Mark Griffiths

Role

Professor Griffiths is Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addictions, and is a Chartered Psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit. He mostly teaches on areas related to his research interests on various undergraduate and postgraduate Psychology programmes. His main teaching interests are in the areas of abnormal, social and health psychology with particular emphasis on behavioural addictions (e.g., gambling addiction, videogame addiction, Internet addiction, sex addiction, exercise addiction, work addiction, etc.), cyberpsychology and the psychology of sexual behaviour. In 2006, he was awarded the British Psychological Society’s highest teaching honour (‘Excellence in Teaching of Psychology Award’).

Professor Griffiths has held many major administrative roles since joining the University including Head of Psychology Division, Psychology Research Co-ordinator, Social Policy Research Co-ordinator, and Psychology Postgraduate Co-ordinator. In addition to his teaching and research. Professor Griffiths is also a gaming consultant and works with the gaming industry to promote responsible gambling, social responsibility, harm minimization, and player protection. He is also a freelance journalist and writes for many national and international newspapers and magazines.

Professor Griffiths has over 50 PhD completions mostly in the area of behavioural addiction, gambling, gaming, internet use, and mindfulness. This has included doctoral theses in specific area such as:

• cross cultural studies of slot machine gambling
• cyber-ethnographic studies of Internet gambling
• addiction and identity
• excessive online videogame playing and videogame addiction
• Internet addiction; adolescent addictive behaviour
• adolescent gambling on the lottery
• adolescent gambling and treatment
• videogame transfer phenomena
• female sex addiction
• mindfulness

Professor Griffiths uses mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) and has particular expertise in self-report methods (questionnaires, interviews) and online data collection.

Career overview

Professor Griffiths received a First Class Honours degree (BSc. Psychology) from the University of Bradford (1987). He was awarded his PhD in Psychology at the University of Exeter (1990) and then was a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Plymouth (1990-1995). He has been at Nottingham Trent University since October 1995 and was awarded his Professorship in 2002. He was awarded his Distinguished Professorship in 2017.

External activity

Professor Griffiths has acted as a consultant for many Government bodies including the Gambling Commission, UK Home Office, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Health, Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority (Australia), Maltese Gaming Authority (Malta), and various international Governments (including the US, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Finland). Professor Griffiths has carried out consultancy for over 50 different gaming companies worldwide in the area of social responsibility in gambling including companies in the UK (Entain, Allwyn, Camelot; Inter Lotto; Gala Coral, Metrobet; Better, At The Races), Ireland (Irish National Lottery; Paddy Power), Greece (OPAP), The Netherlands (Bet City, Postcode Lottery), Sweden (Svenska Spel, Casino Cosmopol), Norway (Norsk Tipping, Fair Chance Lottery), Finland (Veikkaus; RAY), Austria (Austrian Lottery, Casino Austria), Malta (Kindred, Casumo), Denmark (Danske Spil), Germany (West Lotto), Singapore (Singapore Pools), Canada (Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation; Atlantic Lottery Corporation, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Interprovincial Lottery Corporation), Switzerland (Loterie Romande, Imaginventure), New Zealand (SkyCity), and Israel (888.com).

Professor Griffiths has been the invited keynote speaker at over 500 national conferences in the UK, USA, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Slovenia, Albania, Italy, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Israel, and Belgium.

Professor Griffiths has given keynote addresses to the US National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC), and the US National Center for Addiction (New York). Professor Griffiths also sits on and chairs many national and international committees and is a past chair of the European Association for the Study of Gambling and co-founder and former Chair of the charity GamCare.

Professor Griffiths is one the UK’s most high profile media commentators and has been awarded a number of prizes for his scientific dissemination. He has appeared on over 3500 radio and television programmes, and has written over 400 articles for national and international newspapers and magazines including the Washington Post, The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, Western Mail, The Conversation, Times Higher Education, Sunday Post, Arcade, MCV Magazine, Inside Edge, iGaming Business, Derby Evening Telegraph, Edinburgh Evening News, Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham Post, Bizarre, Casino and Gaming International, Coinslot International, and eGaming Review.

Sponsors and collaborators

Main Collaborators:

• Dr Zsolt Demetrovics (University of Gibraltar)
• Dr. Chung-Ying Lin (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan)
• Dr.Álvaro Sicilia, Dr. Manuel Alcaraz-Ibáñez & Dr. Andrew Paterna (Universidad de Almería, Spain)
• Dr. Li Li (Gannan Medical University, China)
• Dr. Orsolya Király and Dr. Attila Szabo (Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary)
• Dr. Amir Pakpour (Jönköping University, Sweden)
• Dr. Stale Pallesen (Bergen University, Norway)
• Dr. Michael Auer (neccton Ltd, Austria)
• Dr. Pawel Atrosko (Gdansk University, Poland)
• Dr. Mehdi Akbari (Kharazmi University, Iran)
• Dr. Zainab Alimoradi (Qazvin University, Iran)
• Dr. Alessio Gori (University of Florence, Italy)
• Dr. Bahram Armoon (McGill University, Canada)
• Dr Xavier Carbonell (Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain)
• Dr. Vasilis Stavropoulos (RMIT University, Australia)

Sponsors or research and consultancy:

• Responsible Gambling Trust/GambleAware (UK)
• Gambling Commission (UK)
• Norsk Tipping (Norway)
• Neccton Ltd (Austria)

Consultancy for over 50 gaming companies (e.g., Camelot, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation, Association of British Bookmakers, Gala Coral, Svenska Spel, Nork Tipping, Loterie Romande)