Eadington, William R.

University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Professor William R. Eadington joined the faculty as an economist in 1969. He was the first holder of the Philip J. Satre Chair in Gaming Studies, a professor of economics, and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at UNR. During his tenure at the University, he served as an Academic Visitor to the London School of Economics, a Visiting Professor at the Center for Addiction Studies at Harvard Medical School, a Visiting Lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Visiting Professor to the Centre for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom. He was a founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, and former Associate Editor of the Annals of Tourism Research. He was a member of the editorial board for the Gaming Law Review and Economics, Journal of Gambling Studies, and Annals of Tourism Research. Eadington is the author of several books on the social and economic impacts of gambling and was an authority on gaming issues. He organized the First through Fourteenth International Conferences on Gambling and Risk Taking, dating back to 1974, and developed the Executive Development Program for Senior Casino Management through UNR, a program which has been offered annually since 1991. He was on the board of Directors of the National Council on Problem Gambling and was its president from 2008 through 2009. He served on the boards of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling and the Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders, and was Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Board on Problem Gambling for the State of Nevada. On November 2, 2011, Eadington was inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. Following his death on February 14, 2013, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) fellowship program, instituted in 2007, was renamed the Eadington Fellowship Program in his honor.