If you’ve ever lost track of time or budget during a gaming session, you’re not alone, and the right limits set before you start can make all the difference. There are multiple platforms in the industry that place at your disposal a variety of tools to help you keep your gambling habits in check.
Even if you benefit from a 50 free spins no deposit deal, it’s still a good idea to set deposit or time limits. Once you’ve used up your promotion and you want to continue playing, a deposit will be necessary, which means you should also use the tools at hand to make sure you gamble responsibly. Further below, we will detail the aforementioned tools, and you can decide which of them might be more appropriate for you.
Deposit Limits
Deposit limits refer to the maximum sum of money you may deposit daily, weekly, or monthly. For example, placing a $50 deposit and setting that as a weekly limit means you won’t be able to add to your balance until the week has ended.
But, mind you, this does not constrain you to deposit $50 all at once. You can deposit $10 once, then on another day of the week, $20, and towards the end of the week, the rest of the $20, or all at once if you wish to. As long as the total balance for the weekly limit does not exceed $50, you can deposit however you want.
Time Limits
Set a time limit for your session; once it ends, the casino automatically ends your game and logs you out of your account. This creates a pause depending on the period you’ve selected. It could be an hour of playing, and once that time is up, the casino will log you out of your account.
Logging back in would take a little time, so the pause helps you disconnect, reflect, and become satisfied with the idea that you’ve had a sufficiently long session. This is how you can discipline yourself while still enjoying gambling.
Wager Limits
This tool sets limits on how much you can bet. You have the possibility to set these limits to a maximum sum per wager or, like the other limits, daily, weekly, or monthly betting limits.
For example, a maximum bet limit of $30 will not allow you to make a higher bet than that. And if you’ve opted for a daily wager limit, it means that you won’t be able to bet more than the sum you’ve selected per day.
Reality Checks
Periodic pop-up notifications appear during your play sessions, and they warn you of how much time you’ve spent on the platform, the total sum you’ve deposited during a session, your net winnings or losses, or how many bets you’ve made until then.
Reality checks interrupt your sessions and raise awareness concerning your gambling habits. You may set them to pop up after 15 minutes or more, even 60 minutes, whatever works for you, as long as you are mindful of them and the information that comes with them; that’s what matters.
Cooling-Off
Cooling-off periods, or time-outs, as they’re also known, are a shorter suspension from your account. These are the ideal tools to use if you feel that your gambling habits are getting out of hand. To obtain a cooling-off period, you usually have to contact customer support.
These time-outs can range anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days, depending on your choice. During this period, your account will be completely suspended, meaning you won’t be able to log in, place bets or make deposits. Once this suspension ends, your account will be automatically reactivated.
Self-Exclusion
Self-exclusion is, perhaps, the most drastic of these tools because it restricts you from the gambling site in question for a longer period of time. Once you request it, you will be forbidden from gambling for somewhere between 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, or even a lifetime if you so choose.
The period of exclusion is not the only possibility you can obtain with this tool. You can also request to be excluded from one platform, all licensed casinos in your state, or multiple states.
Of course, if you find yourself at the point of requesting self-exclusion, it would also be a good idea to follow up by contacting specialized organizations that can help you deal with gambling addiction. GamCare or the National Council on Problem Gambling are but two of the organizations that are relevant in such cases.
Conclusions
Now that you’ve been informed of the various types of tools or limits that you can set in order to gamble responsibly, you can select the limit you feel is most suitable for you during your next play session. If necessary, you can also make use of tools such as time-outs and self-exclusion to make sure you benefit from a healthy gambling experience.