If it has stopped being a choice, help is free.

Every game described on this site is built with a house edge: a fixed percentage of everything wagered that the operator keeps on average. It is not a fee that can be avoided with a better method, it is the structure of the game itself.

Over a small number of rounds, luck dominates and anyone can be ahead. Over a large number, the result converges towards the house edge with near certainty. This is why the only reliable way to describe gambling is as paid entertainment: you are buying the experience, and the price is the edge.

• No betting system overcomes the house edge; the martingale and its variants only change how losses are distributed over time
• A game is never due for a win: each round is independent of the last
• Chasing losses converts a bad session into a worse one, because the edge applies again to every new bet

Gambling harm rarely announces itself. It shows up in behaviour before it shows up in a bank balance, and the signs below are the ones clinicians look for.

• Betting more than you decided to, or more often than you meant to
• Returning to win back what was lost
• Borrowing, selling or hiding money to keep playing
• Lying about how much time or money is going into it
• Gambling to escape stress, boredom or low mood
• Losing interest in things that used to matter more
• Anger or restlessness when trying to cut down

Willpower is the least reliable tool, because the decision is being made at the worst possible moment. Every measure below works by removing the decision from that moment.

• Deposit and loss limits set in advance, on every account
• Self-exclusion, which blocks access to all licensed operators in your country at once
• Blocking software on your devices, and a gambling block from your bank where offered
• Telling one person, which removes the secrecy that lets it grow
• Free confidential support: the lines below are staffed by people who do this every day