Abstract
Social casino games are online gambling-like games found on social networking sites. They are initially free to play, however, players are encouraged to make micro-transactions (i.e., in-game purchases) for additional game credits or functionality. As a result, they generate billions of dollars in revenue. Yet, little is known as to who purchases virtual credits, let alone why. In the present research, we assessed whether there are individual differences (impulsivity, reward sensitivity, competitiveness, and problem gambling severity) between who is and who is not likely to make micro-transactions during social casino game play. Moreover, we examined possible motivations for making micro-transactions (e.g., extend play, win back lost credits) and whether the individual difference variables of interest predict reported motivation(s) for making micro-transactions. Results showed that social casino gamers who engaged in micro-transactions reported significantly higher levels of impulsivity, reward sensitivity and problem gambling severity, but not competitiveness. In terms of motivation to make micro-transactions, desire to extend play was endorsed most frequently, followed by a desire to access additional features, chasing lost credits, and to speed up play. Lastly, among participants who made micro-transactions, reward sensitivity predicted making micro-transactions to chase lost credits. These results suggest the personality make-up of social casino gamers is important to understand who is likely to make micro-transactions as well as their motivation to do so—information that could prove useful for regulation of the industry.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In addition to assessing whether the individual difference variables significantly predicted motivation for engaging in micro-transactions, we also conducted a multivariate regression with the number of motivations indicted as the dependent variable and problem gambling severity, impulsivity and reward sensitivity as the predictor variables. The results showed that reward sensitivity significantly predicted the number of motives indicted (p = .008). However, the number of motives indicated was not predicted by either impulsivity (p = .15) or problem gambling severity (p = .16).
References
Bramley, S., & Gainsbury, S. M. (2015). The role of auditory features within slot-themed social casino games and online slot machine games. Journal of Gambling Studies, 31, 1735–1751.
Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s mechanical turk a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3–5.
Casual Games Association. (2012). Social network games 2012: Casual games sector report. Retrieved from http://www.superdataresearch.com/content/uploads/2011/12/CasualConnectSocialGames2012.pdf.
Cloninger, C. R. (1988). A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states: A reply to commentaries. Psychiatric Developments, 5, 83–120.
Delaney, L. (2014). Social gaming briefing. Presentation at discovery conference 2014, Toronto, ON.
Derevensky, J. L., & Gainsbury, S. M. (2016). Social casino gaming and adolescents: Should we be concerned and is regulation in sight? International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 44, 1–6.
Derevensky, J., Gainsbury, S., Gupta, R., & Ellery, M. (2013). Play-for-fun/social casino gambling: An examination of our current knowledge. Final report to the Manitoba gambling research program.
Dowling, N., Smith, D., & Thomas, T. (2005). Electronic gaming machines: Are they the ‘crack-cocaine’ of gambling? Addiction, 100, 33–45.
Eilers Research. (2015). Social casino tracker—4Q14 and 2014. California: Eilers Research.
Ferris, J. A., & Wynne, H. J. (2001). The Canadian problem gambling index: User manual. Ottawa: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
Fong, T. W. (2005). The biopsychosocial consequences of pathological gambling. Psychiatry (Edgemont), 2, 22.
Gainsbury, S., King, D., Delfabbro, P., Hing, N., Russell, A., & Blaszczysnki, A. et al. (2015). The use of social media in gambling. A report commissioned by Gambling Research Australia.
Gainsbury, S., Russell, A., & Hing, N. (2014). An investigation of social casino gaming among land-based and Internet gamblers: A comparison of socio-demographic characteristics, gambling and co-morbidities. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 126–135.
Gray, J. A. (1982). The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo hippocampal system. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Griffiths, M. (1993). Fruit machine gambling: The importance of structural characteristics. Journal of Gambling Studies, 9, 101–120.
Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Adolescent gambling and gambling-type games on social networking sites: Issues, concerns, and recommendations. Aloma: Revista de Psicologia, Ciències de l’Educació i de l’Esport Blanquerna, 33, 31–37.
Hollingshead, S., Kim, H. S., Wohl, M. J. A., & Derevensky, J. (in press). The social casino gaming-gambling link: Motivation for playing social casino games determines whether self-reported gambling increases or decreases among problem gamblers. Journal of Gambling Issues.
