Responsible Gambling Guide: What is Responsible Gambling and How Can You Practice It?

Gambling online with cryptocurrencies is supposed to be a fun and recreational activity, allowing players to place harmless wagers on sport or play casino games socially and for entertainment, never with the express intent or need to make a profit. However, gambling remains a potentially addictive activity and, in some instances, people struggle to maintain a healthy relationship with gambling, spending too much time or money on gambling sites leading to personal problems that can quickly spiral out of control. This is where responsible gambling becomes an extremely important part of your online crypto gambling experience.

In this article, we’ll explain the responsible gambling tools that you need to take advantage if you think you are developing a problem. We’ll give you responsible gambling tips that you should follow to keep it fun and healthy. Lastly, we’ll provide information about responsible gambling organizations that you can contact for help regardless of your location.

What is Responsible Gambling?

Responsible gambling is the utilization of certain strategies and tools, provided by the best crypto casino sites and crypto sportsbooks, to cut off any unhealthy gambling habits before they become a wider issue.

There are plenty of markers that you should look out for in your own activity to indicate that you may be developing issues with responsible gambling and may need to seek help. These include:

• Exceeding Budget Limits: Betting more than you can afford to, potentially placing yourself in a difficult financial position.
• Placing Yourself in Debt: An extension of the previous marker, betting with money that you don’t have and loading debt onto yourself through gambling.
• Chasing Losses: Rather than accepting that sometimes you’ll win and other times you’ll lose, desperately trying to claw back losses.
• Preoccupation with Gambling: Being unable to mentally separate yourself from gambling and focus on other tasks, due to constantly thinking about betting.
• Inability to Stop: Finding it difficult to know when enough is enough and carrying on even when you shouldn’t continue.
• Secretive Gambling: Hiding the extent of your gambling or, indeed, any losses from family and loved ones.
• Neglecting Responsibilities: Failing to carry out key responsibilities in your daily life to over-gambling.
• Using Gambling as an Escape: Treating gambling as a way to escape personal problems, rather than a fun activity during times when you are in a good mental state.
• Irritability and Mood Swings: When your gambling starts to impact your overall mood, causing dips when you lose and positive swings when you win.
• Denial: Being unable to acknowledge the amount of time and money you are spending gambling, even to yourself.
• Isolation: Seperating yourself from loved ones or avoiding contact because you’d prefer to spend that time gambling.
• Relationship Strains: A decline in your relationship with family and friends as a direct result of your gambling.

If you find yourself exhibiting any of these behaviours, you may have a problem and immediately need to take steps, including using online responsible gambling tools, to address them.

Tips for Responsible Gambling

Now let’s take a look at some tips that you should utilize to ensure that your gambling stays responsible and healthy. By using these responsible gambling strategies, you can stay in control:

Set a Budget

This is one of the most important responsible gambling behaviors, as it will prevent you from incurring life-impacting losses which you cannot afford. When creating a budget, set a financial limit that you can comfortably afford to lose.

This means that if you were to lose your entire gambling bankroll, it would have no materially negative impact on you or your family’s finances, or affect your quality of life.

Incorporate Time Limits

As long as it’s done responsibly, gambling can be an exhilarating and enjoyable pastime. However, there is also a danger of it absorbing more of your time than you realize. One way to get around this is to create limits for daily and weekly gambling sessions.

Set an alarm if you must and stop what you’re doing when the timer buzzes, if not before, regardless of how well things are going.

Never Chase Losses

Whether you have a profitable sports betting system or choose a casino game with a high return to player (RTP) percentage, losing streaks are inevitable. Thus, it’s important to be mentally prepared when they happen.

This means knowing when to walk away rather than chasing the losses you incur during a gambling session. Chasing losses rarely ends well, and statistically speaking, you’re far more likely to endure heavier losses than get everything back.

In a sense you should mentally prepare yourself for the eventuality of losing and then regard and win as a bonus.

Have a Break

Online gambling sites are overloaded with exciting sports betting markets or casino games to enjoy. However, it is unhealthy for the body and mind to spend long periods staring at the screen without taking breaks, especially if it prevents you from taking part in other, healthier pursuits.

