Responsible Gambling

It’s good to know for a user about those things, so a player might check if the website of his choice is trustworthy.

• The protection of Personal Data and Information – Before all, it’s a responsibility of a casino operator to protect the customer’s personal and financial data. The customer needs to be sure that all their data such as name, address, telephone, age and email address – are not going to be used without consent.
• Underage gambling – It’s another responsibility of the website’s operator to prevent minors from using the site. The prevention ways include age verification through software or proof of age by submitting a valid ID.
• Fraud – Each online casino business also needs to implement anti-money laundering procedures and local as well as international policies regarding it.
• Fair Gaming – The casinos must also be sure that their online gaming products passed the test regarding their fairness. Third-party institutions are often performing external audits that prove the fairness of random number generators in the casino software.

Gambling Addiction

Thankfully, we do not live in a world where everyone is a gambling addict – it’s far from that. However, with easier access to online casinos in modern societies, it is becoming a bigger issue. According to gambling addiction statistics on QuitGamble.com. Up to 20 million Americans suffer from some sort of gambling problem.

Therefore, as a player, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy approach to online gambling. It is as easy as following some simple, but essential tips:

• Before all, look at gambling as entertainment and not a way to make money.
• Don’t chase your losses.
• Make sure that during your free time you enjoy other things besides gambling, for example, your hobbies.
• It’s crucial to control your spending – set a limit of how much you can spend on gambling and never cross it.
• Control the time of your gambling session; set a time limit.
• Don’t make gambling decisions under the influence of emotions. If it stopped being just fun for you, don’t play.

As you might imagine, it’s the customer’s responsibility to see if they are vulnerable to gambling addiction. If you have noticed that keeping in check the tips above is troublesome for you, consult that with the customer service at your online casino. Each site is going to have tools that aim to bring you back to a healthy approach toward gambling.

How to stop gambling addiction

If you believe you have a gambling problem, the first step to getting rid of it is to understand why you have the problem in the first place. Ask yourself “what happens when you gamble”. You might think you gamble to win money, but that is rarely the case. To check yourself, you can ask yourself. If I win, what do I do then? Do I continue gambling, or do I stop gambling? If your answer is that you’d continue, then it’s not about the money at all.

One site that works with gambling problems is QuitGamble.com. They have an extensive guide for how to stop gambling addiction that you might find useful. They also offer resources like:

• Video courses
• An online community with over 3700 members
• A mobile app called Quit Gamble (find it on iPhone and Android)

In the following section, you’ll find information on what signs to be aware of when it comes to your gambling. If you recognise any of them in yourself, you might consider visit QuitGamble.com

Identifying the Issue

Although most people can keep the responsible gambling points in check, it is not a shame that you are in a situation when gambling becomes hard.

Below, you can see the behaviours that are relevant to people under the bad influence of gambling. It’s vital to recognise which of the risk behaviours you notice in order to receive the correct help:

• Crossing the spending limits; spending too much on gambling.
• Getting annoyed easily when something disturbs the gambling session.
• Chasing or trying to recoup losses.
• Forgetting about the time; staying in the game way longer than planned.
• Lying to close people.
• Not quitting when up.
• Having a strong belief that you are going to hit huge wins.
• Thinking a loss is a result of a bad strategy/system.
• Being overwhelmed with thoughts about gambling.
• Increasing the bet size to increase excitement.
• Hiding or lying about gambling spending.
• Choose to gamble before close relatives, work or friends.

Source: Symptoms of Gambling Addiction

As per usual, when things don’t go the way they should, people get embarrassed and feel stigmatised. Remember, there is nothing to be ashamed of when under the bad influence of gambling. It’s crucial to realise such addiction is not physical – it all happens in the mindset. Therefore, things are way easier to fix than in a majority of other addictions. But the most significant factor is that the person needs to want to receive the help. If one doesn’t wish close relatives to know about the issue, there are anonymous ways – not looking far, the support team of your online casino will be ready to help you at any time

Getting Help

In case you recognised that gambling has a bad influence on you, try these things:

• Set up a spending limit – There are many ways of setting it up. But perhaps the most efficient way of doing this is to contact the casino customer service and ask to set it up for you; often such an option will be included on the website in the account settings.
• Consider self-exclusion – Simply take a break. The min. you can have your account closed is 6 months. That can be carried out as long as you wish after that time. Breaking the min. 6 month period is impossible.
• Consider the permanent self-exclusion – Sometimes you need to make harsh decisions. It’s possible to close your account permanently. Different casinos might have various procedures regarding that, so make sure to work with them to achieve that result.
• Consider opting out of casino-related media: It might be a good idea also to unfollow any gambling related media and seek support through close relatives, friends, groups or a counsellor.

It’s common among online casinos to provide further information on where to find local support groups as well as online assistance. On the internet, there are indeed many ways to get help. Check out anonymous methods like gamlersanonymous.org, gamtalk.org, and responsiblegambling.org.