Kim, H. S., Salmon, M., Wohl, M. J. A., & Young, M. (2016a). A dangerous cocktail: Alcohol consumption increases suicidal ideations among problem gamblers in the general population. Addictive Behaviors, 55, 50–55.
Kim, H. S., Wohl, M. J. A., Gupta, R., & Derevensky, J. (2016b). From the mouths of social media users: A focus group study exploring the social casino gaming—online gambling link. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 5, 115–121.
Kim, H. S., Wohl, M. J. A., Salmon, M. M., Gupta, R., & Derevensky, J. (2015). Do social casino gamers migrate to online gambling? An assessment of migration rate and potential predictors. Journal of Gambling Studies, 3, 1819–1831.
Ledgerwood, D. M., Alessi, S. M., Phoenix, N., & Petry, N. M. (2009). Behavioral assessment of impulsivity in pathological gamblers with and without substance use disorder histories versus healthy controls. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 105, 89–96.
Maccallum, F., Blaszczynski, A., Ladouceur, R., & Nower, L. (2007). Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity in pathological gambling. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1829–1838.
Martin, C. (2014). Big data and social casino gaming. Canadian Gaming Lawyer Magazine, 4–7.
Mason, W., & Suri, S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 1–23.
Matheson, K., Wohl, M. J., & Anisman, H. (2009). The interplay of appraisals, specific coping styles, and depressive symptoms among young male and female gamblers. Social Psychology, 40, 212–221.
Paolacci, G., Chandler, J., & Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 411–419.
Parke, J., Wardle, H., Rigbye, J., & Parke, A. (2013). Exploring social gambling: Scoping, classification and evidence review. Final report submitted to the UK Gambling Commission.
Petry, N. M., Stinson, F. S., & Grant, B. F. (2005). Comorbidity of DSM-IV pathological gambling and other psychiatric disorders: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66, 564–574.
Robinson, T. E., & Berridge, K. C. (2001). Incentive-sensitization and addiction. Addiction, 96, 103–114.
Rouse, S. V. (2015). A reliability analysis of Mechanical Turk data. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 304–307.
Sapsted, T. (2013). Social casino gaming: Opportunities for 2013 and beyond. London: FC Business Intelligence.
Schneider, S. (2012). Social gaming and online gambling. Gambling Law Review and Economics, 16, 711–712.
Schulze, T., Seedorf, S., Geiger, D., Kaufmann, N., & Schader, M. (2011). Exploring task properties in crowdsourcing-an empirical study on Mechanical Turk. In ECIS (Vol. 11, pp. 1–1).
Shapiro, D. N., Chandler, J., & Mueller, P. A. (2013). Using Mechanical Turk to study clinical populations. Clinical Psychological Science, 1, 213–220.
Sinclair, B. (2015). 46 % of US social casino gamers spend money—Newzoo. Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-08-31-46-percent-of-us-social-casino-gamers-spend-money-newzoo.
Smither, R. D., & Houston, J. M. (1992). The nature of competitiveness: The development and validation of the competitiveness index. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52, 407–418.
Steinberg, L., Sharp, C., Stanford, M. S., & Tharp, A. T. (2013). New tricks for an old measure: The development of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-Brief (BIS-Brief). Psychological Assessment, 25, 216–226.
Sztainert, T., Wohl, M. J., McManus, J. F., & Stead, J. D. (2014). On being attracted to the possibility of a win: Reward sensitivity (via gambling motives) undermines treatment seeking among pathological gamblers. Journal of Gambling Studies, 30, 901–911.
Wells, N. (2015). The shocking truth about mobile gaming, CNBC. Retrieved from: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/03/the-shocking-truth-about-mobile-gaming.html.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by a Standard Research Grant from the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre to Wohl (#3515).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Kim has received research grants from the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI), and Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO). Kim also holds a doctoral scholarship from AGRI. Wohl has received research grants from NCRG, GREO, Manitoba Gambling Research Program and the Ministry of Long Term Health and Care. Wohl has presented at the New Horizons Conference (British Columbia Lottery Corporation) and the Responsible and Problem Gambling Stakeholders Symposium (Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission) with travel expenses covered. Hollingshead declares no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants 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.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, H.S., Hollingshead, S. & Wohl, M.J.A. Who Spends Money to Play for Free? Identifying Who Makes Micro-transactions on Social Casino Games (and Why). J Gambl Stud 33, 525–538 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9626-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9626-6