Think of gambling as just one of the many things you can do in your leisure time. This means setting it aside in favor of other activities that you like. Spend time with friends and family and do not allow gambling to prevent you from living your life in a normal and functional manner.

Don’t Borrow Money to Gamble

This piece of responsible gambling advice ties directly into setting your own limits. Borrowing money or relying on credit to gamble is always a bad idea and suggests that you may have an unhealthy reliance on gambling to fill a void in your life.

It also means that you are chasing financial losses which you can not afford and plunging you into a debt spiral, which could have a catastrophic effect on your financial, physical, and mental health.

Understand Your Emotional State Before and During Play

Gambling can be an emotional activity that stimulates feelings of elation or depression when you win or lose. Therefore, you must regularly consider your emotional and mental state before you plan to gamble and, also, during the session.

Don’t even start to gamble if you feel stressed, anxious, depressed, or intoxicated. If you find that your behavior during play is beginning to negatively impair your judgment, it’s time to stop.

Gambling should just be a fun activity, it should not affect your mood in your wider life.

Consider Self-Exclusion

The vast majority of high-quality online gambling sites have a suite of responsible gambling tools including the ability to self-exclude. These tools allow you to alter your deposit limits and suspend account activity for a period you determine.

Check out these tools if you think a break from gambling is a good idea. Remember, you can always return if you feel in the right frame of mind.

Don’t Be Ashamed to Seek Help

Seek professional support if you’re concerned that your gambling habits are beginning to veer out of control. This could mean that you’re spending more money than planned or that sessions are becoming too long.

Get in touch with trusted friends and family members and inform them of what’s going on. It’s also wise to contact helplines or support groups that specialize in assisting people with gambling-related problems. You’re not alone, and don’t ever feel like you are.

Responsible Gambling Tools at Crypto Gambling Sites

The crypto gambling sites which we recommend all contain a variety of responsible gambling tools which you should take advantage of in case of a problem. Let’s take a look at some of the key tools at your disposal:

• Deposit Limits: A function that allows you to set a maximum amount that you can deposit in a given timeframe to ensure you don’t overspend.
• Loss Limits: Similar to deposit limits, this tool allows you to set a maximum amount that you can lose in a window of time before the operator cuts off your gambling.
• Wagering Limits: This type of limit allows you to set a maximum amount that you can stake, on sport or casino, before you can no longer bet, regardless of wins or losses.
• Time Limits: The amount of time that you are allowed to spend gambling on a site before your gambling is stopped. This can be less effective than the measures above due to the volume that can, theoretically, be lost in a short period of time.
• Reality Checks: A tool offered by many sites that will cause pop-ups to appear to let you know how long your gambling session has been and potentially trigger you to stop.
• Cooling Off Periods: A temporary break that a player can impose upon themselves if they feel their gambling is becoming excessive. It is a non-permanent option that will allow you to return once that period has expired.
• Self Exclusion: A permanent version of a cooling off period that ensures that you can never return to the site. It is a final option if you have accepted that you have a problem and the gambling site should never let you return once you have asked for this.
• Spending History: The ability to check the amount that you have wagered historically, including your profit or loss, to help you understand exactly how impactful your gambling activity is to your personal financial situation.
• Links to Gambling Help Organizations: A responsible gambling site should offer you information and links on organizations that you can speak to if you have a problem. We also list these below for your convenience.
• Crypto-Specific Safety Features: For crypto gambling platforms, you may find features that allow you to track transaction history, manage your crypto wallet or alert you about the volatility of crypto values. These can help you understand and manage your financial activity.

Responsible Gambling Help Organizations Which You Can Contact

Sometimes responsible gambling tools or support from friends and family aren’t enough, in which case you should seek assistance from dedicated gambling help groups who can offer you professional experience based on their experience and training. Below are some of the key organizations which you can contact depending on your area, though many more are available through research:

The Final Word on Responsible Gambling

By following the responsible gambling tips mentioned above, as well as looking for our outlined markers of unhealthy gambling you can remain in control of gambling rather than the other way around.

The first step is acceptance and communication. Don’t believe that gambling addiction cannot happen to you. If you have an issue developing, be sure to reach out to friends, family and our listed responsible gambling organizations for more support.