwell was the Principal Investigator of a DRI study examining the impact of problem gambling in Native American tribal communities in Nevada. He is in long-term recovery from gambling disorder himself, and has promoted awareness, prevention, and treatment of problem gambling for the NCPG for more than a decade. He has spoken publicly and personally on this issue on many occasions and is dedicated to humanizing and illuminating the illness of disordered gambling. He provides annual lectures on this topic for the UNLV Boyd School of Law Gaming Regulation and the University of Utah Gaming Regulation classes, as well as for many other departments within the higher education system.
Mr. Hartwell was a regular participant for many years in the UNLV International Gaming Institute’s Responsible Gaming Ambassador training program for Las Vegas Sands Corporation and has consulted to MGM Resorts International and the US-Japan Business Council in their efforts to develop business related to the first Integrated Casino Resorts in Japan.
Mr. Hartwell introduced the NCPG’s youth gambling awareness and family gambling awareness programs into the Clark County School District in Nevada and he has recently developed educational programs for local schools on the topics of video gaming awareness and student-athlete gambling awareness (SAGA). He successfully secured an NFL-sponsored Agility Grant for the NCPG through the National Council to implement SAGA in several Nevada high schools.
Mr. Hartwell has served at the pleasure of four Governors on the Nevada State Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling since November 2012. He was the 2014 Shannon L. Bybee Award recipient for his continuing work on advocacy, outreach, and research on the issue of problem gambling. In 2021, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Mr. Hartwell lives in Las Vegas, where he is also a professional cellist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, a devoted husband to a recent Russian immigrant, a past soccer and volleyball coach, and the proud father of a precocious 19-year-old daughter and three cats.
