All reputable gaming organisations are signed up for responsible gambling. For this problem gamblers, this means gives gamblers 3 main options.

The first, is just an overview of all the bets/ wagers placed on an a game/ event. There is no hiding from the fact you are losing money then. You can imagine that a seedy casino may not let you see all your deposits and withdrawals easily so won’t know how much you have won or lost.

The second is the deposit limit, loss limit or both. Not all casinos offer a loss limit but all will offer a deposit limit. A loss limit is preferable as if you do get lucky one day, you can’t lose it all the next unless the loss limit is higher than your balance.

Deposit limits still allow you to have the fun of the casino but without the fear of gambling too much. These can be set daily or weekly. This can be a problem if you have multiple online accounts though. Imagine a £20 daily deposit limit across 10 casinos. That’s £200 a day which is a lot to be gambling for most people.

The third thing is the self exclusion. This is slightly different to closing your account. If you just close your account, say because of bad customer service, you can just re-open it and the casino will let you. However, if you choose to self exclude then you will not be able to open an account and they will shut down any account you try and open once discovered.

Self exclusion can last anywhere between 6 months and 5 years. Some places allow you to self exclude from different parts of the site, for example, you may want to just place sports bets and not play on the casino. This is sound in theory but in practice it can be tempting as the same game is available in different parts of the site.

For example, if your game of choice is blackjack, you may think excluding yourself from the casino is enough, well, its generally not. Most operators have a separate games room where you can play blackjack and often on the poker tables there is a link to blackjack. In that case, you would be better off self excluding and just opening up a telephone betting account.

Once the self exclusion period is over, your account is not automatically opened or the sections where you barred yourself from automatically opened up again. You generally have to write to the operator, explaining what has changed and why you want to gamble again.

For more information on responsible gambling see gambleaware.co.uk

If you want to self exclude, just contact the customer support of the company in question and they will exclude you immediately. That’s the best way to stop online gambling. Its better than web blocking as you can’t really get round it. If somehow you did manage to open another account at somewhere you have self barred from then the operator will close the account once it’s been discovered.

If its FOBTs, betting shop or land casino, you can go in and self bar. This is more hassle but if you do have a problem, its one of the best things you can do.