We encourage gambling at online casinos and sports books because it can be really fun and it gives you an exciting buzz that you may have never felt before. Having said that, gambling can be a huge mental roller-coaster. Gambling must be taken seriously and must be played and used in a responsible way.
What Is Responsible Gambling?
Responsible gambling is an initiative consisting of many policies and regulations that verify and maintain a healthy level of gambling. These regulations are implemented to gambling stakeholders to ensure they follow the high standards of quality and provide a safe gambling experience in order to shield the players from potentially harmful consequences of gambling. The objective of this concept is to limit the chances of developing a gambling addiction.
Since the excess of anything in life is not good, that is why the concept was brought into light by the government and the gambling industry itself to remind the players to restrict gambling as a pastime and not create it a means of earning. While most people can spend on gambling only the amount they can afford to risk, others may find it more difficult.
Areas of Responsible and Safe Gambling
This section determines the main elements of responsible gambling that are needed to be considered and respected by both online operators as well as software providers.
Protection of players
The first and one of the most responsible gambling areas includes the protection of their most vulnerable players. Players who enjoy playing casino games for real money may get addicted to it. When they start spending too much that they can afford to risk, their lives can get badly affected.
Therefore, the operators and regulators must incorporate several measures like self-execution programs to limit the monetary amount, and time spent by the players on a gambling website. There are many tools available online that allow the players to enjoy responsible gambling sessions, where they have the option to set financial limits to their accounts. Different countries can have different regulations in this area.
Besides, the regulators must also display information about the organisations where the players can find support if they have become addicted to gambling.
Restriction of Underage Gambling
Preventing underage gambling is an important aspect listed under responsible gambling areas. This area stresses over the restriction of gambling for real money until an individual has not reached the legal age. Following the area, the operators must make sure no underage gambling activities are taking place at their platforms. They should ensure that all the laws protecting minors in their jurisdictions are followed and respected.
In order to comply with the area, the operators must determine a registration procedure for all the players. Moreover, all the necessary verification steps must be followed to verify the gamblers’ age.
Information Privacy
This area is concerned with the safety of private and financial information of the player to a gambling site from the prying eyes. The operators need to incorporate robust policies to keep the user data (players’ name, contact details, address, banking details, etc.) safe from unauthorized access and prevent illegal criminal attacks. That is why many operators are using their SSL-encryption services to their site to ensure user protection.
Security against criminal activities
Just like any other eCommerce websites, gambling websites can also be hacked and misused for cybercrime. To achieve their ill goals and get access to the personal and financial data, criminals on the internet use malefic tools and software to target the vulnerabilities on the website. Therefore, to stop and abolish such growing tendencies the operators must include certain procedures and programs that detect and close money laundering activities.
Protection for online payment methods
Casino operators also need to make sure that the players are using a reliable software platform for depositing funds into their accounts. Because this also concerns the safety of personal and financial details of the user. That is why, the operators must be attentive towards choosing the appropriate payment methods for safe deposit, withdrawal, and money transfer on a gambling site.
How to Recognise Responsible Online Casinos?
Here we will be talking you through how to recognise online gambling sites that are responsible and reputable. There are certain things that you should look out for, however, the majority of online gambling sites do have most of these ticked off.
Casinos With Reputable Licences
Having a reputable and reliable casino licence at the footer of a gambling site is a huge bonus. Firstly because legally you have to have one, but also, people are aware how many checks are made in order to get a casino licence and therefore would trust the ones that have. The 4 most popular, and reliable casino licences are the MGA (Maltese Gaming Authority), Curacao Licence, UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and GRA (Gibraltar Licensing Authority).
Casinos With Their Own Responsible Gambling Initiatives
A lot of good and reliable online casinos and gambling sites will have their own ways of dealing with responsible gambling. For example, if they believe there is an abusive addiction within a player, they will close the account. This is a crucial part of gaining a casino licence. A lot of gambling sites also tend to put links in the footer of the page for websites that can help with addiction.
How Will You Know if You Have a Problem?
The whole idea behind online casinos and sports books is that the customer has fun while playing. They have the excitement and the thrill that online gambling should give you. As soon as it doesn’t become fun anymore, and you feel you may not have any control left or you rely on trying to win money, that’s when it becomes an issue.
What Should You Do if You Think You Have a Problem?
A legitimate and fair question which a lot of people don’t seem to know the answer to. There are lots of helplines and sites out there which offer all sorts of help, it’s just a case of finding the one that suits you best. Here will explain all you need to know on this matter.
Responsible Gambling Tools
These types of tools can be extremely useful in helping you out with any responsible gambling issues you may be going through. Here is a small list of tools that can help along with a short explanation:
- Deposit Limit tool – A tool where you can set a deposit limit of whatever you like, in order to stop you spending more than you want.
- Loss Limit tool – As soon as you lose a certain amount, you will be stopped from accessing your account until a certain time period.
- Time/Session Limit tool – Here, like an alarm clock, you can set a time limit, meaning once you hit that limit, you can’t access your account.
- Self Exclusion tool – For when you decide that you’ve had enough, you can exclude yourself from your own account for good.
- Cool off/Time out tool – Allows you to set reminders to have a break and stops you accessing your account for a period of time.
- Withdrawal Lock – Stops you spending your funds that are in your account that you are wanting to withdraw.
Useful Help-Seeking Websites
There are some incredible websites out there that can really help you on any responsible gambling issues that you may have. Below is a list of the main ones and you can always find these at the bottom of an online casinos webpage too:
BeGambleAware helps with gambling addiction and can be reached from all over the world as they have some excellent representatives who are always on hand.
This is a really cool site as they do all the hard work for you, they simply block all your gambling accounts and stop you from accessing them.
The people here are super friendly and can actually be contacted 24/7 for any gambling help that you may need.
An online therapy session which finds out not only why you like gambling, but the reasons for its addictions and they tend to educate in the process.
- Best Psychiatric Hospital in Hyderabad | Psychiatric Clinic | Psychiatrist & Psychologist ,Hyderabad (hopetrustindia.com)
The most popular site for Gambling addiction in India. They have helped thousands of people with gambling addiction.
Similar to Anonymous, they keep your identity hidden and block all your online accounts from the simple click of a button.
Helps with financial control as well as any gambling or drug addiction that someone may have.
A local rehab centre which can be done online, or can be done face to face once you are paired up with a representative.
Gamble Responsibly In India
We hope this has been helpful and informative. Responsible gambling has to be taken very seriously, by all parties involved. Over the years, the importance of this has been encouraged by licences and online gambling operators, and people are starting to become more aware. All the links in this page we encourage you go and try out for yourself.