Responsible gambling

Gambling should be entertainment you pay for, like a night out, not a way to make money. Crypto makes deposits instant and limits easy to ignore, so it’s worth being extra deliberate. This page covers how to keep it under control, the warning signs that it isn’t, and where to get free help: helplines, self-exclusion and blocking tools, with a link to each service’s own site.

Set your limits before you play

• Decide a monthly budget from money left after bills and savings, and never top it up mid-session.
• Use the casino’s tools. Set a deposit limit, a loss limit and session reminders as soon as you open an account. Each of our casino reviews lists which of these tools that casino offers.
• Keep your casino money separate. Move only your budget to a separate wallet. Don’t connect your main savings wallet.
• Set a time limit and stop when it’s up, winning or losing.
• Never chase losses. A loss is the price of the entertainment. Trying to win it back is how small losses become big ones.
• Don’t play when you’re upset, drunk or tired.

Warning signs

It may be time to stop and get support if you notice any of these:

• You spend more money or time than you planned, often.
• You chase losses or gamble to fix money problems.
• You borrow, sell things or use money meant for bills to gamble.
• You hide your gambling from people close to you.
• You feel restless or irritable when you try to cut down.
• Gambling is affecting your sleep, work, studies or relationships.

Free help, wherever you are

• Gambling Therapy: a free global service run by the UK charity Gordon Moody, offering practical advice, emotional support and one-to-one online sessions with a trained therapist.
• Gamblers Anonymous: peer support meetings in person, online and by phone. Its site has a meeting finder.

If you’re worried about someone else, these services support friends and family too.

National helplines

These are free helplines in some of the countries where we show casino links, plus two large services for the US and UK. Each one’s details come from its own website, checked in October 2026.

Self-exclusion

• At the casino. Most casinos let you close your account for a set period or permanently. Some let you do it yourself in the account settings; others need a request to support. Each of our reviews says what that casino publishes. For one, 1xBit, we found self-exclusion described only in a marketing blog post, not in its rules. Use it, and ask for any remaining balance to be returned.
• National and provincial schemes. Some places run schemes that exclude you from every operator they cover in one step. In Canada, for example:
  • British Columbia’s Game Break covers B.C. gambling facilities with slot machines, commercial bingo and PlayNow.com, for six months to three years.
  • Ontario’s My PlayBreak covers OLG casinos, charitable gaming centres and OLG.ca. iGaming Ontario runs a separate scheme for regulated online sites.

  These schemes cover only the operators they name. They don’t cover offshore casinos like the ones we review, so combine them with the casino’s own self-exclusion and the blocking tools below.

Blocking tools

• BetBlocker: free, run by a non-profit. It blocks more than a million gambling sites, with apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.
• Gamban: paid, with a 7-day free trial. It blocks gambling sites and apps across all major platforms, and one licence covers all your devices.
• Bank and exchange settings: some banks can block gambling payments, and some crypto exchanges let you restrict withdrawals to addresses you’ve saved, which adds a pause before money can reach a casino.

Checked October 2026 on each service’s own website. Phone numbers and hours can change; the service’s site is always the up-to-date source. If a number here is wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it. How we check facts across the site is explained in how we review casinos.