Date: Wednesday 6th April
Time: 18:00 – 19:30
Location: Conference Hall, Europa Point Campus

Join us on campus for a public lecture delivered by the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming. This lecture will be presented by our very own, Professor Zsolt Demetrovics and explore the motivational background of gambling and gaming.

Playing is a basic human motive and has a basic role in our development. Playing games is crucial for learning new skills as well as understanding and handling social interactions during childhood through to adulthood. Playing is not simply a recreational activity but also provides a social aspect when competing, socialising, experiencing the joy of winning, escaping from everyday problems, reducing aggression or other negative feelings.

Despite all these possible advantageous effects, playing can also become a problematic behaviour in cases when it becomes a salient and potentially addictive behaviour. This lecture presents the motivational background of gaming and gambling and discusses which motives constitute potential risks of developing addictive patterns of gaming behaviour.

About the speaker

Zsolt Demetrovics is professor of psychology and chair of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming at the University of Gibraltar. He obtained his MA degrees in psychology and cultural anthropology (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary) and he received his PhD in clinical and health psychology (addictive behaviours) at the same university. Formerly, he served as dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology (2014-2021) and director of the Institute of Psychology (2011-2021) at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, where he also established the Department of Clinical Psychology & Addiction. He has published over 400 research papers on the epidemiology, assessment and psychological correlates of substance use behaviour and behavioural addictions including gambling, video game use, internet addiction, hypersexual behaviour, exercise addiction, and compulsive buying.  He is president of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Addictions and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.