Measures against gambling addiction
Online casinos are popular worldwide and the industry continues to grow. The large selection of casino games is well received by millions of customers. They provide gaming fun and good entertainment. For the majority of players, it is great fun. But for some customers it can lead to gambling problems. They are exposed to the danger of losing control over their own gambling behaviour. Providers therefore offer preventive measures to ensure that this does not happen in the first place. The supervisory authorities that issue casino licences also try to protect customers. Responsible gambling and the functions for this are supposed to help.
We want to inform you about these possibilities in our guide. So that you can always have fun playing in the online casino.
Functions for responsible gambling
Online casinos offer you various options with which you can keep control over your game. You can adjust each of them to suit you personally. With many providers, you can make the settings yourself in your customer account. With some you have to contact the customer service. They will be happy to help you and take care of making the settings for you. The functions can be set up and affected quickly and easily:
- Budget limits
- Loss limit
- Stake limit
- Time limit
- Reality check
- Time out
- Self-exclusion
Deposits with budget limit
Keeping track of your finances is one of the most important things when playing at online casinos. You need to set yourself a certain budget that you can spend. You should not use money for gambling that you need to pay expenses. Meanwhile, you can set a budget limit in your customer account. You always have an overview of your expenses. Even if you top up your balance with several small deposits. You decide how much you want to deposit. As soon as the limit is reached, no further deposits are possible.
You can choose between a daily, weekly or monthly limit. Depending on what you choose, you should think carefully about your limit. On the one hand, it should not be too much so that you still have enough money for fixed costs. On the other hand, a low budget may mean a certain waiting period until the next deposit. Let’s say you set a monthly budget and it is reached after 2 weeks. Then you have to wait another 2 weeks for the next month. Only then can you deposit again and start playing again.
If you want to increase the amount, you can make a change. To be on the safe side, it does not happen on a whim, so it takes a while. It is usually related to the time period you originally chose. If you have a daily budget, you have to be patient for another day. If your limit is set for a week, the increase will not take effect until the next week. And a new monthly budget only applies in the following month. However, if you want to lower your budget, you can do so more quickly. The casinos want to protect the customer and implement this change immediately.
Losses are limited
You set the loss limit to limit your net losses in the game. Once you have reached the limit and lost a certain amount, you can no longer continue playing. You have to wait until the set time period has expired and the limit is reset. You can decide at the beginning whether it is a daily, weekly or monthly limit. Accordingly, it also takes until the limit is reset.
You should therefore consider how often you can still play with each bet. It is intended that you think about your limit. Only then do you play consciously and not just out of habit. It is important that you do not try to win back your losses with new games. For games based on skill and strategy, you should think carefully about how much you bet. But even with games of chance, you must be clear about your bet.
It is for your protection. Therefore, the change of the limit is also bound to a period of time. You can only increase the limit the next time a new period begins. In other words, a new limit can only be set when the limit is reset. This is to prevent you from wanting to quickly change your limit in order to continue playing.
Bet limits are rare
Bet limits are relatively rare to find in casinos. Nevertheless, there are some providers who offer this function. Here you can determine how much credit you can bet when playing. Once the limit is reached, you can no longer play. For customers, this kind of restriction is rather impractical. It does not take into account a credit balance from winnings or from the bonus. Especially with the bonus, it is also not good if you have to fulfil turnover conditions. A limited stake would prevent the free spinning of bonus winnings.
Time limit
A very good way to play responsibly is to set yourself time limits. If you can’t stop after a certain time, set it automatically in the online casino. It is easy to lose track of time in the middle of a game. When the time limit is reached, the casino will lock you out and you will not be able to continue playing.
You will be informed of this shortly before the time runs out. You can then end your game and log yourself out. A new game can only be started the next day. If you notice that your time limit is too short, you can extend it. However, it takes at least 24 hours until the new time limit becomes valid.
Reality check at the casino game
You can activate the reality check in your customer account. The name comes from the fact that you are so involved in the virtual gaming world. An exciting game makes you forget the time. And you don’t even notice how long you’ve been playing. The sense of time in reality is lost and brought back with a warning message. Every half hour or hour you receive a notification of how long you have been playing. You have to decide for yourself whether you want to play longer. It is also one of the few that can be changed immediately. However, you can only switch it on and off.
Taking a time-out
Taking a time-out can be practical in some cases. If you’ve lost a lot of money recently or have been gambling a lot in general, time out will help you. If you are usually tempted to gamble again quickly, you cannot log in here. During a time-out, you can take a break and not log in to your account. You can choose between different periods of time:
- 1 day
- 1-2 weeks
- 1 month
- 6 weeks
Time off longer than six weeks exists in isolated cases. However, such a long time has more to do with self-exclusion. For customers who have gambling problems, the recovery period can show positive results. Of course, the gambling problems must not have progressed very far. Otherwise, you should rather think about self-exclusion.
Self-exclusion from the online casino
If you find that you have problematic gambling behaviour, self-exclusion is the last resort. You can be banned from the casino for a period of 3 months to 5 years. Only after the end of this period are you allowed to log in and play again. It is the first step if you want to fight addictive behaviour on your own. However, you should get professional help. They may also advise you to get completely banned from the casino.
Once you are banned, you cannot change your mind until the time limit expires. In the UK, there is already a network organisation. It is responsible for ensuring that you cannot register with another provider during the exclusion phase. In other countries there are similar networks where the casinos are connected. This way you can’t fall back and simply sign up with a competitor.
Restrict customer account
Choose one of the options so that you can better control your gaming behaviour. You can adjust the limits in your casino yourself. All you have to do is follow these steps.
- Select your account
- Go to the settings
- Search for limits
- Select your individual limit
Almost every casino has a page dedicated to responsible gambling. Here you will find an explanation of your options and how to select them. If you don’t find any options, it may not be possible in your casino. In this case, we advise you to contact the customer support. Sometimes such settings have to be entered manually by the staff. Customer support will always be happy to help you and inform you about the various options. The quickest way to reach someone is via the live chat and have them make the settings directly.
