Our Guide to Responsible Gambling

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, October 19, 2021

If there’s one concept that has strongly shaped the UK’s iGaming market over the course of the last five years or more, it’s responsible gambling.

This refers to a number of measures and overarching philosophy that encourages players to take control of their gambling activity, set clearly-defined and manageable bankroll targets and become increasingly aware of the signs of compulsive gambling behaviours.

In this post, we’ve created a detailed guide to responsible gambling online, including strategic tips to help bet responsibly over an extended period of time.

Starting with the Basics – The Importance of Identifying Reputable Operators

Let’s start with the basics; as before you even begin to wager your hard-earned cash, you’ll need to identify a reputable online casino that’s licensed to operate on within your jurisdiction.

In the UK, this means playing at sites that have been fully regulated and licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), with sites compelled to display this accreditation and their licensing details on their casino homepages (usually in the footer).

You can also review specific licensing arrangements for individual brands or their parent companies here, and if an online casino is not featured on the site, you may need to consider gambling at an alternative platform.

By being licensed by the UKGC, you can rest assured that your chosen platform is regularly audited across a wide range of metrics, from the responsible gambling measures that are in place to the anti-money laundering checks that are imposed by operators.

Since 2018, the UKGC has also made safeguarding vulnerable players a core strategic objective, with this underpinning a number of subsequent regulatory measures and resulting in a record number of fines for non-compliant brands in 2019.

In fact, betting companies paid an eye-watering £19.7 million in financial sanctions in 2019, primarily because of their failure to safeguard players and ensure that rigorous anti-money laundering processes were in place. However, you can be sure that you’ll be safe while playing at our recommended gambling sites and using the top casino bonuses in the UK to your advantage.

So, do your research in depth and ensure that you’re dealing with a licensed and reputable casino before parting with your cash.

Our Leading Tips for Betting Responsibly

While this may provide an overview of responsible gambling in the online casino space, the question that remains is what practical steps can you take to bet responsibly on a regular basis? Should you play at new online casinos in the UK and what more can you do to remain safe while gambling online?

We’ve outlined some key ideas below, each of which is relatively simple but has a direct impact on your ability to wager responsibly:

• Only Gamble with Money That You Can Afford to Lose: This is perhaps the single most important point, as there are no circumstances in which you should look to gamble more than you can afford to lose. In fact, you should wager well within this amount, and you can set a comfortable value simply by subtracting your outgoings from incomings and establishing precisely how much disposable income you have each week or month (depending on how you manage your wider finances). This sum of cash then subsequently forms your bankroll, ensuring that you have to borrow money to compromise on the payment of bills to fund your activity.
• Understand and Set Your Limits: All licensed casinos now feature at least some responsible gambling measures, including the ability for players to set their own deposit limits as the bare minimum. We’d recommend that you have a clear understanding of your betting limits (in line with your predetermined bankroll) before you start crediting your account, while setting your deposit thresholds to suit your desired activity levels. It’s important that you adopt a proactive and consistent approach when setting your gambling limits, as this creates a secure and responsible framework in which you can enjoy the fun element of wagering your cash online.
• Don’t Gamble When You’re Upset: Emotive gambling is one of the worst practices that you can engage in as a player, whether you enjoy remote sports betting or online casino gameplay. For example, you may be inclined to spontaneously increase your stake immediately after a sizeable win or following a heavy loss, either as a way of building on your success or chasing the cash that you’ve lost. However, this emotive urge should be resisted at all costs, as it represents poor and ill-judged decision making that can ultimately trigger further losses over time. You may even override your limits and commit considerably more money than you can afford to lose without realising it.
• Take a Break: Each gambling session online is timed, even though some operators don’t make this information readily available or easily visible to players. However, it’s important that you track your activity as a player, as gambling continuously without taking a break from the screen can impair your judgement over time while also fuelling issues such as eye strain and similar health complaints. You can also set limits in this regard at most online casinos, as you look to actively regulate the amount of time that you spend gambling and afford yourself some breathing space to reflect and make more informed decisions. This affords you even greater self-control too, which remains at the very heart of responsible gambling in the modern age.

The Last Word

On the subject of taking a break, this can also apply to longer-term sabbaticals that follow a particularly intensive period of gambling or a heavy loss.

Fortunately, reputable online casinos, such as 888casino are now compelled to participate in Gamstop’s national self-exclusion scheme, which allows players to take a long-term break from online casino gameplay and prohibits them from logging into a platform with their username, email and password.

So, if you start to recognise the signs of problem gambling (such as increased amounts of time spent online and continuously scouring for betting promotions), you have a ready-made tool that enables you to take direct action and remove yourself from temptation.

Certainly, operators are making it easier than ever to gamble responsibly in the digital age, but the onus remains on you to manage your activity, establish a viable bankroll and remain vigilant when looking for the tell-tale signs of compulsive behaviour.