University of Nevada, Reno Gaming Management Program 2012 Education Advisory Board
Bo J. Bernhard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Departments of Sociology and Hotel Management, and Director of Gambling Research, International Gaming Institute
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
USA
Dr. Bo J. Bernhard graduated with magna cum laude honors in sociology and psychology from Harvard University, where his undergraduate thesis on the impact of the gaming industry on Las Vegas led him to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). As associate professor in both sociology and hotel management at UNLV he has developed an award-winning body of research on problem gambling and society and was named the inaugural research director at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute. He has delivered more than 200 presentations to regulatory, industry and policy leaders worldwide and has overseen nearly $1 million in grant-funded research on subjects ranging from responsible gaming to casino technologies to the evolving Internet gaming industry. His focus on globalization earned him the World Affairs Council’s 2007 International Educator of the Year award, and he is the recipient of UNLV’s Boyd Distinguished Professor for Research award in the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, and the Spanos Distinguished Teaching Award.
Wolfgang Bliem, M.A.
Chief Executive Officer
Grand Casino Luzern
Switzerland
Wolfgang Bliem, CEO of the Grand Casino Luzern Group since 2003, has more than 20 years of experience in casino operations. After joining Casinos Austria in 1985 as a croupier, he took over broader responsibilities as casino manager for several Casinos Austria International (CAI) operations in Eastern Europe and South America, before being appointed managing director for one of CAI’s regional joint ventures in Eastern Europe. He has also served as marketing and sales director of Casinos Austria Research and Development (CARD), corporate head of CAI’s Customer Care department, and development manager responsible for all gaming-related issues for the company’s six Swiss operations. Bliem holds a master’s degree in commercial studies from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
William Eadington, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and
Director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and
Commercial Gaming
University of Nevada, Reno
USA
Dr. William Eadington is professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He is an internationally recognized authority on the legalization and regulation of commercial gambling, has served as a consultant and advisor for governments and private sector organizations throughout the world on issues related to gaming laws, casino operations, regulation, legalization and public policy, and has written extensively on issues relating to the economic and social impacts of commercial gaming. Between 1974 and 2009, Dr. Eadington has served as the organizer of the first through 14th International Conferences on Gambling and Risk Taking. He has edited or co-edited a variety of publications, including Optimal Play: Studies in the Mathematics of Games and Gambling, (2007); The Downside: Problem and Pathological Gambling (2002); Finding the Edge: Mathematical Analysis of Casino Games, (2000); The Business of Gaming: Economic and Management Issues (1999); Gambling: Public Policies and the Social Sciences, (1997); Gambling Behavior and Problem Gambling, (1993); Gambling and Commercial Gaming: Essays in Business, Economics, Philosophy and Science, (1992); Tourism Alternatives, (1992) Gambling and Public Policy: International Perspectives, (1991); Indian Gaming and the Law, (1990); and Gambling and Society, (1976). He also has served as founder and co-moderator of the University’s annual Executive Development Program for senior-level casino executives, established in 1991. Eadington is also a founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, and a former associate editor of the Annals of Tourism Research and the Journal of Gambling Studies. Eadington has been with the University of Nevada since 1969 and has served as an academic visitor to the London School of Economics, as a visiting professor at the Center for Addiction Studies, Harvard Medical School, and as a visiting lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He also is on the faculty of the Centre for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Salford (U.K.). He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Santa Clara University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Claremont Graduate School. In 2008, he was awarded a doctor of business administration (DBA) honoris causa by the University of Macau.
Heliodoro Giner
General Secretary
Asociación Española de Casinos de Juego
España
Heliodoro Giner López, a practicing attorney, was elected a member of the board of the European Casino Association (ECA) in 2005. Since 2001, he has also served as secretary general of the Spanish Casino Association/Asociación Española de Casinos de Juego (AECJ). He has been involved in the casino industry for nearly 10 years and has also worked as the general secretary of the European Casino Forum, the voice of the European casino industry prior to the foundation of the ECA.
Peter Keijzer
Casino General Manager
Omar Khayyam Casino, Marriott Palace Hotel Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
Peter Keijzer has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry with more than 10 years of experience in international casino operations. He is currently general manager of Omar Khayyam Casino Cairo for Marriott International. Keijzer has also served as general manager of the Stellaris Casino at the Aruba Marriott Resort, as a manager of operations for Holland Casino and as an operation manager at Disneyland Paris. He earned a bachelor of hotel administration from The Hotelschool The Hague and also joined the Universiteit of Nijenrode.
Ian Napier, MBA
Corporate Head of Security, Surveillance,
Quality Management and Projects Coordinator
Casinos Austria International
Austria
Ian Napier has 33 years of experience in the security and surveillance field and 23 years of experience in the international casino industry, including 18 years with Casinos Austria International, which has opened 215 casinos in 35 countries as well as 90 shipboard casinos. Napier is responsible for casino security, surveillance, quality management, development of internal control systems, compliance and internal audits, and is project coordinator for 75 casinos worldwide. He has played a key hands-on project management role in casino startups for more than 20 casinos around the world in high- and low-risk, highly and poorly regulated, and culturally, politically and geographically diverse environments. He is a member of ASIS International (formerly American Society of Industrial Security) and the International Association for Casino Security (and Surveillance), has a diploma in project management, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA). He is also a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno’s 2008 Executive Development Program. Napier has published several articles with World Game Protection, presented at the ASIS Gaming and Wagering and World Game Protection Conferences in Las Vegas and Australia and has made numerous other presentations worldwide.
Boris Nemec, M.S.
HIT Slovenia
Slovenia
Boris Nemec obtained his bachelor’s degree in physics in 1968 and later his master’s in operation research at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics. In 1997 he joined the Hit Group, which ranks among the largest entertainment providers in Europe, dealing with strategic studies in the gaming and tourism industry as one of the most challenging opportunities in Slovenia. Nemec has published articles on gaming taxation supporting tourism industry expansion, and concentrates on the use of gaming as a generator of tourism, general economic development and cooperation among neighboring nations within the EU. He sustains working relationships and international cooperation among the University of Ljubljana, the University of Nevada, Reno and the Hit Group for the establishment of an MBA program in commercial gaming. He is a member of the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG) and helped organize the 7th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues in 2008. He represents Slovenia in the European Casino Association (ECA), which advocates for an advanced commercial gaming policy and regulation in Europe, and he recently became an International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) member from Slovenia.
University of Nevada, Reno