Speakers

• Brianne Doura-Schawohl - Gambling Policy Expert, USA
  Brianne Doura-Schawohl is founder and CEO of Doura-Schawohl Consulting LLC, a boutique global government relation specialising in problem and responsible gambling policy. She most recently served as Vice President of US Policy and Strategic Development for EPIC Risk Management, a global harm prevention consultancy, conducting work in over 24 countries. Prior to her role at EPIC, Brianne served as Legislative Director for the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). Her experience includes over a decade of leadership in advocacy, public policy, government affairs, and communications. Brianne has a history of achievements in State and United States Congressional legislative work, including a diverse portfolio of complex problem gambling policy issues. This is invaluable in her ability to make a difference on behalf of people with gambling problems globally. Brianne holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Mary Washington.

• Simon Chadwick - Founder, The Future Sport Forum
  Simon Chadwick has a background in marketing, commercial strategy, and government policy, and has published in journals including the Sloan Management Review, the Journal of Advertising Research and European Sport Management Quarterly. He works with a wide range of stakeholders in sport including clubs (such as Manchester United), governing bodies (such as UEFA) and sponsors (such as Coca Cola). Chadwick has secured more than £3 million in research funding from the likes of the European Union, the Qatar National Research Fund and Mastercard. In undertaking research and delivering related outcomes, the professor is a strong advocate of impact and public engagement. He routinely writes for global media outlets (e.g. the Wall Street Journal and CNN) and has worked with numerous organisations. His most recent appointment was Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School, France.

• Tobias Michael Scholz - University of Agder
  Dr. Tobias Scholz is an Associate Professor in Academic Esports with a focus on human resource management at the University of Agder and is Chief Scientific Officer of metagame. He founded the Esports Research Network and has been part of the first generation of esports researchers for 20 years, has written the foundational book "eSports is Business". In Norway, he is heavily involved in a bachelor's degree program that aims to use esports as a tool for teaching skills for the future world of work.

• Ali Vowles - Journalist and Presenter
  Ali Vowles is a multi-disciplinary freelance journalist and presenter who has worked for the BBC on TV and radio for over thirty years. She is a skilled interviewer with a warmth, friendliness and authority that brings out the best in people. There is nothing Ali likes more than getting to the heart of a story and asking the questions that everyone wants the answers to.

• Julie Martin - BetKnowMore UK
  Hi, I am what you would call an affected other. I've never been a gambler myself, but in my 25-year marriage, my husband gambled heavily over multiple years on and off. Sadly, at the age of 51, I lost my husband, and our children lost their father to a gambling related suicide in Nov 2021. I have worked in the gambling harm charity sector for 4 years now (currently with BetKnowMore), bringing peer support and awareness of gambling harms to those who gamble or are affected by another’s gambling. I talk about my lived experience with honesty and passion to try and prevent this hidden addiction ruining more families lives in the future.
• Matt Losing - Ara Recovery4all
  I'm currently working as the Armed Forces Gambling Support Network lead in Wales and South West England where I deliver Armed Forces tailored gambling harms awareness training (Battling the Odds). Whilst facilitating sessions I am sometimes asked "What training did you have to be able to do this role?" my answer - 10 years of service in The Royal Navy coupled with many years of struggling with my own harmful relationship with gambling and a further 7 years of recovery. I now channel my life experiences as a veteran, a recovering harmful gambler and as a Husband, Son, Brother and friend of those affected by my illness to raise awareness and help break the stigma attached to Gambling Related Harms and contribute to Ara's ultimate aim of providing hope and better lives.

• Sanya Burgess - Investigative Journalist
  Sanya Burgess is the Investigations Correspondent at i. She is an award-winning journalist whose work has included investigations exposing the rise of illegal crypto casinos in the UK and the bad practises of streamers promoting these sites. Sanya also revealed the large-scale sale of crypto casino accounts on social media which enables gamblers from countries like the UK, where it is harder to create a profile, to easily begin gambling on these banned sites. She has given evidence to the APPG on Gambling Related Harms and the Gambling Commission regarding her crypto casino work. Sanya has a specialism in OSINT (open source intelligence) reporting, using these skills to cover digital spaces but also conflict zones, climate change and verification work. She was previously at Sky News.

