CHI
Student Poster
changing the world, changing ourselves
What Makes People Trust Online Gambling Sites?
Bhiru Shelat
System Concepts Ltd
2 Savoy Court, Strand
London, UK-WC2R 0EZ
+44 207240 3388
bhiru@system-concepts.com
Florian N. Egger
Faculty of Technology Management
Eindhoven University of Technology
PO Box 513, NL-5600MB Eindhoven
+31 40 247 5213
egger@acm.org
ABSTRACT
A validated model of trust was used as a framework for an
empirical study to identify on- and offline factors that
influence gamblers’ perception of an online casino’s
trustworthiness. The results suggest that the quality with
which casinos address gamblers’ trust concerns by
providing appropriate content is the prime factor.
However, designing for trust must be part of a consistent
strategy that also involves customer service and usability.
Pre-Interactional Filters
Interface Properties
Informational Content
Keywords
Trust, Credibility, Gambling, User Experience Strategy.
OBJECTIVES
Over recent years, the gambling industry has been rapidly
moving online. However, the gambling industry has a
tainted reputation, since casinos were used for money
laundering purposes from the early 20th century. Unlike
sports betting where the outcome is unambiguous, casino
games are supposed to be ruled by chance alone. This
requires gamblers to have full trust in the casino and the
fairness of its odds. How do gamblers judge whether a
particular online casino is indeed trustworthy?
To answer this question, we used the MoTEC model of
trust for electronic commerce as a framework [1, 2]. This
model, although initially developed for the online retail of
products and services, is high-level enough to also be
applied to the domain of gambling. It identifies four main
dimensions that affect people’s trust in online businesses
(cf. Figure 1). The dimensions consist of:
(1) Pre-Interactional Filters (PIF): one’s predisposition to
trust, reputation of the industry and of the company,
recommendations from trusted sources, etc;
(2) Interface Properties (IP): Branding and usability;
(3) Informational Content (IC): Company, products and
services, terms and conditions, security and privacy;
(4) Relationship Management (RM): Pre-purchase and
post-purchase communication, customer service, etc.
Relationship Management
The objective of this study was to determine which model
dimensions would carry the most weight in gamblers’
judgement of an online casino’s trustworthiness.
METHODOLOGY
In order to get a better understanding of the domain of
online gambling, we posted several messages on gambling
newsgroups, asking how people choose which sites to trust.
Input from the newsgroup discussions was then used to
devise a gambling-specific trust questionnaire, based on
MoTEC’s four dimensions. This questionnaire was
advertised and posted online to make it accessible to a wide
target audience. It allowed participants complete
anonymity, which may be very important to gamblers.
The questionnaire consisted of 35 questions, each phrased
as a statement about a gambling site and was based on a 7
point Likert-type scale.
RESULTS
There were a total of 31 participants’ data included in the
analysis. Four were female and 27 were male. Only one
participant had less than three years internet experience.
By grouping related questions, the average rating for each
component could be calculated. The relative importance of
each dimension was expressed as a percentage and is
discussed next:
1.
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
CHI 2002, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
ACM 1-58113-454-1/02/0004.
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Informational Content: 34%
IC was the most important dimension in trust perception
attributing for over a third of the effect on trust. People like
to know about the company, its staff and its policies. Such
information should be provided on the site in a place where
it can be found easily, otherwise it will have no benefit.
That is why it is closely linked to Interface Properties, as a
minneapolis, minnesota, usa • 20-25 april 2002
good information architecture is very effective at giving an
overview of what information is present and where.
2.
Relationship Management: 26%
RM was the second most important dimension. This is
consistent with Fogg et al. (2001)’s finding that a “real
world feel” contributes to credibility. Players value the
ability to contact the company, and they expect responses
to be quick and of high quality. This also indicates to
gambling companies that they must take customer services
and all that it entails seriously. Gamblers also value
fulfillment of any promises made by the company such as
prompt payment of winnings.
3.
