How casinos deal with gambling addiction

Logically, the number of people suffering from gambling addiction has increased significantly. In the UK alone, according to official figures, there are over 350,000 people suffering from the disease. But it is worth noting that the gambling business is not aimed at profiting from such people, moreover, it tries in every possible way to help them, for which it uses quite effective methods, among which we can highlight two main ones, which will be discussed in this article.

Signs of gambling addiction

Often people who suffer from gambling addiction may not even know it themselves or may deny the problem at all. The addict tends to be in the game all the time. They may feel uncomfortable when games are not available, but even at the same time they are constantly thinking about games, trying to devise strategies and constantly imagining how they are playing. Such people become irritable, stop communicating with relatives, friends and colleagues, and find it very difficult to concentrate on anything other than games, which is why addicts often lose their jobs.

When they do manage to get to their favourite pastime, these people simply cannot stop, not even a series of big losses can make them quit the game. The game will continue until the balance is zero. But some people don’t let that stop them, either, and get into debt. We can say that gambling addiction is a special mental condition, which is why addiction is recognized as a serious illness.

Responsible gambling

Almost every gambling site can be found a section called “Responsible Gaming”. And the organizers of the casino every new user is strongly advised to visit this section and study it carefully. Here you can find a lot of useful information about gambling addiction. It describes the symptoms of the disease, as well as effective methods to combat it. In addition, you may also find information on how to prevent the emergence of this disease.

This section may also contain certain functionalities that are aimed at helping addicts. Options may be available here that will regulate the interaction of the addict with the site. A set of options may vary significantly depending on the selected casino, it is worth highlighting the most effective of them:

Limitation of playing time;
Limiting the number of bets;
Limit daily losses;
Limit on deposits;
Temporary blocking of access to the casino.

Gamstop

Gamstop is a specialist service that aims to help British gamers suffering from gambling addiction. It is not the only service in this category, but it is considered one of the most effective. The essence of the service’s method of operation is self-exclusion.

How it works

If a player works with one gaming site, it is possible to temporarily block their account immediately there. But, as a rule, people suffering from addiction have many accounts at different casinos, so it would be quite difficult to block each of them.

Today, most of the casinos in the UK work with the service; however, it is planned that participation in the program will soon become a requirement for licensing. The way the service works is as follows:

a player who has decided to fight an addiction registers with the service;
chooses a self-exclusion period: six months, one year or five years;
activates the service.

The programme will start working the first time the player tries to log in to his gaming account. This is why players may receive mailings from the online casino for the first time, as the gaming platform itself will only receive information from Gamstop about the self-exclusion of the user after the first login attempt. From this point onwards, the player will not be able to use all the casinos that cooperate with the programme, which is pretty much all the resources available in the UK.

When the specified blocking time comes out, access will not open automatically. The player has to apply for disconnection from the programme, after which access to the casino will only open after 24 hours.