• Simon Ellis - HMRC
  Simon Ellis is an Operational Leader in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, working in Organised Crime Operations, which brings together civil and criminal teams focused on disrupting, frustrating and seeking to prosecute highly capable fraudsters targeting HMRC interests. Simon works across government and with law enforcement partners worldwide on cases that range from reducing the harm from excise threats to targeting those attempting to steal funds from the public purse. OC Operations focuses on the most serious and egregious attacks against HMRC and its customers with a view to delivering significant and long-lasting impact.
• Leon Xiao - IT University of Copenhagen
  Leon Y. Xiao is a PhD Fellow at the IT University of Copenhagen. Leon researches video game law, particularly the regulation of loot boxes, a quasi-gambling monetisation mechanic in video games. He uses empirical legal research methods and is passionate about open science. He also dabbles in some research on gameplay time and the intersections between cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and gambling. Leon's research is often relied upon by policymakers and regulators and featured in the media around the world. Game companies have also taken direct compliance and remedial actions following his research.
• Philip Newall - University of Bristol
  Dr Philip Newall is a lecturer at the University of Bristol's School of Psychological Science and has 20 years of experience in the topic of gambling. Their primary research interest is gambling psychology, where they have done research on various applied/policy issues and also done more theoretical work on the determinants of gambling-related harm.

• Zsolt Demetrovics - University of Gibraltar
  Zsolt Demetrovics is a professor of psychology, chair of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming at the University of Gibraltar, and head of the Addiction Research Group at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He obtained his MA degrees in psychology and cultural anthropology, and he received his PhD in clinical and health psychology. Formerly, he served as dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the ELTE. He has published over 500 papers on the epidemiology, assessment, and psychological correlates of substance use behaviour and behavioural addictions. He is president of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Addictions and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.

• Selma Iilonga - University of Namibia
  Dr Selma Iilonga is a Senior Librarian for Scholarly Communication and a lecturer for Health Research Methods at the University of Namibia (UNAM). Dr Iilonga is currently pursuing a Postgraduates Diploma in Public Health with the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She has authored several academic publications and presented research papers at local, regional, and international conferences. She is currently the Principal Investigator for a project exploring the diffusion of gambling information impact on consumer’s behaviours and designing a mitigating model to address harmful gambling in Namibia, funded by the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research. Dr Iilonga is passionate about Research Methodology, Public Health Information, policy/legislation, Knowledge Management, Information availability and accessibility, Impact of Data and Information, Indigenous Health Information, Information and Digital Literacies, socioeconomic development, and Information Design.
• Ben Haden - Gambling Commission
  Ben works in the UK as a director at the Gambling Commission. He has responsibility for a portfolio which ensures that the Commission appreciates, uses and develops the strongest possible evidence base. His team produces the Commission’s official statistics and delivers a varied research programme to support policy making and advice to government. He is also President of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) and a trustee of a multi-academy trust covering a range of schools in the UK.
• Kate Bedford - University of Birmingham
  Professor Bedford is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in law and political economy. Her 2013 ESRC-funded research examined the comparative regulation of bingo. This led to a number of academic and non-academic outputs, including a public debate about bingo regulation in the UK, and a major policy report exploring Brazil, the UK, the EU, and Canada. The academic book resulting from the research – on the law and political economy of gambling - won the 2020 Hart Socio-Legal Studies Association book prize and the 2020 International Political Economy book prize of the British International Studies Association. Kate has recently published academic research on the moral economy of gambling in the pandemic, and on the broader implications of affordability checks for online gambling. With Dr Joht Singh Chandan, she is leading the NIHR-funded grant project ‘Developing an Equitable Public Health Approach to Reducing Gambling Harms’.