Responsible Gaming

Most people gamble without any trouble at all. For some it stops being entertainment and turns into something harder to manage, and the point of this page is to be useful before that happens rather than after. We are a comparison site, not a casino, so we hold no accounts and set no limits ourselves - but we can tell you exactly which controls exist, where to find them, and who to call if the controls are not enough.

The Tools and Where They Live

Every operator listed on this site offers deposit limits. Set one during registration, while you are still thinking about money rather than about a welcome package, because that is the moment the number you choose is honest. Daily, weekly and monthly caps are all standard, and lowering one normally takes effect straight away while raising it triggers a waiting period.

Beyond deposit caps you will usually find loss limits, session reminders that interrupt play at an interval you set, cool-off periods that lock the account for anything from a day to a month, and full self-exclusion running from six months to permanent closure. Transaction history sits in the same part of the account, and it is worth looking at honestly every so often: the total for a month rarely matches what people remember spending.

One thing to be clear about. Offshore operators are outside the national self-exclusion schemes that cover domestically licensed sites, so a block you set up with a scheme such as GAMSTOP in the United Kingdom, CRUKS in the Netherlands or OASIS in Germany does not reach them. Self-exclusion at a Curacao-licensed casino works per site and has to be set at each one separately. If the reason you are looking at offshore casinos is that a national scheme is blocking you, that scheme is doing exactly what you asked it to do, and the helplines below are a better next step than a new account.

Warning Signs

Problem gambling rarely announces itself. It tends to show up as spending a bit more than planned, then going back to win it back, then moving money that was meant for something else. Other signs are quieter: playing to escape a bad week, feeling restless on the days you do not play, being vague with people close to you about how much went in, or finding that the stake that used to feel exciting no longer does. None of these is unusual on its own. Several of them together is worth taking seriously.

Gambling is entertainment and it costs money, the way a night out costs money. It is not income, it is not a way to fix a shortfall, and no strategy turns it into either. If you are betting to solve a financial problem, the odds are working against you twice over.

Age Limits

You must be 18 to open an account at any casino listed on this site. Two markets we cover set the bar higher: in Greece the minimum age for online gambling is 21. Operators verify age during registration, and accounts opened with false details are closed with winnings forfeited. If children use your devices, parental control software such as GamBlock, Betfilter or Net Nanny can block gambling sites at the device level.

Where to Get Help by Country

Support is free, confidential and independent of any operator. The list below covers every country this site publishes for, with the service that handles gambling problems in each one.

Two services work across borders and in several languages: Gambling Therapy at gamblingtherapy.org offers online support wherever you are, and Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings in most of the countries above. If you are in the United Kingdom, BeGambleAware at begambleaware.org has a self-assessment tool that takes a couple of minutes and gives you something concrete to act on.