RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING

Not long ago gambling was seen as taboo. Casino games, sports betting, and poker were viewed through a completely different lens than they are today. Many states had outright banned these activities and people had to go through illegal, offshore operators to take part.

Now as more and more states pursue their legalization, gambling has become much more normalized across America. As online gaming becomes more mainstream within the United States, it is crucial players understand the value of responsible gambling.

Sports and horse betting, casino, and poker activities are intended as a source of entertainment, but are not without risk. Thus, each state that has legalized some form of online gambling has committed to providing ample resources for responsible gambling.

If you think you may be a problem gambler, help is available. On this page our goal is to educate bettors on these responsible gambling tools and how to incorporate them into their gaming experience.

Available responsible gambling tools

There are a ton of responsible gambling tools available within your chosen gaming platform. Using them correctly can help improve your experience, and prevent problematic habits from forming. Let’s run through some of the more popular options.

Gamalyze: Responsible gambling assessment

Some of us enjoy taking more risks than others, and that certainly isn’t always a bad thing. However, in gambling, risky or reckless play can often be a sign of problems to come. Mindway AI has created a tool called Gamalyze, which is based on artificial intelligence, and which rates your gaming style and lets you know if you are in danger of developing an unhealthy relationship with gambling.

Signs of Problem Gambling

If you or a loved one is showing any of the following signs of problem gambling behavior, it’s time to get help:

• Needing to bet more money to get the same feeling or thrill
• Dipping into your savings or personal funds to bet more, instead of sticking to your limits
• Not being able to stop gambling, or becoming frustrated when asked to stop gambling
• Illegal behavior to fund gambling
• Borrowing money to bet
• Trying to cover your losses by betting more, “chasing losses” 

There are quite a few more signs of problem gambling, but simply put: if gambling causes problems for you or your loved ones, it is problem gambling.

Deposit Limits

Deposit limits are a good way for regular users to allocate a budget towards their gambling activity. Similar to people creating a budget for their weekly groceries or monthly expenses, applying a deposit limit towards your gambling activity can be a nice way for users to put a cap to their gambling budget.

The way deposit limits work are pretty self-explanatory: depending on the betting platform you’re on, you can set a deposit limit daily, weekly or monthly and you will not be able to exceed that limit. This prevents gamblers who may be chasing their losses to dip their hand back in the well and play with money that they shouldn’t.

Time Out Sessions

Time-out sessions can seem like a more drastic tool to take but sometimes, they’re a valuable resource to take a step away. Time-out sessions give you the opportunity to suspend access to your betting account, ranging anywhere from a day to a month. Betting platforms will give the option to “cool off” and help customers control how they want to use their app. During cool-off periods, you will not be able to log into your account or deposit funds into your account or play in the casino or make any sports wagers.

Depending on the platform you are playing on, you may be able to withdraw any winnings or funds during your cool-off period. Any existing bets you made will be live but you will not be able to access your account and continue wagering.

For example, if you’ve got the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl as a pre-season futures bet, that ticket isn’t cancelled if you elect to cool off at some point during the season. However, if you wanted to log-in and place a new bet on them, that would not be allowed.

Self-Exclusion

If time-outs and cool-offs aren’t doing the trick, you can officially self-exclude yourself from participating in online gaming. This can be done directly within any US casino account, and will be as permanent as you elect for it to be. It’s possible to self-exclude for shorter periods of time, but if needed, permanent options are available. In self-excluding your name and information will be submitted to the operator and the regulatory body within the state that you’re betting.

For example, if you are in the state of New Jersey, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement would be alerted to the request and add your name to the exclusion list. This would not only make you ineligible from gambling online with the iGaming operator you were using for the duration of the exclusion, but it would also keep you from betting with all iGaming operators in that state. Plus, retail casinos also maintain and honor the self-exclusion list, so you would not be able to access in-state casinos as well.

Wagering Limits

Wagering limits are also pretty self-explanatory. Wagering limits enable you to limit the amount of money that you are able to wager on a daily, weekly or monthly basis on your casino, poker and/or sportsbook account. Once you have reached your limit, you will not be able to continue wagering. Wagering limits are very beneficial for a few reasons. First, it can help bettors manage their bankroll more efficiently, valuing each bet. Second, wagering limits are a great way to help protect any winnings you may have made and give you the time to withdraw your funds successfully.

Let’s go through an example, you’re playing a game of online poker – Texas Hold’em. You can slap wagering limits on your account so that the platform won’t let you sit at a cash game table with stakes over a certain amount, say $.50/$1. Or so that it won’t let you buy-in to tournaments over a certain amount. This guarantees that you play within your set bankroll.

When playing online casino games or slots, you can also cap the amount bet. It can be tempting to up the amount wagered on each spin. If you don’t want to risk more, set a wager limit and you won’t be able to raise it.

