Phil Satre

Chairman of the National Center for Responsible Gaming
Former Chairman and CEO, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.

Phil Satre is the chairman of the National Center for Responsible Gaming.  He also is the retired chairman and former CEO of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. Satre joined Harrah’s in 1980 as vice president, general counsel and secretary, after which he held various operating and senior management roles within the National Council on Problem Gambling for his leadership role in addressing problem gambling. Satre is widely recognized within the gaming industry as an early pioneer in creating responsible gaming programs within Harrah’s that have since become a model for the industry.

Prior to joining Harrah’s, Satre was an attorney with Vargas & Barlett in Reno, Nev. He is involved in many business, charitable and civic organizations, serving on the boards of TABCORP Holdings, Ltd. (Australia); Rite Aid Corporation; the Stanford University Board of Trustees; the Nevada Cancer Institute; the National D-Day Museum; and the University of California, Davis, School of Law Alumni Association. His other board service in recent years included the American Gaming Association, the Stanford University Athletic Board, the Business Roundtable and the UNLV Foundation. Satre is a graduate of Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a J.D. from the University of California, Davis. Satre was selected as Best Chief Executive in the Casino and Hotel Industries by the Wall Street Journal.

Howard J. Shaffer, Ph.D., C.A.S.

Director of the Division on Addictions
Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Howard J. Shaffer’s research, writing and teaching on the nature and treatment of addictive behaviors have shaped how the health care field conceptualizes and treats the full range of addictive behaviors. Shaffer’s gambling research yielded many firsts in the field including the first reliable prevalence estimates of disordered gambling behavior; the first longitudinal study of casino employees; the first national study of college gambling; and a new model for understanding addiction as a syndrome, among others. He is the principal investigator on the NCRG’s contract to support the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders.

Dr. Shaffer has served as principal or co-principal investigator on a variety of government or foundation sponsored research projects focused on other objects of addictions, such as cocaine and alcohol. He consults internationally to a variety of organizations in business, education, human services, and government. He served on the National Research Council’s Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of Gambling in 1998-99.

Dr. Shaffer is founding director of the Norman E. Zinberg Center for Addiction Studies at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, and the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders, a credentialing agency for clinicians. Shaffer, a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and certified addictions specialist, is the editor of the journal, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. An award-winning photographer, he is currently working on Expressions of Addiction, an exhibit of original photographic portraits that depict people in various stages and expressions of addiction.

Christine Reilly

Executive Director
Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders
The Division on Addictions
Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School

Christine Reilly was appointed the first executive director of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders upon the organization’s inception in December 2000. Reilly administers the Institute’s research programs and coordinates educational activities such as the annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction and EMERGE (Executive, Management, and Employee Responsible Gaming Education).

Previously, Reilly served as the first executive director of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, from 1997 to 2000. She also served as executive director of the Missouri Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Reilly was appointed to the Missouri Governor’s Literacy Task Force and LIFT-Missouri, a nonprofit organization focused on adult literacy. Reilly also served as associate director of the Alabama Humanities Foundation and director of continuing studies for the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She received her B.A. from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, magna cum laude, and an M.A. in American religious history at Vanderbilt University.