RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING
When gambling it’s important to listen to yourself and make some personal rules before you start gambling. This helps you to stop if you’re doing well, but also if you’re doing bad. In this guide we are going to discuss responsible gambling, what it is, what we recommend, and where you can get help, if you’re having trouble stopping.
When you’re gambling, there’s a lot of ways to prevent you from losing too much, depositing again and again, and also to exclude yourself. We’re going to talk about each topic, how to do it, and what it’s good for.
Limits and Restrictions
As mentioned above, it’s important to make some personal rules before you start gambling. This can be done with the limits and restrictions provided by the casinos.
When you’re playing on an online casino you will be able to set limits and restrictions on your own account, making it impossible for you to avoid these restrictions.
The casinos/operators have a few rules, they have to follow, when it comes to limits changed by the players themselves.
- Lowering limits must happen instantaneous.
- Increasing limits has to have a consideration period of 7 days, before it’s completed.
- All players must have the option to cancel their limit increase, before it’s completed.
When talking limits, there are a few different types of limits, and they are loss limits, deposit limits, wager limits and session limits.
Loss Limits
One of the restrictions you’re able to use on your player account is loss limits. This is a limit preventing you from losing more than your chosen limit. It’s important to remember that this limit will not include winnings, and therefore it will prevent you from playing at the casino when the loss limit is reached.
Loss limits can be used in different ways, and you can use it over different time frames such as daily, weekly and monthly.
Loss Limit Examples
Example 1: You set a daily loss limit of €75 and deposit €150. You lose €75 and your account gets restricted until the day after.
Example 2: You set a weekly loss limit of €75 and make a deposit of €150 on a monday. You lose €75 euro wednesday, and your account gets restricted until next week.
Example 3: You set a monthly loss limit of €75 and make a deposit of €150 in the start of the month. You lose €75 after a couple of days, and your account gets restricted until next month.
Deposit Limits
Deposit limits is a way to restrict your account to prevent depositing too much over a given period of time. The time is set by you, and you can choose between daily, weekly and monthly limits. All deposit limits are only for the time given, and will not carry through to the next period if you haven’t used the full amount.
When using a deposit limit, you won’t be able to deposit more than that limit. This means if you have a limit of €100 and already made a deposit of €80, you will only be able to deposit €20. If the remainder of your limit is below the minimum deposit of the casino/provider, you will not be able to make a deposit before your next period starts.
Deposit Limit Examples
Example 1: You set a daily deposit limit of €100 and make a deposit of €75. You now have €25 remaining.
Example 2: You set a weekly deposit limit of €100 and make a deposit of €75 on a monday. You lose the €75 and deposit another €20. You now have €5 remaining, but won’t be able to make a deposit before next week, because it’s below the casinos/operators min. deposit.
Example 3: You set a monthly deposit limit of €100 and make a deposit of €75 in the beginning of the month. You lose the €75 and make a new deposit of €25. You now have €0 left, and have to wait for next month.
Example 4: You set a monthly deposit limit of €100 and don’t deposit anything that month. The next month you make a deposit of €100, meaning you’ve hit your deposit limit, even though you didn’t deposit anything last month. The deposit limit doesn’t carry over.
Wager Limits
Wager limits are a way to restrict yourself from playing too much with your balance, and not have any breaks. A wager limit is based on the actual wagers you make on the casino, and can be set with a time frame such as daily, weekly and monthly.
A wager limit of €150 makes it possible for you to play through exactly €150, this means if you go play online slots, and make 150 spins worth €1 each, you will be restricted until the time restriction of your wager limit has run out.
Click here to read our detailed guide on wagering.
Wager Limit Examples
Example 1: You set a daily wager limit of €100 and go play online slots with a €0.5 stake. This means you’ll have 200 spins before being restricted. You won’t be able to place anymore bets before the next day.
Example 2: You set a weekly wager limit of €500 and go play online slots with a €1 stake. On your spin number 500 you win €1000, but won’t be able to wager any more before next week.