Session Limits

You ever find yourself scrolling on social media, you look at the time and you realize you’ve been scrolling for way too long? Have you ever jumped down a youtube rabbit hole constantly clicking on suggested videos? Or how about playing your favorite casino game for hours on end? This happens to all of us – smartphones have made it so easy to do this. The session limit is a nice tool to help control this urge.

What session limits do is it enables you to specify how long you would like to be able to be logged in for. Depending on the user, this limit can be a daily or weekly amount of time that you’d like to allocate. Once you are approaching your limit, you will receive a popup before reaching the end, informing you that your session limit will be wrapping up. Once time is up, that’s it. After the limits you’ve set have completed, you will be able to log back in again.

Loss Limits

Nobody likes to lose, gambling is certainly more fun when you win. But the reality is that everyone who frequents a casino, poker room, or sportsbook will eventually taste defeat. Loss limits are a good way to keep you from chasing your losses when things go south.

They help you limit the amount of money that you are able to lose on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If you reach the specified limit that you have designated, you will not be permitted to continue wagering. As we discussed earlier, gambling is supposed to be fun and entertaining. It should not be treated as another form of income. Therefore, designating a loss limit is a good way to budget how much you are willing and can afford to lose while still having a fun time gambling.

Let’s say you enjoy playing small stakes blackjack, but don’t want to get too heavy into it. You can set yourself a weekly loss limit of $100. That way you can play as many hands as you like, but if your losses for the week exceed the $100 limit, you get logged out. Loss limits allow you to easily budget gambling into your normal expenses.

Gamban

As the proliferation of gambling rises, the most prominent industry leaders have continued to pour resources and efforts into responsible gambling tools to help educate and inform players. FanDuel is a great example of this – the gambling conglomerate has formed a partnership with Gamban to help bolster their responsible gambling department.

What is Gamban? Gamban is a technology company specializing in gambling-blocking software. This move shows industry leaders like FanDuel are displaying a continued commitment to building a comprehensive responsible gambling program that helps educate and inform its customers on the perils of gambling. Gamban’s blocking software will be available free of charge to users who choose to self-exclude on FanDuel.

This is a significant move in the gambling industry and could be a sign of things to come. This partnership could be the first of many: FanDuel became the first mobile operator to make major (multi-million) commitment to the American Gaming Association. As the largest provider in the United States, FanDuel is setting a solid precedent for others to follow.

How to Utilize These Tools in your Casino or Sportsbook App

Besides FanDuel, what other casinos, poker rooms, and sportsbooks are showing a commitment to responsible gambling? Well, to be frank, every iGaming operator that operates in a legal US market is required to offer responsible gambling tools. But where can you find them within a sportsbook or casino app?

Typically, there will be links to a responsible gambling page or resource sheet towards the bottom of the sportsbooks homepage. You can also access these tools from your account settings page. For example, if we look at the picture below on DraftKings casino, there is a “Responsible Gambling” tab that you can click on the top right. Additionally, there will be similar links towards the bottom of the page.

Other Topics to Consider

In terms of gambling content, social media can be both a blessing and a curse. There are several gambling media personalities who offer great advice for casino games and sportsbook bets on the daily for free! However, we need to be cautious of the messaging that gambling platforms put on social media.

Sportsbooks and casinos have grown accustomed to glorifying big winners as a way to steer people towards their platform. During this process, the betting platform may be glorifying unhealthy and unreasonable bets that do not make sense for your bankroll. This is a trap that is easy to fall into but we need to be cognizant of while we’re scrolling through the depths of Twitter, Instagram and other social media.

Sure, it’s cool to see that someone hit the progressive jackpot slot bonus for a six figure sum – but don’t develop an expectation that the same will happen for you.

National Responsible Gambling Resources

• The National Council on Problem Gambling is the national advocate for programs and services to assist people and families affected by problem gambling.  Their vision is to improve the health and wellness of compulsive gamblers and gambling addicts by reducing their personal, social and economic costs of their problem gambling. If you or a family member is in need of assistance, you have the ability to call them 24/7, contact them via chat with their support team or text them at your convenience:
  • Call 1-800-522-4700
  • Chat: ncpgambling.org/chat
  • Text 1-800-522-4700
• Gamblers Anonymous is another support group with a massive footprint throughout the US. They offer immediate options to talk with someone, and have meetings available around the country.
• Gam-Anon
• GamTalk
• And even Reddit has proven to have an excellent, supportive community on its r/problemgambling boards.

State-Specific Responsible Gambling Resources

Depending on where you live, there are plenty of state-specific gaming resources available. For example, in Pennsylvania you have the Council of Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania, the PGCB Self-Exclusion Program, ResponsiblePlay.pa.gov, the PGCB helpline, and more.

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed and do not want to go through a national organization, there is help available in your community. No matter where you live, help isn’t far away.