What Is Responsible Gambling?

Responsible gambling means gambling in a manner that minimizes harm. It includes adopting practices designed to reduce potential negative impacts, such as setting personal limits on time, money spent gambling, or acknowledging the risks and potential consequences.

Plinko’s Commitment to Making Gambling Safe

At Plinko, we’re dedicated to promoting safer gambling. We provide players with accurate and factual information to help them make informed decisions. This is a dedicated section on responsible gambling at plikocasinos.com, where we highlight the tools and resources available in each casino to support safe play.

How to Spot Gambling Addiction

Problem gambling can be described as a repetitive gambling behavior that persists despite harmful and negative consequences. Understanding the psychology behind gambling addiction helps you evaluate your own habits and determine if they align with the patterns of problem gambling.

To assess whether your gambling activities may be spiraling out of control, consider the following questions:

Do you gamble alone for extended periods, even skipping work or other responsibilities to do so?
Have you found yourself needing to increase your stakes to experience the same level of excitement?
Do you experience mood swings, irritability, or agitation related to gambling?
Are you using gambling as a way to escape personal issues or problems in your life?
Do you conceal your gambling losses from others?
Have previous attempts to reduce the time or money spent on gambling been unsuccessful?
Have you ever considered or committed an act of dishonesty to fund your gambling?
Do you return to gambling on another day in an attempt to recover your losses?
Have you hidden your gambling activities from loved ones?
Are you in debt due to gambling, or have you borrowed money that you cannot repay because of it?
Have you sold possessions to finance gambling or pay off gambling debts?
Do you break promises to family and friends to prioritize gambling?
Do you feel isolated or disconnected from others because of your gambling?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it may be time to take steps to address your gambling habits. Further guidance on how to proceed can be found below.

Common Risk Factors

Before you go any further, you must understand and identify the risk factors of gambling addiction. Some common warning signs to watch out for include:

Struggling to stop gambling, even when you want to.
Constantly thinking about gambling and organizing your day schedule around it.
Chasing losses with the belief that you can reverse your luck and recover what you’ve lost.
Experiencing financial difficulties, such as spending more than you can afford, borrowing money, or accumulating debt due to gambling.
Concealing or lying to friends and family about your gambling habits.
Damaging important relationships or losing job opportunities because of gambling.
Experiencing mood swings, irritability, or emotional distress linked to gambling.
Using gambling as a way to escape from problems or cope with feelings of anxiety, depression, or stress.

How to Gamble Safely

Safety comes first when it comes to gambling, and, fortunately, there are tools and responsible gambling practices available to help you keep your gambling habit on a safe level. These features, often provided by licensed online platforms, include:

Reality checks: Timely prompts that remind you of the time spent playing, helping you manage and monitor your gaming sessions effectively.
Deposit limits: The ability to set financial boundaries for specific periods, such as daily, weekly, or monthly limits. These can be adjusted or removed as needed.
Gambling activity history: Access to detailed records of your transactions, including deposits, withdrawals, and gameplay history, allowing you to track your spending and habits.
Taking breaks (time-outs): Options to pause your gambling activity for a specified period, ranging from 24 hours to up to six weeks.
Self-exclusion: A feature that allows you to voluntarily ban yourself from a gambling site for a predetermined duration, typically between six months and five years.
Autoplay controls: When using the auto-play function in casino games, you can pre-set stakes and loss limits. You’ll also have the option to stop or pause the game at any time.

The Tool of Self-Exclusion

Self-exclusion is a supportive tool for individuals who wish to stop gambling. It involves requesting removal from a casino’s mailing lists and marketing databases, often by contacting the casino’s support team. Once activated, self-exclusion ensures that you no longer receive promotional materials or communications from the casino.

How to Set Balance Limits

Trusted gambling platforms offer features that allow you to set financial limits to prevent overspending. These caps can be applied per session, day, week, or month, helping you maintain control over your deposits. Apart from financial limits, many sites let you set time restrictions on your gameplay, ensuring you allocate only a predetermined amount of time to gambling activities.

Beyond setting limits within your casino account, you can take further steps by contacting your bank to block gambling-related transactions. Options may include disabling specific cards, employing a card-lock feature, blocking online payments, or restricting access to certain merchant categories. Since policies vary between banks, it’s best to consult with your financial institution directly to explore available solutions.

How to Keep Records of Your Gaming Sessions

Reviewing your playing history provides valuable insights into your gambling habits. You can identify patterns such as when you tend to gamble, how much money you spend, and which games you play most frequently. This information also helps you monitor the effectiveness of any limits you’ve set and their duration.

How to Avoid Gambling Ads

If you want to reduce or eliminate gambling advertisements on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Google Chrome, there are steps you can take:

To stop seeing gambling ads on Google:

Open your Google account.
Click on “Manage your Google Account.”
Select “Data & personalization.”
Scroll down to “Ads personalization.”
Turn off personalized ads in your ad settings.

First Step is to Recognize the Problem

The first step is honesty. Accept there’s an issue and commit to addressing it. Recognizing harmful behaviors means you’re ready to change. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Here’s what you can do:

Set limits on deposits or time spent gambling. Use tools from trusted sites to control spending.
Stop gambling if needed. Self-exclude from websites where you gamble. Take a break from all forms of betting.
Track progress by marking days without gambling on a calendar.

Useful Resources

BeGambleAware
eCOGRA
UK Gambling Commission
HM Government of Gibraltar
International Association of Gaming Regulators
Alderney Gambling Control Commission
The Betting and Gaming Council
Gamblers Anonymous