Gambling Streams and Gambling Intentions: Testing via the Theory of Planned Behaviour

The popularity of gambling streams on platforms such as Twitch has increased in recent years, raising concerns about potential harms associated with viewing gambling content. These concerns are amplified for youth who may be exposed to gambling via such spectating. According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), a person's intention to engage in an activity (e.g., gambling) is determined by three factors: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Here, we test whether watching gambling streams is associated with these variables in a cross-sectional study. We recruited young adults (ages 18 to 25) without current gambling experience, through Prolific (post-cleaning, n = 120). We assessed levels of consumption of different types of gambling streams and gambling-adjacent content. Gambling stream consumption was positively correlated with gambling attitudes, subjective norms regarding gambling, and gambling intentions, but not perceived behavioural control. Mediation analyses did not support the indirect effects derived from the TPB. In analyses by stream type, the frequencies of watching slots and Esports streams were correlated with the intentions to gamble on these corresponding activities, and the frequency of video game stream consumption was negatively correlated with intentions to engage in gambling activities. These results link engagement with gambling streams to gambling intentions, among young adults without gambling experience. Longitudinal research is needed to track the transitions and consequential harms associated with gambling stream consumption.