Abstract The instant access to gambling anytime, anywhere, has made online gambling highly habitual for some people. As a result, some online gamblers choose to volitionally enable the website-provided disruptive information technology (IT) features to control their gambling routines. The objective of this study is to examine the role of these features in regulating online gambling behavior. It is worthwhile to note that in this research, we do not make the assumption that habitual or regular online gambling is a bad thing; nor does the development of our conceptual framework — which focuses on the effect of disruptive IT features and moderating roles of individual regularity and game type in modifying gambling routines — depend on such an assumption. Drawing on theories of habitual automaticity and habit disruption, the conceptual framework theorizes the efficacy and mechanism of disruptive features while taking into account heterogeneity in individual regularity and game type. We tested the model using data collected over 10 years from 3,526 users of a gambling website. First, we found that individuals’ repetitive gambling patterns weakened as the duration of exposure to disruptive features increased. Second, the behavior of more regular gamblers was more resistant to the disruptive features, because more regular gamblers exhibited a stronger habitual pattern. Third, disruptive features were less effective on sports games compared with casino games, because sports gamblers tended to exhibit stronger gambling routines. Overall, the present study contributes to the information systems (IS) literature by clarifying how simple IT features may disrupt unwanted and difficult-to-break online gambling habits as judged by the gamblers. Our findings are likeliest to apply to broader areas of online services in which the application in question is integrated into everyday life and the system can offer a disruptive mechanism.

中文翻译：

---

通过信息技术打破在线赌博中的不良习惯

摘要 随时随地即时接触赌博，使得在线赌博成为一些人的习惯。因此，一些在线赌徒选择主动启用网站提供的颠覆性信息技术 (IT) 功能来控制他们的赌博习惯。本研究的目的是检查这些特征在调节在线赌博行为中的作用。值得注意的是，在本研究中，我们并没有假设习惯性或定期在线赌博是一件坏事；我们的概念框架的发展——侧重于破坏性 IT 功能的影响以及个人规律和游戏类型在修改赌博常规方面的调节作用——也不依赖于这样的假设。借鉴习惯自动化和习惯破坏的理论，概念框架将破坏性特征的功效和机制理论化，同时考虑到个体规律性和游戏类型的异质性。我们使用从赌博网站的 3,526 名用户那里收集的 10 多年的数据测试了该模型。首先，我们发现个人的重复赌博模式随着暴露于破坏性特征的持续时间增加而减弱。其次，更经常赌徒的行为更能抵抗破坏性特征，因为更多经常赌徒表现出更强的习惯模式。第三，与赌场游戏相比，破坏性功能在体育游戏中的效果较差，因为体育赌徒往往表现出更强的赌博习惯。全面的，本研究通过阐明简单的 IT 功能如何破坏赌徒判断的不受欢迎且难以打破的在线赌博习惯，为信息系统 (IS) 文献做出贡献。我们的发现最有可能适用于更广泛的在线服务领域，在这些领域中，所讨论的应用程序已融入日常生活，并且系统可以提供破坏性机制。