Online recreational gambling intention : the effect of subjective norms, spitefulness and gender

Abstract

Online recreational gambling has grown significantly over recent years. This growth has been aided by increasing global internet penetration, the rise ofWeb 2.0, and the ubiquitous diffusion of smart phones. It has also been assisted by a weakening in subjective norms that has seen recreational gambling become increasingly accepted as a leisure pursuit and more recently also by Covid-19 measures. This research looks at the relationship between subjective norms and gambling intention and the possible mediation effect of spitefulness as an overlooked social behaviour. The study also investigates whether gender plays a moderating role. Hypotheses of these linkages grounded in established behaviour intention models are proposed, and data are collected from a sample of customers of an online gambling firm based in Malta. Moderatedmediated regression supports the role of gender and the partially mediated effect of spitefulness in the relationship between subjective norms and recreational gambling intention.