Help
Responsible gambling
Helplines, deposit and loss limits, time-outs, self-exclusion and the warning signs worth acting on.
Gambling is a paid form of entertainment. The price is the house edge, and it is charged whether the session goes well or badly. Everything below is about keeping that price inside what you decided to pay.
Help lines that answer 24/7
- United States: National Problem Gambling Helpline — 1-800-522-4700, call or text, confidential, run by the National Council on Problem Gambling.
- United Kingdom: GamCare National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133, and BeGambleAware.
- Self-exclusion: GAMSTOP covers licensed sites in Britain; in the United States, exclusion is run state by state by the state regulator.
The four settings that do the work
- Deposit limit. Set it before the first deposit, not after a bad night. Increases usually take a cooling-off period to apply; decreases apply at once.
- Loss and session limits. A loss limit stops the account when the money you agreed to lose is gone; a session limit stops the clock.
- Reality checks. A message on screen every 30 or 60 minutes, telling you how long you have played.
- Time-out and self-exclusion. A time-out closes the account for days or weeks; self-exclusion closes it for months or years and blocks re-registration across the operators covered by the scheme.
Signs worth taking seriously
- Chasing losses: betting bigger specifically to get back to even.
- Gambling with money that has another job — rent, a bill, a card balance.
- Hiding the time or the amounts from people close to you.
- Playing to change a mood rather than for the game itself.
If two or more of those are true, use the helpline above before the next session. It is free, it is confidential, and it is answered by people who deal with this every day.