Williams, Robert

A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Williams spent the first 15 years of his career as the regional psychologist for northern Manitoba and then as a clinician in the Addiction Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Since 2001 he has been an academic at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, where he is currently a full professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as a Research Coordinator with the Alberta Gambling Research Institute.

Dr. Williams has published in the areas of substance use and addictions, behavioural addictions, fetal alcohol syndrome, statistical analysis, financial speculation, seasonal affective disorder, evolutionary theory, biofeedback, and gambling. For the past 20 years most of his work has focused on gambling, where he is an internationally recognized expert. Dr. Williams teaches courses on gambling; provides frequent consultation to government, industry, and the media; and has often provided expert witness testimony on the impacts of gambling. Dr. Williams is a leading authority in the areas of: prevention of problem gambling; online gambling; the socioeconomic impacts of gambling, the proportion of gambling revenue deriving from problem gamblers; the prevalence and nature of gambling within Indigenous communities; the etiology of problem gambling; and best practices in the population assessment of problem gambling.