Responsible play

Before you play

Decide on a budget you can afford to lose and a time limit for the session, and write both down. Treat the money as the price of entertainment, never as a way to earn, pay bills or win back earlier losses. Play when you are rested and sober, and stop when the limit is reached, whatever the screen shows.

• Only money set aside for entertainment goes into a casino account.
• A loss is the cost of the session, not a debt to win back.
• Breaks every hour keep the session in proportion.
• Bonuses come with rules; read them before accepting one.

Warning signs

Spending more than planned, borrowing to play, hiding gambling from people close to you, or feeling restless when you cannot play are signs to take seriously. The same goes for chasing losses and gambling to escape stress. Any one of them is a good reason to pause and talk to someone.

Tools that help

At Jokabet, two pages in the site footer, Responsible Gaming and Risk Warnings, describe the operator's side, and a help-centre article covers account closure. Beyond a single casino, blocking software such as Gamban or BetBlocker stops gambling sites on your devices, and most UK banks offer a block on gambling payments in their app. These tools work across operators at once.

Free support in the UK

GamCare staffs the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 at no cost and at any hour, and offers a live chat at gamcare.org.uk as well. BeGambleAware offers advice and a directory of local treatment services, and GamAnon supports families and friends of people who gamble.

Support is confidential, and you do not need to wait for a crisis to call.

Help lines and advice

• National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare
• Advice from BeGambleAware
• GamAnon support for relatives

Talking to someone close

Telling a partner, friend or relative about worries over gambling often makes the next step easier, and the same helplines speak with family members as well as players. Agreeing on a spending limit together, or handing over control of cards for a while, can take pressure off a hard period.

Protecting under-18s

Gambling is for adults only. On a shared device, parental control software and separate user accounts keep casino sites out of reach, and saved passwords for gambling accounts are best not stored in the browser at all.