I’m pleased to report back that the inaugural meeting of the Advisory Board for the Centre on 4th September was a great success. We were joined by Prof. Jeff Derevensky (McGill), Dr Kahlil Philander (BCLC), Jennifer Miller (GPEB), Prof Geoff Hall (UBC Psychology) and Prof. Catharine Winstanley (UBC Psychology) stood in in place of Prof Tony Phillips; Prof Robert Ladouceur also joined us over skype. The workshop involved excellent presentations on 3 of our major research projects over the first year from Spencer Murch (the Machine Zone), Stephanie Chu (Stopping Devices in EGMs) and Tilman Lesch (Behavioural Analysis of Online Gambling Data), followed by a broader but detailed discussion of our research objectives going forward. As highlights, there was much enthusiasm regarding our initial forays into online gambling ‘big data’, and helpful discussion about the continued need for field studies to complement our lab-based studies, and ways of strengthening our recruitment of people experiencing gambling problems.
Following the workshop, the Dean of Arts hosted a reception event for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation to commemorate the first anniversary of the Centre, with speeches from Prof Averill himself as well as Jim Lightbody, the CEO of BCLC, and Luke Clark. Meanwhile, we are delighted to welcome a number of new members to the Centre this month: Mario Ferrari (MA, Clinical Psychology), Gabriel Brooks (MA2, Clinical Psychology), Becci Griggs (Visiting PhD student) and Dr Eve Limbrick-Oldfield (Postdoctoral Fellow).