Interface Properties: 22%
IP accounted for just over a fifth of the effect on trust. As
mentioned above, information architecture and usability are
extremely important as they allow efficient access to
information. That would suggest that their importance is
more implicit than explicit, which is reflected in the ratings.
On the other hand, it was observed that IP statements
phrased negatively would decrease a site’s experienced
trustworthiness. That was the case for long download times
and typographical errors, which is also consistent with
Fogg et al. (2001). Thus, if Interface Properties are not
properly addressed, they can be very damaging to any level
of trust that has already been built up, or prevent people
from taking the initial decision to trust the site.
4.
Pre-Interactional Filters: 18%
PIF had the least effect of the four dimensions but should
not be discounted as unimportant. Indeed, the respondents
to this questionnaire had all had prior experience gambling
online. This means that they all must have had a positive
preconception about gambling in general. A non-gambler
might not trust any gambling sites just because they are
associated with that industry. Whether a negative
preconception could be overcome by the site itself would
be an interesting question for future research The positive
implication of that relatively low rating is that casinos that
are exclusively online do have a chance to compete with
established brand names. The same applies to being listed
in a directory or having been reviewed by offline media.
LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH
Since this study is the first to investigate trust antecedents
in the domain of online gambling, a high-level approach
giving general information was adopted. It would be
interesting to replicate this study with a higher number of
respondents, and the inclusion of non-gamblers. This would
show how reliance on the different MoTEC components
evolves with expertise. Last but not least, the unreliability
of subjective reports should be overcome by observing
people evaluate the trustworthiness of unfamiliar casinos in
user tests. As discussed in [1], the model can also be used
as a framework for conducting and analyzing user trials.
DISCUSSION
Student Poster
present on the web site. This includes clear information
about who is behind the casino, its legal status and the
fairness of its odds. Some casinos feature audit reports by
well-respected accountancy firms that state the payout
percentage every month. User experience strategists should
therefore aim at identifying the perceived risks related to
the industry, the company or a given game, and address
these concerns by producing informative content.
A real world feel can also be communicated by providing
alternative channels to contact the casino, both on- and
offline. Prompt and informative replies helps convey
professionalism and respect for the customer. Most
importantly, people perceive quick payouts as a sign of the
casino’s honesty and fairness.
These computer-mediated exchanges can all be supported
by a well-designed interface. Important information should
be displayed prominently and access to other content
should be efficient.
Practitioners should also realize that offline factors can
have a considerable impact on user perceptions. With this
in mind, our research strongly suggests that the traditional
scope of human-computer interaction should be widened to
include the whole user experience from start to finish,
including both online and offline components of the
interaction. A savvy organization would do well to
integrate HCI with marketing, management and customer
care for a consistent strategy. Not only will this improve
HCI effectiveness, but also provide a competitive edge.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the staff at UCL for their support during the
course of this research, and all those who publicized or
responded to the online survey.
REFERENCES
1.
Egger, F.N. & De Groot, B. (2000). Developing a
Model of Trust for Electronic Commerce: An
Application to a Permissive Marketing Web Site.
Poster Proc. of the 9th International World Wide Web
Conference, The Netherlands, May 15-19, 2000: 9293, Foretec Seminars Inc
2.
Egger, F.N. (2001). Affective Design of E-Commerce
User Interfaces: How to Maximise Perceived
Trustworthiness. In: Helander, M., Khalid, H.M. &
Tham (Eds.), Proc. of CAHD2001: Conference on
Affective Human Factors Design, Singapore, June 2729, 2001: 317-324.
3.
Fogg, B.J., Marshall, J., Laraki, O., Osipovich, A.,
Varma, C., Fang, N., Paul, J., Rangnekar, A., Shon, J.,
Swami, P. & Treinen, M. (2001). What Makes Web
Sites Credible? A Report on a Large Quantitative
Study. Proc. of CHI 2001 Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press.
Our results suggest that people base their judgement of an
online casino’s trustworthiness mostly on the information
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