How habit and satisfaction affects player retention for online gambling

The ability of customer satisfaction to reliably explain and predict actual customer behavior has been an elusive objective to attain. This study tests the effects of past behavior (habit) on customer satisfaction in the prediction of actual behavior (retention). The study used an online gambling experiment accessible 24/7 to test the drivers of behavioral retention. It found that habit, not customer satisfaction, had a strong effect on a range of responses tied to retention. The implications of these findings are applied to issues for gambling managers and those developing public policy. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.