Does the unavailability of social media affect online gambling behavior? : A behavioral tracking data study before and after the October 2021 Facebook outage

Abstract

Background and aims: Social media platforms have become important in both individuals’ personal lives and for commercial organizations (e.g., online gambling operators). However, no previous study has examined how the unavailability of social media affects online gambling. A 6-hour-long worldwide outage of Facebook on October 4, 2021 created a unique possibility to investigate this relationship. The present study examined whether patterns of online gambling were different during the time of the social media outage from what could be expected during that time based on historical behavioral tracking data. Methods: The study used a dataset provided by Fortuna Entertainment Group that included information on the gambling behavior of 232,037 individuals from Croatia, Czechia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia on five consecutive Mondays, including the day of the social media outage, on two different types of gambling activity: gaming (such as online casino games) and sports betting. A linear regression was estimated for several outcome variables (number of people gambling, amount of stake, number of bets) separately for each country and gambling type, while gender, age, time, and date were included as control variables. Results: Most of the regressions showed a non-significant impact of the outage, and only a few significant (but small) differences were identified where the outage was associated with a lower outcome. In the case of the examined countries, the Facebook outage only had a marginal impact on gambling behavior. Discussion and Conclusions: Further research and analysis are needed to explore the relationship between social media use and online gambling behavior. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.