1 Factors Influencing Intention to Gamble Online Chang Boon Patrick Lee and Lin Hammer Xia Faculty of Business Administration University of Macau 14 th Americas Conference on Information Systems 14 – 17 August 2008

2 Introduction The gambling industry has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade Online gambling sites increased from 50 in 1988 to 2,500 in 2004 Online gambling expected to grow with the growth of internet connections

3 Research Objective To validate a model on factors related to intention to gamble online Focus on sports betting and the Chinese context Help in understanding the antecedents of online betting Equip counselors with knowledge on how to advise gamblers and potential gamblers

4 Background Few studies on Internet gambling Mostly on prevalence of Internet gambling and characteristics of Internet gamblers Internet gambling popular because it is convenient, easy, and always available Used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a theoretical framework for this study

5 Technology Acceptance Model Parsimonious and robust model Attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use are the key variables that influence technology adoption Studies have used subjective norm to extend the TAM but the results were mixed SN is included in the research model because prior studies have shown that Chinese tend to exhibit collectivism

6 Research Model H5 H4 H3 H1 H2 Attitude Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Subjective norms H6 Online gambling intention

7 Research Method Sample comprised students of a tertiary institution in Macao Statistics indicate that people who gamble online are becoming younger Used established instruments that possess high reliabilities Check for translation equivalence

8 Research Method Macau-slot website was used to demonstrate sports bettingMacau-slot Bolande has found that Macau-slot is a popular site Demonstration conducted to show how to bet online

9 Results 241 questionnaires distributed and 212 valid returns were used Factor analysis performed. One item was categorised into a different construct. Results of SEM for the measurement and structural models showed the overall goodness-of-fit were within limits All hypotheses were supported

10 Results Intention (38%) Attitude (45%) Perceived usefulness (22%) Perceived ease of use Subjective norms 0.341*** 0.183** 0.141* 0.473*** 0.325*** 0.591***

11 Discussion Constructs in TAM and the subjective norm can be used to explain online betting adoption Research implication: possibly, there may be other variables that can be included to explain betting intention Practice implication: the importance of attitude, usefulness, ease of use, and SN in online gambling adoption. Counselors can seek involvement from people who are important to gamblers to help minimize problems with online gambling

12 Limitations Convenient sample Students may have provided ‘socially desirable’ answers