Gambling is a pastime that is paid for. Online or in a casino, its price is not hidden: it is the "house edge" (the share of each stake that a game keeps on average, equal to 100 per cent minus the "RTP" or return to player), which our guide to the house edge works out game by game. A player who stakes $20 on each of 150 spins of single-zero roulette, where the edge is 2.70 per cent, puts $3,000 in play over an evening, and of those three thousand dollars the table keeps, on average, about $81!
We consider that figure, which on a given evening may turn out higher or lower, the honest price of an evening, and the whole of this page rests on a simple distinction. As long as the price is chosen in advance and paid without regret, gambling remains entertainment; when a player starts paying more than planned in order to win back what has gone, the price is no longer chosen. The rest of the page is about recognising that moment, and about the tools and the people that help to stop.
When gambling stops being a choice
The signs have less to do with the game than with money and secrecy. The first is "chasing" losses (raising the stakes, or coming back the next day, to recover what was lost), and close behind it come playing with money set aside for rent or bills, borrowing in order to play, hiding the time or the sums from the people at home, and feeling restless or irritable when trying to cut down.
A player who keeps $50 a week as a "bankroll" (the money reserved for play and for nothing else) spends $2,600 in a year (fifty-two times fifty), a sum that can be decided upon calmly. A player who loses the $50 on Monday and deposits another $150 on Tuesday to win it back has not raised the budget; the budget has ceased to exist. In our view, one such sign is enough to pause.
The tools that licensed operators offer
Licensed operators offer tools that fix the price in advance, and their names change little from one market to another, even when the rules that impose them differ. A "deposit limit" (a ceiling on the money paid in per day, week or month) is the most direct of them, and a "loss limit" (the same ceiling applied to net losses) is its close relative. A "time-out" (a pause of a day to a few weeks) suspends the account, which reopens by itself at the end of the pause.
A "reality check" is the message that interrupts the "session" (the time of play since logging in) at set intervals to show the time spent and the result, and it brings the clock back into view. "Self-exclusion" goes further and closes the account for months or years.
In Germany, for instance, the joint gambling authority of the federal states (the GGL) lists a "panic button" ("Panikbutton", in the authority's German) among the duties of licensed operators. The button must be visible on every gaming page and blocks play for 24 hours, and the player can also set limits on deposits, stakes and losses per day, week or month.
A player who sets a monthly deposit limit of $200 can lose no more than $200 of new money at that operator in the worst month, whatever the game or the mood, because the limit was set on a calm day and works on a bad one!
National self-exclusion schemes
Self-exclusion at a single operator closes one door and leaves the others open, which is why several countries run national schemes that close, with one request, the accounts of every operator licensed in that market. We list four of them below, in the terms that their official sites used on 16 October 2026, with the periods that each of them allows.
| Market | Scheme | Official source | Periods | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | GAMSTOP | gamstop.co.uk (The National Online Self Exclusion Scheme Limited) | 6 months, 1 year or 5 years, with an option of automatic renewal | online gambling companies licensed in Great Britain; free, open to anyone living in the United Kingdom |
| Sweden | Spelpaus | spelpaus.se (Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority) | 10 days, 1, 3 or 6 months, or until further notice (at least 12 months); cannot be undone or ended early | all gambling that requires registration with companies licensed in Sweden, online and on land |
| Denmark | ROFUS | Spillemyndigheden, the Danish Gambling Authority | a 24-hour pause, 1, 3 or 6 months, or permanent | online gambling, land-based casinos and betting in shops in Denmark |
| Germany | OASIS | Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) | self-exclusion of at least 3 months, free of charge | operators licensed in Germany; online operators check the file when a player registers and at every log-in |
The Swedish site is explicit on a point that we consider decisive: an exclusion entered there cannot be undone or ended early, and its longest option, "tills vidare" (until further notice), lasts at least twelve months. None of these schemes reaches operators licensed elsewhere. That limit is the reason for the next section, since a player registered with GAMSTOP is still one search away from a site licensed in another "jurisdiction" (the territory whose regulator issued the licence).
Blocking software
A blocking application works on the device rather than on the account, refusing to open gambling sites and apps whatever their licence, and so it covers the ground that national schemes leave open. BetBlocker, run by a non-profit organisation registered in the United States, costs nothing on any device; Gamban is a paid service, with a free trial of seven days. Either of them is also, in our view, the simplest protection for a family that shares a computer or a tablet with a child.
Free help, country by country
The services in the table are free, and every number in it was read on the service's own site on 16 October 2026, a rule we keep without exception on a page that may be read in a difficult hour.
In the United States the national helpline of the National Council on Problem Gambling now answers at 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), while the older 1-800-GAMBLER number belongs to the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, which runs its own free line on it.
| Where | Service | How to reach it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare | 0808 8020 133, live chat, WhatsApp on the same number | 24 hours a day, every day |
| United States | National Problem Gambling Helpline (National Council on Problem Gambling) | call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), chat online | 24/7 |
| United States | 1-800-GAMBLER (Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey) | call or text 1-800-GAMBLER | 24/7 |
| Ontario, Canada | ConnexOntario | 1-866-531-2600, text CONNEX to 247247, live chat | 24/7 |
| Australia | Gambling Help Online | 1800 858 858, chat and e-mail counselling | 24/7 |
| New Zealand | Gambling Helpline | 0800 654 655, or text 8006 | 24 hours |
| South Africa | South African Responsible Gambling Foundation | 0800 006 008 (toll-free) | 24 hours, every day |
| Any country | Gambling Therapy, a service of Gordon Moody | free online support and multilingual forums, at gamblingtherapy.org | online |
| Many countries | Gamblers Anonymous | meetings in person, online and by telephone, with no dues or fees | see the meeting lists on its sites |
Gamblers Anonymous works differently from the lines above, because it is a "fellowship" in which people with the same problem help one another, with no counsellors or professionals in the room (as the British fellowship puts it on its site). Gambling Therapy, for its part, keeps a space for "affected others", the families and friends of a player. If you are not sure which door to knock on, a call to the line of your own country costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Age
Gambling is for adults, at 18 or at the higher age that some local laws set, and no page of this site is written for anyone younger. Readers in South Africa, where online casino games are not authorised, will find the law, the national register of excluded persons and the counselling line of the Foundation on the page written for them, which replaces the commercial pages of the site for every reader who connects from that country. Readers in the United Kingdom and Australia have pages of the same kind, with GAMSTOP and BetStop, the national self-exclusion schemes of their countries, and the pages for Ontario, Alberta, Québec and fourteen American states set out the self-exclusion and the help lines that apply there (in Ontario, "BetGuard" and ConnexOntario).
A reader who finds a number in these tables out of date can tell us through the contact page, and we will read it again on the service's own site before changing it, since a wrong number on this page would do more harm than no number at all.
Questions
What is the difference between a time-out and self-exclusion?
A time-out is a pause of a day to a few weeks, after which the account reopens; self-exclusion closes it for months or years, and in national schemes such as Spelpaus it cannot be ended early.
Does GAMSTOP cover casinos licensed outside Great Britain?
No. GAMSTOP covers online gambling companies licensed in Great Britain; for sites licensed elsewhere, blocking software such as BetBlocker or Gamban works on the device instead.
Is there free help that works from any country?
Yes. Gambling Therapy, a service of Gordon Moody, offers free support online in several languages, and Gamblers Anonymous holds meetings in many countries, in person, online and by telephone.
How much does a casino keep on average?
It depends on the house edge of the game: at single-zero roulette it is 2.70 per cent of all the money staked, so a player who stakes $1,000 in total should expect to lose about $27 on average.