Responsible gambling

Four rules worth keeping

• Set a budget before you start and treat it as the cost of a night out: money you can lose without it affecting your obligations.
• Never gamble to win back losses. Trying to reverse a bad run is usually the point where entertainment turns into a problem.
• Set a time limit as well as a money limit, and stick to it even when you are ahead.
• Never gamble with borrowed money or with funds meant for bills, debts or family expenses.

Warning signs

No single sign amounts to a diagnosis, but several together are worth a professional consultation:

• Repeatedly playing for longer, or with more money, than you had planned.
• Going back to bet in order to recover what you lost.
• Hiding from family or friends how much you play or how much you have lost.
• Borrowing, selling belongings or diverting money from fixed costs to keep playing.
• Irritability, anxiety or sleep problems when you cannot gamble.
• Missing work, study or commitments to keep playing.

If several of these describe your situation, or if someone close to you has raised it, talking about it is the most useful step. The 0800-444-4000 helpline is free, anonymous and also supports family members.

Tools inside the platform

Operators licensed in the province must provide self-control tools within the account itself. They are usually found in the responsible gambling section of your profile:

• Deposit limits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
• Session time limits and reminders about how long you have been playing.
• Time-outs that block access for a set period.
• Self-exclusion, which suspends the account for the period set out in provincial rules. During that period the account cannot be reopened early.

Protecting minors

Under-18s may not take part in gambling. If you share devices with children or teenagers, log out when you finish, do not save passwords or payment methods in the browser, and consider installing a content filter. Talking about it at home, without drama, works better than any technical block.