Notice Board

Date: Thursday, March 26

Where: Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge (upper ballrooms)

Time: 7 - 9 p.m.

Speaker: Dr. Robert Williams

Topic: Legalized Gambling in Canada: Winners and Losers

Free event, everyone is welcome

Light appitizers and a cash bar will be available.

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED: go.uleth.ca/public-professor

Legalized Gambling in Canada: Winners and Losers   

Who’s really cashing in on gambling and who’s in the red? Beginning with a brief historical overview of how and when it was legalized in Canada, this talk will explore how gambling has functioned over time in our country. Topics will include who the primary providers are, revenue for different types, payback ratios for each type (they are all bad!), population participation levels and general attitudes towards gambling. While there have been major beneficiaries of legalized gambling (provincial governments being the biggest winners), there are also those who have been negatively impacted, as well as ethical dilemmas that have arisen because of the practice. Dr. Robert Williams will explore all of this and more, concluding with a look to the future, as he explores how the integration of AI might impact legalized gambling in Canada. 

Dr. Robert Williams  

Dr. Robert Williams is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Addictions Counselling program in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. He is also a Research Coordinator with the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. Dr. Williams provides frequent consultation to government, industry, the media and public interest groups; and regularly gives expert witness testimony on the impacts of gambling. He is highly published and one of the world’s leading authorities in the areas of prevention and etiology of problem gambling, online gambling, the socioeconomic impacts of gambling, the proportion of gambling revenue deriving from problem gamblers, Indigenous gambling and the population assessment of problem gambling. Dr. Williams was the principal investigator for the recently completed first national study of gambling in Canada (AGRI National Project, ANP-1) as well as being the principal investigator for the current follow-up national study (ANP-2).