Right Ways to Limit Gambling

Do you feel like you might be on the verge of a gambling problem? It’s not something someone else can decide on your behalf. It’s you that has to decide if you have control over your gambling. Here’s the thing. You need to be honest with yourself.

To be fair, gambling problems can vary from annoyances to very serious issues that can affect family, friends, employment, and even physical health. If what you are experiencing seems very destructive, then you really need to stop all gambling and see about getting help.

That’s kind of the worst-case scenario. Maybe, you have just been doing a little too much gambling and you need to reign yourself in a bit. That’s quite okay. In fact, there are ways you can limit your gambling or choose to take a little break from your gambling activities, sort of like hitting a reset button. Let’s look at your options.

Right Ways to Limit Gambling

For this discussion, the focus is going to fall on online gambling. After all, experts in the UK have noted that almost 20% of the UK adult population is gambling online.

Ways of limiting gambling can include everything from restricting one’s bankroll to taking an actual break from online gambling. The best option for you would be the one which best addresses your current circumstances.

Limiting Bankroll

If a gambler has discipline, controlling their online gambling bankroll might be all that’s necessary. Experience says that the best way to limit one’s bankroll is to agree that gambling resources will be confined to discretionary spending money. What is discretionary spending money? That’s the amount of money someone has left over after they have paid all of their bills and put some money aside for savings. This is the way the normal everyday recreational gambler decides how much to invest in their online gambling activities.

Use Gambling Software Website Blockers to Limit Access

While some gambling software website blockers are intended to totally prevent users from doing any online gambling, there are a few that offer more flexibility. Full prevention software website blockers for gamblers include Gamban. NetNanny would be a good example of a software website blocker that offers more flexibility.

Products like NetNanny work as follows. The program is designed to allow third parties (family and friends) to take control over a loved one’s online gambling activities. If necessary, the gambler can take control. Blocking is done by selecting the gambling websites to which access needs to be blocked or limited. The NetNanny access options include permanent blocking, manual manipulation of limitations, and setting timers that will allow gamblers to enjoy a little online gambling during prescribed intervals.

Remember, most software website blockers are device-specific, which means the gambler’s online gambling activities would only be blocked or limited on the device upon which the website blocker was downloaded. There are a few options where the controls are user-specific.

GamStop Self-Exclusion Scheme: Temporary Blocking Option

As you can see, software website blocking options only offer limited protection against possible gambling issues. Sometimes, it’s better to go right to the source to deal with a problem.

In the UK, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the residents of the UK from online gambling issues. They take this responsibility very seriously, which is why they rolled out the GamStop Self-exclusion scheme in 2018. To truly protect potential problem UK online gamblers, the UKGC mandates that all licensed online gambling operators subscribe to the program and database.

GamStop is intended to serve as a voluntary resource for UK online gamblers who just need some help staying away from online gambling sites for a while. When a UK online gambler registers to go into the GamStop database, they get to decide how long they want to have their access blocked by operators. The choices are 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. Once an application has been accepted, that gambler is blocked.

Of course, there are limitations to what GamStop can do. The program is only available to operators that are licensed in the UK. What GamStop gamblers will soon discover is there are online casinos not using GamStop services that offer a viable way around GamStop. Many of these sites market to GamStop gamblers who have decided they would prefer to resume their online gambling activities before their GamStop exclusion period ends.

Other ways around GamStop include offshore online gambling with operators in other jurisdictions, using crypto-only gambling sites, and gambling through shared accounts under other names.

If you are not serious about taking a break from your online gambling activities, it’s best to not waste your money on website blockers or time registering for GamStop. As it should be, it’s your decision to decide whether you really want to limit your online gambling or not. If you do, these are your best options.