Gambling is a fun hobby for most people. However, it may become an unhealthy habit if you let it spiral out of control. Responsible gambling involves ensuring you aren’t splurging on bets and gambling for fun, entertainment, and a manageable form of excitement. Those in the industry might know the exact difference between professional gambling and problem gambling. Unfortunately, gambling is a double-edged sword that might often lead to regrets rather than achievements due to lack of awareness.
Difference Between Responsible Gambling And Problem Gambling
Gambling is fun until you keep it like that. It can be treated as a source of entertainment or to kill time on hand. However, gambling becomes a problem when people start using it as a source of income. This often leads to recurring losses and debts.
Responsible gambling is really about prevention. Bookie or gambling operators’ entire customer base relies on safe betting. Safe betting implies investing a smaller sum of money into gambling without the risk of a significant loss.
Most websites that offer gambling often include resources that can help people who have a gambling addiction. Casino or offline places, on the other hand, don’t identify gambling could become problematic. They ignore such people or take advantage of them to bring in profits.
Responsible Gambling: Winners Know When To Stop
Responsible gambling means gambling with money that you can afford to lose. Therefore, one should not treat the profits from gambling as a source of income and limit the money you spend on gambling.
For example, many online gambling websites have a clock-in period. Herein you can manually set a daily limit. Say if you enter 2 hours, then after 2 hours, the site will prompt the user to reach their daily limit. Many sites also have a 24 hour cooling period wherein the player completely blocks himself from the site.
Many contributing factors lead to these disorders. There could be physiological, genetic, neurological, and other factors that might make a person more vulnerable than others.
Many individuals who have had a troubled childhood or have had parents involved in gambling are more likely to get addicted to gambling. Any person facing mental health problems like is also more likely to fall on the wrong side of gambling.
How Should You Help Someone Who Is Suffering From A Gambling Problem?
There are various institutes and NGOs that provide help 24/7 while keeping it all confidential. There are multiple helplines that send help your way as soon as they receive a call. They will also offer referrals for financial assistance in addition to treatment and support groups in your area. Various NGOs also offer help for their family members and loved ones to get over the trauma.
You might as well approach the website or casino to check if they have exclusion groups wherein individuals can be banned from premises or blocked out from websites. The whole idea behind exclusion is for the individual to realize he has a gambling problem and seek help for a speedy recovery. Family can help too by encouraging such individuals to seek help.
According to recent statistics gambling sector was valued at $87 million in 2021. By 2023 this is predicted to increase by 5 folds. Awareness is the primary factor in being a responsible gambler. Any company which is directly involved in such activities should ensure responsible gambling practices are being followed. One can enable software products into the management system to ensure a safe gaming environment and keep online theft at bay.
Platform Providers Can Provide The Tools To Fight The Battle Against Problem Gambling
- Enabling lock-in period to monitor time spent on gambling platform
- Prompt implementation of a self-exclusion tool every alternate day.
- Incorporate software that enables data privacy and security against online threats and criminal activities
- Integrate software monitoring capabilities to keep a tab on activities
Since we are aware of every ethical gambling activity we need to understand that gambling can get addictive if we let ourselves splurge over our hard-earned money. Gambling is not an easy way to earn money but just a medium of entertainment. To avoid losing too much make sure you set a maximum limit on your account after a certain expenditure or frame of time. Limit your online wins and losses. Do not get emotionally invested in such activities as it might lead to a trigger to problem gambling.
