Examining the Factor Structure of Gambling Motivation Scale in Gambling-exposed Chinese Casino Employees

Abstract

Gambling Motivation Scale (GMS; Chantal et al., 1994) is one of the most popular scales used in assessing gambling motivation. Wu and Tang (2010) validated the Chinese Version of the scale and found out that a second-order model adequately fits with the data. This study tries to extend their study by utilizing a population exposed to gambling in almost daily basis, the casino employees. 817 casino employees were administered the Chinese version of the GMS and other related measures. Results revealed that of the four models tested, a second-order model with three major factors reflecting three types of gambling motivation, including intinsic motivation (for knowledge, for accomplishment, for stimulation and due to identified regulation), extrinsic motivation (due to introjected regulation and external regulation), and amotivation fitted well. The scale achieved high reliability rho and its factors (gambling types) were significantly related with each other. Moreover, these gambling types also predicted problem gambling. Overall results showed that GMS can be used with Chinese population, more specifically with Chinese casino employees.