The purpose of this paper is to explore whether gambling purchases are in line with the consumption of many other consumer products by exhibiting the regularities stipulated by the Duplication of Purchase Law. Gambling has been gradually accepted by the modern society as a leisure activity and gambling participation is increasing globally. Because of the dangers of gambling addiction, the gaming entertainment industry as compared to other consumer markets is subjected to a high degree of government control. Although studies on gambling are extensive, most researchers focus on problem gamblers rather than regular gamblers. Given the size of regular gambling market, it should deserve more attention than it is presently given. Furthermore, those studies that investigate leisure gambling largely adopt cognitiveand affective-based approaches. The effect of past gambling behavior on current and future gambling purchases as well as cross-national gambling behaviors are rarely investigated. This study attempts to close these gaps by applying the Duplication of Purchase Law to the study of the regular gambling behavior across three geographically diverse gambling jurisdictions, namely, the USA, Australia, and Macao.

Previous research found that even if individuals make their own decisions, many consumer markets are in effect relatively stable and follow simple empirical “marketing laws.” Similar regularities are also found in multibrand buying. The Duplication of Purchase Law states that buyers of one brand will buy a second brand in proportion to the penetration of the second brand. Hence, a brand in a market is expected to have many of its own buyers purchasing from other large brands and only a few of its own buyers purchasing from smaller brands. The Duplication of Purchase Law establishes, mathematically, the extent to which different brands are complementary to each other. Any deviations from the Duplication of Purchase Law reflect the differences or similarities between different brands.

To examine the applicability of the Duplication of Purchase Law across nations, datasets from the U.S. National Gambling Impact Study, Australian Productivity Commission National Gambling Survey, and Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming’s Macao Gambling Participation and Prevalence Survey are used. Game types available in these jurisdictions are different. For instance, bingo is available in the USA and Australia but not in Macao. Even if the same type of gambling is found in different jurisdictions, the degree of popularity can be vastly different. For example, the participation rate in lottery is much higher in the USA than in Australia and Macao. In addition, these studies/surveys are conducted at different time periods. The USA gambling study was conducted in 1998, the Australian study in 1999, and the Macao study in 2007. Included in the final analyses are four types of gambling (lottery, casino gambling, track betting, and bingo) from the USA study, eight types of gambling (lotto, instant, electronic and video gaming machines, wagering on horse racing, keno, table games, wagering on sports, and bingo) from the Australian study, and three types of gambling (lottery, casino gambling and wagering on sports) from Macao, China. Collectively, these samples represent over 12,000 regular gamblers.

In line with many consumer products, the results show that gambling purchases in all three jurisdictions exhibit regularities as stipulated in the Duplication of Purchase Law, i.e., the purchase duplication between two games depends on the penetration of each game. The Duplication of Purchase Law applies well despite significant differences in gambling preferences between jurisdictions. The results suggest that these games are complementary to each other. In marketing, the Duplication of Purchase Law often acts as a benchmark to measure brand differences or similarities. As such, one can apply the Duplication of Purchase Law to study how likely gamblers of game X also gamble game Y, and whether gambling in game Y will reduce gambling of game X. In the same way as in the marketing of consumer products, duplication law may also be employed as a benchmark to study or track changes in the gaming entertainment market like the relationship of new game (s) to existing ones or between existing games over time, and track changes in gambling seasonality.

Current research results thus fit well into the argument that the gaming entertainment industry reflects an environment dominated by past behavior. Games with high market share appear to have more duplicated gamblers versus games with small market share. As such, results not only imply that gambling is an activity strongly influence by past behavior, but also suggest the importance of managing market penetration to control gambling and problem gambling incidences. In this environment, increasing the opportunity to gamble (i.e., greater exposure through more intensive distribution) would result in more individuals picking up the habit of gambling, and so potentially increase the incidence rate of problem gambling. Decreasing the opportunity to gamble through more selective distribution may be effective in reducing gambling consumption, and perhaps, problem gambling. References are available upon request.