Responsible gambling

Gambling is for adults 21 and over and can be addictive. This page is not a formality: it holds the information we consider most useful if gambling is becoming a problem, for you or for someone you know.

US self-exclusion and offshore sites

There is an important gap to understand. Offshore operators are not connected to any US self-exclusion network. Closing or self-excluding from one offshore site does not close the others, and it does not touch any state program. We report this because a reader has a right to know it. We do not give any instruction for getting around a self-exclusion: anyone who made that choice asked to be protected, and our part is to point to the helpline above.

The tools to set immediately

Turn these on the day you open an account, not the day you need them.

• Deposit limit, daily, weekly or monthly. The most effective, because it acts before the bet.
• Loss limit and session limit, where offered.
• Reality-check reminders, a periodic notice of time spent.
• A cooling-off period, a short account suspension.
• Self-exclusion at the individual operator, which applies to that site and no other. That is the substantial difference from a national program.

Signals not to ignore

• Playing to win back a loss.
• Hiding how much you play from the people you live with.
• Using money meant for fixed expenses.
• Raising your stakes to get the same effect.
• Irritability or unease when you try to stop.

None of these signals is about luck, and none is fixed by a win.

A note on what we publish

We do not promise wins, we do not describe gambling as a way to make money, and we do not use phrases like "100% safe" or "guaranteed win", which are false. When we compare offers, as on the California online casinos page, the measure is the clarity of the terms and the tested payout, not the size of the prize.