Responsible gambling

The warning signs

None of these on its own means you have a problem. Several of them together, over a period of weeks, is worth taking seriously.

• Chasing losses. Depositing again to win back what has gone, rather than because you wanted to play.
• Borrowing to gamble. Using a credit card, an overdraft, or money from someone else.
• Gambling more than you meant to. Sessions that run longer, or deposits that go further, than you planned when you started.
• Neglecting other things. Work, sleep, people, bills.
• Lying about it. Hiding how long, how much, or how often.
• Gambling to escape. Playing to get away from stress, low mood or boredom rather than for entertainment.
• Restlessness when you stop. Feeling irritable or unsettled when you cut back.

If you recognised more than one of those, the section at the bottom of this page lists people who will talk to you today, free, without judgement.

Staying in control

The point of a limit is that you set it while you are thinking clearly, so it still applies when you are not.

• Set a deposit limit before you play, not after. Most sites make you wait before a raised limit takes effect, which is the protection working as intended.
• Set a time limit too. Money is the obvious one, but hours disappear faster and are easier to lose track of.
• Do not play upset, tired or drunk. Every bad decision this page warns about is made easier by all three.
• Treat it as the cost of an evening, in the way a meal out or a cinema ticket is. If the amount would matter tomorrow, it is too much tonight.
• Take breaks. A session with no natural end tends not to have one.
• Keep a log of deposits and withdrawals. People are consistently worse at estimating this than they expect, and the number is usually the thing that prompts a change.

The tools Curacao casinos offer

Post-reform licensees are required to provide responsible gambling controls, and most sites carry the same set. They are usually under Account, Settings or Responsible Gaming.

• Deposit limits — daily, weekly or monthly.
• Loss limits — a cap on net losses over a period, which bites sooner than a deposit limit.
• Wager limits — a cap on total staked, regardless of whether you are winning.
• Session reminders — a prompt showing how long you have been playing.
• Cooling-off — a short lock-out, typically 24 hours to 30 days.
• Self-exclusion — a long lock-out, typically six months to permanent.

What GAMSTOP does not cover

GAMSTOP is the UK national self-exclusion scheme. One registration blocks every operator licensed by the Gambling Commission, for six months, one year or five years, and it works.

It does not cover Curacao-licensed casinos. They sit outside the Commission's remit, so a GAMSTOP registration will not block them and they will not check it. If you registered with GAMSTOP, you registered for a reason — and this is precisely the gap that reason should apply to.

If you want a block that does reach these sites, BetBlocker ↗ is free, run by a registered charity, and blocks tens of thousands of gambling sites across your devices regardless of where they are licensed.

Where to get help

All of these are free and confidential. None of them will tell you to stop gambling if that is not what you want.