Gambling Help: Our Guide to a Safe Gaming Experience
Responsible gambling is easier said than done.
Online casinos and sports betting sites are required by law to provide tools and support to their customers, but the weight ultimately falls on the player. Understanding the principles of responsible gambling early on can be a lifesaver, yet this page provides guidelines players of all levels can use.
Check out our tips and resources to stay in control of your gaming and have a positive online gambling experience.
Responsible gambling in a nutshell
Responsible gambling isn’t linked to the money you spend on casino games. The financial situation of each player varies.
To gamble responsibly means to bet within your means and as you intended – but most of all, you must enjoy the process and not bet out of anxiety or feeling stressed during the experience. If you are trying to recover losses with another wager or lost money you need for maintenance costs on the roulette table, you most likely need help.
The most important step is to realize there is a problem. Then, you can utilize the tools online casinos or government authorities provide to manage your gambling spending or time. Having said that, gambling addiction is a serious disorder that many people suffer from and can be extremely hard to cope with. Informing your close ones about it, getting professional help, and recognizing that this is a situation you will need to continually manage is paramount.
Tips to gamble responsibly
Online and mobile casino gaming make the need for responsible gambling education more important than ever. Having access to casino games 24/7 from wherever is enough to turn even casual gamers into gambling addicts.
Several members of our team have been fighting the urge to overspend or chasegambling losses. Based on our experience and experts’ recommendations, we have compiled a list of things that can help you stay in control:
• Set limits: Bonus1 only works with licensed online casinos since these sites guarantee a safe environment for their players. From the moment you sign up to when you are spinning slots, you’ll receive notifications to set responsible gambling limits. The options you have include deposit limits, activity limits, loss limits, etc. These apply on selected periods and take an equal amount of time to reset so you cannot reverse them in the heat of the moment.
• Exclude yourself: If setting limits doesn’t work for you, you can always request a cool-off or longer exclusion from the casino. Such measures are more extreme and guarantee you abstain from gambling for the set time.
• Outside actions: The above two tips apply to the casino you are playing at and don’t stop you from playing at another site. For such measures, you can register on sites like GamStop or BetStop to get blocked from all legit casinos in your country. Blocking gambling transactions through your bank or card is another effective measure, though it can be easily reversed.
• Stay alert for the warning signs: The above measures are excellent for managing your gambling proactively or when you start losing control. To realize you are in murky waters, you must know what to look out for. This page highlights the signs of gambling addiction, and you can also find them here.
• Talk to someone: Sharing your gambling activities with your loved ones helps. It will make it easier to ask for your help if you need to, and you will avoid additional stress if you overspend. Talking about the problem on a personal level makes it easier to realize the situation too. Of course, speaking to a professional through the hotlines shared in this guide is advisable if you are struggling to regaincontrol.
Additional pointers from our experts
The above are solid tips to tackle gambling addiction and practice responsible gaming. However, offshore online casinos rarely offer responsible gambling tools, and they don’t let you self-exclude. The following tips are excellent measures to manage your gaming in such situations.
• Avoid offshore gambling sites altogether – this will guarantee you have the above tools at hand.
• If you decide to play there, email their customer support team and set monthly spending limits.
• Never increase your bets to recover losses or after a big win. Doing so makes it harder to get excitement out of your gaming without continually spending more.
• Decide how much money and time you will spend gambling in advance and stick to it.
• Avoid alcohol or other substances when gambling.
• Don’t fall for progressive betting systems and gambling strategies that promise success.
• Understand prudent bankroll management and practice it.
• Set a reasonable target for wins or losses per session and stick to it.
• Decide what games you want to play in advance.
• Understand the gambler’s fallacy and tilt concepts.
• Block access to your bank account or credit card if you feel that you are losing control.
Official responsible gambling measures
Governments, support groups, and online casinos have developed several safeguards over the last three decades to protect gamblers. These might appear as an overstep to some, but they always come from a good place. They include:
• Protecting minors through verification checks at the registration stage.
• Enforcing limits to players before allowing access to the lobby.
• Blocking certain payment methods, like credit cards, and only letting players gamble with a banking method registered under their name.
• Regulating online casino advertising and how they communicate their offers and services to the general public.
• Establishing bodies that offer exclusion from all regulated gambling services.
• Gambling support groups and hotlines are available to players from all countries.
• Betting limits per round, ban of certain practices like bonus buys, restriction of certain bonus types, delays per slot round, etc.
• ISP blocks of unregulated gambling sites.
Unfortunately, these measures mostly apply to regulated online gambling sites. We understand their importance and only recommend such sites at Bonus1. Make sure to stick to them and don’t sign up for any online casino offering a hefty bonus.
Assess yourself regularly
This guide has organically covered most of the signs indicating a gambling problem or addiction. A solid self-assessment questionnaire can be found here, though for convenience I have summarized a few alarming signs below:
• Regularly thinking about gambling
• Hiding your gambling activities or their extent from others
• Feeling anxious when thinking about the money you’ve gambled
• Chasing losses at the casino
• Resorting to online gambling to resolve financial issues
• Borrowing or stealing money to gamble
• Using money needed elsewhere to gamble
• Spending more time or money than you intended
• Increasing the time or frequency of playing casino games
• Betting higher amounts
• Constantly setting new targets or chasing bigger wins
• Finding excuses to gamble
The list could go on. Ultimately, if you are not enjoying gambling and playing casino games has begun negatively affecting your life and well-being, it’s time to stop.
Get help
A single Google search will bring up several hotlines, support groups, and experts that can help you manage a developing gambling problem or full-blown gambling addiction. There is no magic pill that will instantly fix the problem, but you can get there with proper help. I’ve listed a couple of leading organizations you could turn to based on your location.
Australia
• BetStop
Canada
New Zealand
UK
• GamCare
• GamStop
USA
• NPGH