Peter Collins is Professor of Public Policy Studies at The University of Salford and Director of the Centre for the Study of Gambling.  He is the author of the book Gambling and the Public Interest (Greenwood Press, 2003) and also of several articles and chapters in books about gambling. He is an editor and contributing author to a volume of essays on “Addiction” to be published by MIT Press in 2010. He also contributed a keynote address to a conference on Casinos in Europe entitled “Value Judgement, Political Decision-Making and Casinos”, as well as being co-author with William R Eadington on a paper for the same conference on “Managing the Social Costs Associated with Casinos”.  The proceedings of this conference have now been published by University of Nevada Press.

He is Executive Director of the South African National Responsible Gambling Programme and is a Trustee of GamCare. He has been an adviser on gambling policy to government in South Africa, Gibraltar, Jersey, the UK and Singapore. He was the expert adviser on casino matters to the Joint Scrutiny Committee to the House of Lords and the House of Commons which considered the new UK gambling act. In 2009, he was the special adviser to the UK Government’s Strategy Board charged with developing policy for Research, Prevention and Treatment in relation to problem gambling.