Our newest advisor on why gambling and gaming addiction go untreated, who actually pays for behavioral health today, and what has to be true five years from now.
Gambling, gaming, and other behavioral addictions are widely acknowledged and rarely treated. They are recognized in the diagnostic literature and highly visible in the culture, yet they are seldom screened for, seldom diagnosed, and seldom built into the benefits and care pathways that determine what treatment people can actually reach. Tanvir Mangat has held senior strategy roles inside the organizations that shape those structures — Optum, CVS Health, Walgreens, Premise Health — and he recently joined the advisory board of Kindbridge Behavioral Health to help close that gap. We asked him why it exists in the first place.
We asked him why it exists in the first place.
You’ve built strategy at Optum, CVS, Walgreens, and Premise — organizations with almost unlimited reach. What made a company the size of Kindbridge worth your time?
Digital platforms have transformed how we live and interact — but that shift has come with real, unaddressed consequences for mental health. Gambling, gaming, shopping, and social media addiction are some of the most underserved problems in healthcare today, and Kindbridge is positioned to actually solve it at scale, not just talk about it. That combination — a real problem and a real shot at impact — is what made it worth my time.
Gambling and gaming-related harm sits in a strange place in healthcare: widely acknowledged, rarely treated. Why has the system been so slow here?
Healthcare’s infrastructure is built around a small set of diagnosable, billable conditions, and frankly, healthcare in general is slow to evolve and acknowledge new challenges — both from a provider and a payer perspective. On top of that, digital addiction doesn’t fit neatly into any one category or user segment, so no part of the system ends up owning it.
What do you see in Kindbridge that reminds you of companies you’ve watched become important — and what’s different this time?
It has a similar setup to other categories that became essential: a clearly defined, largely undiagnosed population, real clinical credibility, and no dominant incumbent. What’s different is the speed. This isn’t a slow-building need. It’s one that’s already disrupting people’s lives, relationships, and finances in real time.
Employers, health plans, gaming operators — everyone claims to care about behavioral health. Who actually pays for it, and why?
Right now it’s mostly gaming and gambling operators facing regulatory pressure, and self-insured employers who see the cost of untreated addiction show up directly in their workforce — higher healthcare spend, lower productivity. Health plans are also starting to recognize the impact of digital addiction and are actively searching for solutions to support their members.
What keeps you up at night about this space?
That access scales faster than quality. Plenty of platforms will bolt on a helpline or an app just to check a compliance box — and that kind of surface-level response could set the whole field back. What actually works is real clinical intervention that drives lasting behavior change, and that’s hard to scale quickly without cutting corners.
Five years from now, what has to be true for you to say this was worth it?
Treatment for gambling, gaming, and other digital and behavioral addictions has to become a standard, covered part of behavioral health benefits — not a niche afterthought. And Kindbridge has to be the name people trust to deliver it at scale.
Tanvir Mangat joined the Kindbridge Behavioral Health advisory board in August as Employer Channel and Growth Strategy Advisor. He is Senior Vice President of Growth at Health by Design and previously held senior roles at Lore Health, Optum Health, CVS Health, Walgreen Co., Premise Health, and Sinai Health System in Chicago. Read the full announcement →
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