Professor of Gambling?

Instead of my usual Radio 4 Today programme, this morning I was tuned to Five Live to keep abreast of the cricket scores when they had a piece on the government scrapping the Manchester super casino idea and replacing it with 16 smaller casinos. Truly the north west must have gone gambling mad. This was confirmed when they interviewed the professor of gambling at Salford University. Well that makes pseudo subjects like media studies sound respectable. Did he get the job by chance or was he odds on favorite for the post? So I googled and found,this is the wonderful University of Salford.

"The Centre was founded in 1994 with the objectives of:Undertaking research relating to the gambling industry.
Providing teaching for people interested in developing a career within the industry
Increasing understanding of the industry by the wider public.
The Centre teaches in the area of gambling studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is currently developing, in partnership with industry and with government, a variety of courses designed to meet the needs of industry professionals. The Centre undertakes research in a variety of areas relevant to the study of gambling, and is active in promoting gambling studies by supporting the delivery of papers at national and international conferences. Academics associated with the Centre also make a variety of contributions to thinking about gambling matters within both the public and private sectors.

Funders
In addition to being subject to normal university oversight through the Faculty of Business, Law and the Built Environment and the Salford Business School in the University of Salford, the Centre has a Advisory Board, which meets to ensure that the legitimate interests of funders are adequately secured and to provide advice to the Director and staff of the centre.

The Advisory Board has representation from each of the funding companies. It also has members drawn from the public and independent sectors who are knowledgeable about, and interested in the gambling industry.

The Centre for the Study of Gambling Industry is currently funded by:
Association of British Bookmakers Ltd
Camelot Group plc
Gala Coral Group
Harrah's Entertainment Inc
Ladbrokes Ltd
Sun International Leisure Services Ltd
William Hill plc
Isle Casinos Ltd

The membership of the Advisory Board is as follows:

Sir Alan Budd
Queen’s College, Oxford
Prof Peter Collins
Director - Centre for the Study of Gambling
Prof William Eadington
University of Nevada
Prof Michael Harloe
Vice-Chancellor, University of Salford
Tom Kavanagh, Deputy Chief Executive
The Gambling Commission
Lord David Lipsey
House of Lords
Richard Hickson
Camelot Group
Dean Hestermann
Harrah's Entertainment
Representative tba
Sun International
Russ Phillips
Association of British Bookmakers
Alan Ross
Ladbrokes Ltd
Ian Spearing
William Hill plc
Nick Rust
Gala Coral Group
John Brackenbury
Isle Casinos Ltd "

It would seem to me that the table has been rigged and the odds stacked for a very very one sided view of gambling. They do seem to be missing representatives from The Stock Exchange and Lloyds though.