Novomatic · Greentube · released 2005
Play safe
Gambling is entertainment with a cost, not a way to make money. If it has stopped feeling like a choice, help is free and confidential.
Warning signs
These are the patterns clinicians look for. Recognising one is not a diagnosis; recognising several is worth acting on.
Playing to recover losses
Chasing is the most consistent single predictor of harm. The urge to win it back is the problem, not the losses.
Staking more to feel the same
Needing larger bets for the same engagement is a tolerance pattern.
Hiding it
Concealing time or money spent from people close to you.
Borrowing to play
Using credit, overdrafts or loans to fund gambling.
It stopped being a choice
Playing when you did not intend to, or being unable to stop when you meant to.
It is displacing other things
Sleep, work, relationships or obligations giving way to play.
Setting limits
Every licensed operator is required to offer these. Set them before you play, not during.
Deposit limits
A cap per day, week or month. Increases carry a mandatory cooling-off delay; decreases apply immediately.
Session and time limits
Reminders or hard stops after a set period. Time is the variable people misjudge most.
Loss limits
A ceiling on net losses over a period, independent of how much you deposit.
Reality checks
Periodic on-screen prompts showing elapsed time and net position.
Self-exclusion
Self-exclusion blocks your access to an operator, or in several countries to every licensed operator at once, for a fixed minimum period that cannot be reversed early.
National schemes
Germany (OASIS), the UK (GAMSTOP), the Netherlands (Cruks) and Belgium (EPIS) operate cross-operator registers.
Single-operator exclusion
Available everywhere licensed, but only covers that one site.
Device-level blocking
Blocking software adds a layer that survives changing your mind at two in the morning.
Where to get help
Support is free, confidential and available whether or not you want to stop playing. You do not need to have hit a crisis to use it.