Knowing When to Stop

This site writes about the technology behind gambling platforms, which means most of its readers hold a gambling account. So this page is not a formality. Gambling is a paid entertainment with a negative expected return; for a minority of people it stops being entertainment and starts being a problem, and that shift is easier to see from outside than from inside.

You must be 18 or over to gamble in most jurisdictions, and 21 or over in several US states. Nothing on this site is an encouragement to open an account or to place a bet.

Signs worth taking seriously

• Depositing money set aside for something else — rent, bills, food, a card you are already carrying a balance on.
• Going back the same day to win back a loss, and calling it a strategy.
• Hiding the amount, the frequency or the account itself from someone close to you.
• Playing to change how you feel rather than because you want to play.
• Sessions that run past the point where you stopped enjoying them.
• Borrowing — from a person, a card, an overdraft or an app — to keep playing.
• Anyone who knows you well raising it with you more than once.

One of these on a bad week is not a diagnosis. Several of them, repeatedly, is a pattern, and it is worth a conversation with someone whose job it is to have that conversation.

Free, confidential help

• GamCare (UK) — the National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, free from UK landlines and mobiles, with live chat at gamcare.org.uk.
• BeGambleAware (UK) — information, self-assessment and treatment referrals at begambleaware.org.
• Gambling Therapy (international) — free online support in multiple languages at gamblingtherapy.org.
• National Council on Problem Gambling (US) — call or text 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537), or see ncpgambling.org.
• Gamblers Anonymous — peer meetings, online and in person, at gamblersanonymous.org.

Tools that actually block, not just remind

Deposit limits and reminders help with drift. If the problem is past drift, use something that removes the choice.

• GAMSTOP — one registration blocks you from every online operator licensed in Great Britain, for six months, one year or five years: gamstop.co.uk. It cannot be reversed early.
• Self-exclusion with the operator — every licensed operator is required to offer it, and to close the account rather than merely hide the games.
• Blocking software — Gamban and BetBlocker sit on your own devices and block gambling sites regardless of which operator you use.
• Bank-level gambling blocks — most major UK banks and many elsewhere let you switch off gambling transactions on the card itself, usually with a cooling-off delay before it can be switched back on.
• State self-exclusion programmes (US) — run by the regulator in each regulated state, covering every operator licensed there.

A note on the security angle

One thing worth knowing, since it is this site’s subject: when you self-exclude, the operator is required to keep enough of your data to enforce the exclusion. That is why a self-exclusion request is not the same as a data-deletion request, and why asking for both at once will usually get you the first and not the second. It is not the operator being obstructive — the exclusion only works because the record survives.

If you want to raise something about this site rather than about an operator, Reach the Desk.