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Gambling and Sport: Implicit Association and Explicit Intention Among Underage Youth

Journal of Gambling Studies volume 34, pages 739–756 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

This study examined whether an implicit association existed between gambling and sport among underage youth in Australia, and whether this implicit association could shape their explicit intention to gamble. A sample of 14–17 year old Australian participants completed two phases of tasks, including an implicit association test based online experiment, and a post-experiment online survey. The results supported the existence of an implicit association between gambling and sport among the participants. This implicit association became stronger when they saw sport-relevant (vs. sport-irrelevant) gambling logos, or gambling-relevant (vs. gambling-irrelevant) sport names. In addition, this implicit association was positively related to the amount of sport viewing, but only among those participants who had more favorable gambling attitudes. Lastly, gambling attitudes and advertising knowledge, rather than the implicit association, turned out to be significant predictors of the explicit intention to gamble.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a Grant from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. A previous version of this paper has been submitted as part of a research report to the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Law, Central Queensland University, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton, QLD, 4701, Australia

    En Li

  2. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Corner Abbott and Shields Streets, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia

    Erika Langham

  3. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, University Drive, Bundaberg, QLD, 4670, Australia

    Matthew Browne & Matthew Rockloff

  4. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, 44 Greenhill Road, Wayville, SA, 5034, Australia

    Hannah Thorne

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  1. En Li
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Correspondence to En Li.

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Conflict of interest

En Li has received research grants from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation and Gambling Research Australia. Erika Langham has received research funds from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, Gambling Research Australia, Department of Human Services, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Menzies School of Health; received an Honorarium from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario; and had travel expenses paid by Gamble Aware and the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario. Matthew Browne has received grants from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Gambling Research Australia. Matthew Rockloff has received research grants from the Queensland Treasury, the Victorian Treasury, the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Gambling Research Australia. Hannah Thorne has received research grant from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Li, E., Langham, E., Browne, M. et al. Gambling and Sport: Implicit Association and Explicit Intention Among Underage Youth. J Gambl Stud 34, 739–756 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-018-9756-0

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Keywords

  • Gambling
  • Sport
  • Implicit association
  • Explicit intention
  • Gambling attitudes
  • Advertising knowledge