Kindbridge and Axis Launch Integrated Gambling Disorder Care in Colorado
Kindbridge Behavioral Health and Axis Integrated Mental Health have launched a formal partnership to broaden access to specialized treatment for gambling disorder across Colorado.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The collaboration, announced on Thursday, creates a stepped-care pathway beginning with gambling-focused psychotherapy delivered by Kindbridge, with the option to escalate to Axis’s advanced psychiatric interventions – such as Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (Deep TMS) and Spravato (esketamine) – for patients who do not respond to therapy alone.
Kindbridge, a Denver-based provider that specializes in gambling addiction, will offer structured telehealth therapy statewide. Axis, a Colorado psychiatry practice with clinics in Denver, Aurora, Boulder and Westminster, will provide in-person psychiatric assessment and access to device-based and pharmacologic treatments that some clinicians now use for treatment-resistant cases.
“Gambling disorder remains widely misunderstood, yet it is highly treatable when care is tailored to the person. By linking specialized behavioral therapy with accessible psychiatric options, families in Colorado can move from concern to effective, evidence-informed care faster than before. This partnership is designed to shorten wait times, reduce fragmentation, and ensure people receive the combination of interventions that best match the complexity of their condition.”
Rising Demand and Expanded Treatment Options
Colorado legalized sports betting in 2020, and the state has since seen rapid growth in wagering. Annual handle has reportedly risen from roughly $2.3 billion in the first year of legal sports betting to more than $6.3 billion, driven in large part by mobile betting platforms. Public-health researchers commonly estimate that around 5% of people who gamble may develop significant gambling-related problems, a figure that translates into thousands of Coloradans given the state’s active gambling market.
Advocates and clinicians have emphasized that prevention and education are only one part of the response. Many treatment programs were originally designed around substance use or general mental-health care and lack services tailored to gambling’s specific behavioral drivers and the high rate of co-occurring conditions such as major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma.
The Kindbridge-Axis model aims to address that gap. Kindbridge’s telehealth program focuses on early intervention and recovery skills, using clinicians trained in gambling-specific cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement, relapse prevention and family-inclusive approaches. If a patient’s gambling behavior is driven or maintained by severe mood symptoms or neurobiological factors that do not improve with psychotherapy, Axis clinicians can evaluate and offer supplemental options.
Axis’s advanced offerings include Deep TMS, a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that targets brain circuits involved in mood regulation and impulse control, and Spravato (esketamine), an FDA-approved nasal formulation used for treatment-resistant depression. Research into TMS modalities and esketamine suggests potential benefit for some patients with compulsive behaviors or entrenched depressive symptoms, although experts stress these are adjunctive tools rather than standalone cures.
“Most people want help for compulsive behaviors but are unsure where to begin”, said Liesl Perez, co-founder of Axis Integrated Mental Health. “This partnership lets patients start with specialized therapy and, when clinically indicated, move seamlessly to advanced treatments that can accelerate symptom relief. Coordinated care reduces duplication, clarifies clinical decision-making, and gives people multiple validated pathways toward recovery.”
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Deep TMS has been studied primarily in major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; emerging data and clinical experience suggest it may be useful for impulse-control and addictive behaviors in selected patients. Spravato is FDA-approved for adults with treatment-resistant depression and is administered under a certified Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program, requiring supervised dosing and follow-up. Clinicians interviewed for this report caution that both interventions require careful patient selection and monitoring, and they work best when combined with psychotherapy and psychosocial supports.
Coloradans seeking help can begin with Kindbridge’s statewide telehealth intake to receive gambling-specific assessment and therapy. Patients identified as needing more intensive psychiatric care can be referred to Axis’s clinics for evaluation of neuromodulation or esketamine, along with ongoing medication management. The partnership does not replace the state’s prevention and responsible-gambling efforts overseen by the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming, but it adds clinical capacity for people already experiencing harmful gambling behavior.
As legal wagering continues to expand nationwide, the Kindbridge–Axis collaboration reflects a broader shift toward integrated, condition-specific treatment pathways that combine behavioral and biological approaches. Clinicians say the model may offer a template for other jurisdictions grappling with rising gambling participation and the clinical burdens that can follow.
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