The Department of Veterans Affairs has opened a new in-patient gambling addiction recovery centre in Las Vegas.

The facility is the second of its kind in nearly 50 years at VA: the department’s first gambling addiction centre – a trailblazing treatment facility that was the first of its kind in the country for addressing compulsive gambling – opened at the Brecksville, Ohio, VA Medical Centre in 1972.

Now part of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre, it was the sole inpatient treatment centre for gambling addiction, drawing more than 100 veterans annually from around the country for care.

Tim Jobin, chief of behavioural health at the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System, said the new gambling addiction centre “fills a gap in our mental health continuum of care.”

“The staff has dedicated countless hours of planning, mindfulness and reviews to make this happen here today,” Jobin said.

The new gambling addiction centre has 20 beds, including a separate wing with five beds for women veterans, and will focus on individual treatment plans using a “whole health approach” geared to emotional, physical and mental healing.

The iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA Growth) has released a new report on the economic impact of New Jersey online gaming. The report demonstrates continued growth of mobile gaming over six years through additional revenue, jobs, wages and consumer protections.

The New Jersey model serves as an example to the states seeking to legalise mobile gaming and betting. The top three takeaways from the research are:

Revenue: Since its first full year of operations, online gaming Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 24.8%.

Jobs: 6552 jobs were created from late 2013 through 2018.

Consumer protection: New Jersey’s legalisation of online gaming brought a longstanding offshore industry onshore from a gray market into a safe and structured environment.

“The results of this report demonstrate the economic, regulatory and consumer safeguard wins that mobile gaming and betting offers a state. 80% of sports betting wagers are already placed on mobile devices or online. When bets are done legally and in the proper regulatory framework, everyone wins. For the many states considering whether to legalize mobile betting and gaming, the question to ask is what could your state do with more tax dollars? The additional revenue gained from mobile gaming can be earmarked for important state initiatives,” Jeff Ifrah, founder of iDEA Growth said.

The research, which was commissioned by iDEA Growth and conducted by Meister Economic Consulting and Victor-Strategies, covers New Jersey’s online gaming market since its inception in 2013 through September 2019. New Jersey is a model for how other states can implement, oversee, and realise the benefits of responsible, regulated online gaming.

iDEA Growth is a 501(c)(6) association which seeks to grow jobs and expand the online interactive gaming business in the US through advocacy and education.

The concept, perception and practice of compliance has evolved steadily over the past 50 years as the public, politicians, media and common sense demanded greater transparency, integrity and ethics in business. The passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977 is just one of the more noted milestones as compliance has matured from legal cover, necessary evil and grudgingly checked box to something studied in college curriculums and given executive attention. Thankfully, compliance wasn’t left to fester in 1977.

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