This page sets out practical habits for keeping gambling under control and explains what this site can and cannot do for someone who wants to cut back or stop. Gambling is for adults only: the eighteen-and-over restriction is repeated throughout this site, including on the front page.
Budget
Decide the amount before you start, and treat it as already spent. A figure chosen in advance is set while you are calm. A figure chosen mid-session is set by whatever just happened on the screen. If you think of the money as gone from the outset, a loss does not feel like a debt you need to recover.
Habits
- Never chase a loss. Bigger stakes placed to win money back raise the amount at risk at exactly the moment your judgement is weakest.
- Keep borrowed money out of it. Credit, loans and money meant for bills turn a lost stake into a repayment that lasts long after the session ends.
- Take breaks. Stepping away interrupts the pace of play and gives you a chance to check your spending against the amount you planned.
Support
Involve someone else early, as soon as gambling stops feeling like entertainment. Another person can notice patterns you have stopped seeing. Raising it sooner makes the conversation easier than raising it later.
Organisations
Every page of this site, this one included, carries links to six independent sources of help:
- BeGambleAware
- Gamble Aware
- Gambling Therapy
- G GamCare Gambling Support: Starts Here
- GAM STOP
- NCPG
These are the only non-commercial outbound links on the site. Unlike the operator links, they carry no sponsored marking. They are set to nofollow and open in a separate tab on each organisation's own website. This site receives nothing when you follow them.
Limits
This site has no account, no form and no server-side application. It cannot switch on, check or enforce any spending or time control. Deposit caps, loss caps, reality checks, cooling-off periods and self-exclusion are things you arrange yourself inside your account at the destination. Nobody's age is verified here and no gambling takes place here, so any age check happens at the destination. No advertising or behavioural profiling network is present in these pages, so nothing here is targeted at a reader who has shown risky behaviour.