Online gambling can be a lot of fun and, in some cases, profitable as well. The games themselves are quite engaging and entertaining and also very accessible, especially now that you can play most of them on a mobile device, but it’s the added bonus of having the chance to win real money that makes them so popular among people from all walks of life.
Of course, it’s not all peaches and cream, as there are many example of people that when too far and lost it all to gambling on the Internet. A perfect example for that is the story of Justin Rees Larcombe who lost not only his life savings on real-money games, but also his family and his prestigious job. In fact, the statistics show that in the UK alone there are over 450,000 problem gamblers which in relation to the total of the adult population in the country makes for quite the high percentage.
Thankfully, there are some very reputable charity organisations out there whose mission is to educate the public about responsibility in gambling and to prevent underage gambling. Some of these are The Responsible Gambling Trust, GambleAware, GamCare, to mention but a few. All of them give players great advice as to how to have fun playing real money games at land-based locations as well as online without putting themselves in danger. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ones.
A great rule of thumb when gambling is to set a limit on what you will gamble for the day and to only gamble what you can afford to lose. A big part of the excitement when gambling is having the chance to win big, but if that becomes your primary focus, you’re most certainly up for a disappointment. You should learn to enjoy the game itself and accept that in gambling sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When you get to this state of mind, the winning become even more pleasant as they genuinely come as a surprise, while the losses don’t seem so bad as they are perceived as something natural.
A great advice which is also related to the previous tip is to not only set money limits but also time limits on your gambling. It’s advisable to switch between other recreational activities and not spend all your free time gambling.
Something else you can do to protect yourself from spending too much is to use the tools for self-control that now all gambling sites are obliged to provide. These tools let you set limits as to how much you can deposit and spend at the site on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. In case, you’re really concerned that you might have a problem, then there’s also the self-exclusion tool which you can use to ban yourself from the site for a certain period of time.
Of course, these are only a small part of the things you can do to keep your gambling habits under control. The more you know, the better are the chances for you to have an enjoyable experience gambling without having any problems or getting addicted. This is why I recommend that, in addition to reading this article, you visit the websites of the responsible gambling organisations I mentioned earlier – there you will find a lot of useful information that will prepare you for all kinds of situations.