Example 3: You set a monthly wager limit of €5000 and play high stakes on your second day of the month. You reach your wager limit quickly, but have to wait for next month, before you’re able to wager any more.
Session Limits
Session limits are not necessarily a restriction on all casinos, since session limits have different rulesets depending on what country you’re from. Some countries allow session limits to just be a reminder to the player, telling them how much they’ve played for, and for how long they’ve been active.
This makes session limits different depending on your country, and you’ll be able to set it on your user account at the providers/casinos website, making you either get a notification or be restricted to play any further.
Self Exclusion
All Casinos and Operators with a valid license are obligated to make it possible for their players to self exclude by law. Self exclusion is where you put restrictions on your own player account for a given period, or on a permanent basis.
If you choose to exclude yourself, you will no longer be able to gamble on the given casino, or on any casino cooperating with a self exclusion service like GAMSTOP, ROFUS and SPELPAUS.
Two ways of self excluding can be
- Using a national self-exclusion scheme such as GAMSTOP (UK), ROFUS (DK), and SPELPAUS (SE).
- Using the self-exclusion option on the casino/providers website.
All self exclusions are final, and can’t be undone before the period of the self-exclusion has passed. This means if you use a self exclusion scheme such as ROFUS, you won’t be able to gamble on all danish gambling sites with a danish license, before the self exclusion period has passed.
If you choose to self exclude through an operator, and that operator owns more than one brand, you will be excluded from all brands sharing that operator’s license.
ROFUS: Danish Self Exclusion Scheme
All casinos with a license from Spillemyndigheden are cooperating with ROFUS and NEMID, which means if you’re using ROFUS to exclude yourself, you will automatically be excluded from all casinos with a license from Spillemyndighederne. This means that you will also be excluded from all live casinos in Denmark, such as Casino Copenhagen, Royal Casino Aarhus, Munkebjerg Casino and many more.
When self excluding on ROFUS, you can self exclude from all the way down to 24 hrs and to a permanent exclusion. The other time frames are: 1 month, 3 months and 6 months.
If you choose to exclude yourself permanently, you will not be able to request to be removed from ROFUS before you’ve been excluded for a whole year.
Read more at Spillemyndighedens website.
GAMSTOP: UK Self Exclusion Scheme
All casinos with a valid UKGC license are required by law to join the UK’s National online self-exclusion scheme called GAMSTOP. GAMSTOP works a bit like ROFUS, where you’re able to exclude yourself from gambling, and automatically be excluded from all casinos with a UKGC license.
If you want to exclude yourself through GAMSTOP you can do so by providing them with your postcode, your date of birth and your email address.
Read more at GAMSTOPs website.
SPELPAUS: Swedish Self Exclusion Scheme
All casinos with a valid Spelinspektionen license are required by law to cooperate with Spelinspektionen by registering their games and services. This means if you’re using SPELPAUS to self exclude, you won’t be able to gamble at any casinos with a Spelinspektionen license.
When self excluding with SPELPAUS, you can self exclude for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or permanently. Like if you use ROFUS, you are able to request to be removed from the list 12 months after you’ve registered for a permanent exclusion.
Responsible Gambling with BeGambleAware
If you’re having trouble with a gambling addiction, and the above limits and self exclusion ways aren’t enough for you to stop gambling, there’s always help to get.
Depending on where you’re from, you might have a direct phone number you can call to talk to someone and get help from.
We have a link at the bottom of the site to begambleaware, where you can get help if you have a gambling problem, but also take a test to see if you have a gambling problem.
They offer free, confidential help for anyone worried about their own or someone else’s gambling. They have a live chat and a direct phone number (free to call) where you can get in touch with an adviser from the National Gambling Treatment Service.
BeGambleAware has 10 tips for responsible gambling
- Don’t think of gambling as a way to make money
- Only gamble with money you can afford to lose
- Set a money limit in advance
- Set a time limit in advance
- Never chase your losses
- Don’t gamble when you’re depressed or upset
- Balance gambling with other activities
- Don’t take your bank card with you
- Take frequent breaks
- Don’t drink or use drugs when gambling.
You can read more about each tip on their website.
