Stay in Control: Self-Exclusion and Responsible Gambling Tools at Online Casinos

Licensed casinos offer several tools that help you stay in control of your gambling and ensure you gamble responsibly. In this article, we explain how these tools work and when you should consider using them.

Here’s what we cover:

  • Self-Exclusion: Learn about the different types of self-exclusion and how to exclude yourself from a casino.
  • Standard Gambling Tools: We explore the range of gambling limits you can use to track and limit the time and money you spend gambling.
  • General Advice For Responsible Gambling: General advice and links to resources provide detailed information on gambling addiction and responsible gambling practices.

What You’ll Learn On This Page

  • What Is Self-Exclusion? – When gambling has shifted from a pastime to an unhealthy habit, it’s time to distance yourself from it. Learn about the different self-exclusion tools available at online casinos.
  • Other Responsible Gambling Tools – There are various online gambling tools that help you manage your gambling behaviour before it spirals out of control.
  • Do Self-Exclusion and Responsible Gambling Tools Work? – Do these tools serve their purpose, or are they simply there to form part of casinos’ regulatory compliance checklists?
  • Learn More About Responsible Gambling – Want to find out more about how to gamble responsibly? We have a handful of great articles to consolidate what you’ve just learnt.
  • FAQ – Answers to common questions about self-exclusion.

What Is Self-Exclusion?

Self-exclusion is a responsible gambling tool designed to help you step away from gambling entirely.

It allows you to exclude yourself from a casino and ensure you don’t have access to your account under any circumstances whatsoever. It’s the most extreme measure and the last resort when you’re struggling to control your gambling activity.

Self-exclusion is one of the most important responsible gambling practices, and there are three types:

  • Temporary Self-Exclusion—This restricts access to the casino for a set period, ranging from a few days to several months. Standard intervals are a week, a month, three months, or six months. 
  • Permanent Self-Exclusion – Ban yourself from gambling indefinitely. This option is for when you’ve recognised you have a serious gambling problem and need a permanent solution. When you request a permanent self-exclusion, the casino may never allow you to play again.
  • Cooling-Off Period – A brief, voluntary break from gambling, usually lasting from 24 hours to a few weeks. It serves as a short pause to regain control or rethink your gambling habits.

In the UK, you can use a centralised self-exclusion service like GAMSTOP to exclude yourself from all UK gambling sites with a single request. This provides a broad safety net for when you need a break from gambling in its entirety – not just a specific casino. In Sweden, Spelpaus.se offers a similar centralised self-exclusion service.

How Self-Exclusion Works

Self-exclusions have set intervals ranging from one week to one year.

Once you’ve decided for how long you’d like to exclude, there are two ways you can request the self-exclusion:

Via Your Account Settings:

  • Navigate to the responsible gambling page in your account settings.
  • Select the self-exclusion option.
  • Choose the duration for the exclusion.
  • Confirm the selection to activate the self-exclusion period.

By Contacting Customer Support:

  • Request self-exclusion and specify the desired duration.
  • The support staff will verify your identity and account details to ensure it’s actually you requesting the self-exclusion. Answer any questions they ask for verification purposes.
  • The support team processes the self-exclusion request and confirms its activation.
  • You receive a confirmation by email.
Top Tip

Save Your Confirmation Email

Always save your confirmation email as proof of your request. It’ll protect you in the unlikely event the casino reopens your account before your self-exclusion has expired. Should this happen, you can present the email to a governing body to recoup any losses you’ve incurred due to your account being reopened too soon.

The Benefits Of Self-Exclusion

A self-exclusion can be the right course of action when you feel a need to shift your attention to activities outside of gambling.

By distancing yourself from gambling for some time, you may gain needed perspective that can be beneficial in the following ways:

  • Psychological Relief: Reduce stress and anxiety induced by gambling, allowing you to clear your mind and improve your mental health.
  • Financial Control: Prevent further losses to stabilise your finances and avoid debt.
  • Behavioural Changes: Allow some time to reflect on your gambling habits, make healthier lifestyle choices, and explore other pastimes.
  • Addiction Prevention: Prevent compulsive tendencies from escalating into a full-blown gambling addiction.

Other Responsible Gambling Tools

There are several other responsible gambling tools that can help you manage and monitor your gambling. Let’s look at the various gambling limits all licensed casino sites offer.

Deposit Limits

Limits the amount you can deposit over a specific period. You can set the limit to run daily, weekly or monthly. You can lower a deposit limit at any time, but if you want to increase the limit, it’ll take 24 hours for the changes to take effect.

Time Limits

Time flies when you’re having fun, and it’s easy to lose perspective. Therefore, you can set a time limit regulating how much time you can spend playing daily, weekly, or monthly.

Once you’ve reached the limit, you’ll be automatically logged out. And you won’t be able to log back in until the set period has elapsed.

Loss Limits

Restrict the amount of money you can lose within a day, month, or week. If you set a daily loss limit of $50, you won’t be able to lose more than this amount in one day.

Loss limits apply to your net losses, meaning the limit is relative to the budget you had at the start of the chosen period. Moreover, they don’t apply when you’re playing with bonus funds.

Reality Checks

A pop-up that appears at regular intervals and reminds you of how long you’ve been playing. It’ll also show you how much you’ve spent and/or lost since the last reminder.

You can choose how often you’d like this pop-up to appear, and in many jurisdictions, casinos are required to display these notifications to their players regularly.

Top Tip

Take A Self-Assessment Test

Self-assessments can help you determine whether you risk developing or are currently suffering from a gambling problem. We recommend taking the Responsible Gambling Council’s gambling self-assessment to ensure you’re playing responsibly.

Do Self-Exclusion and Responsible Gambling Tools Work?

Research suggests that self-exclusions and responsible gambling tools are indeed helpful. According to a Canadian study by the National Library of Medicine, 95% of problem gamblers reported positive experiences with self-exclusion initiatives.

However, while self-exclusion helps it’s not a quick solution to gambling addiction. To overcome a gambling problem, you also need determination and support from friends, family, and professional counselling services.

Learn More About Responsible Gambling

FAQ

If gambling is causing you financial, emotional, or social problems, it’s time to self-exclude. Decide which self-exclusion option best suits you and seek help from a support service to discuss your situation.

We advise you to request your bank to:

  • Prevent you from using your credit or debit card for gambling.
  • Assist you in creating a plan to manage financial issues or payments.

Contact your bank to explore how they can support you, or check their website for this information before getting in touch.

Self-exclusion periods can vary. You can choose periods ranging from six months to five years. Once the self-exclusion period ends, it doesn’t automatically renew; you must take action if you wish to continue. Lastly, you have the option to self-exclude permanently.

Contact the gambling operator to ensure your self-exclusion request has been processed correctly. You can also file a complaint with the casino’s licensing body if the issue persists.

No, a self-exclusion period cannot be cut short. However, once the period ends, you can decide whether to continue with self-exclusion or resume gambling.

About the Author

Hi, I'm Laura Simpson, the Chief Editor at nodeposit.climatealpha.ai - With hundreds of reviews and thousands of no deposit bonuses, nodeposit.climatealpha.ai is certainly your one-stop destination for free online gambling. Our bonuses are updated daily and we pride ourselves on providing the highest percentage of working bonus, worldwide.