Responsible gambling
Gambling is entertainment that costs money. It is not a way to earn, and it is certainly not a way to win back what has already gone.
Adults only (18+)
Only people aged 18 or over may gamble. If anyone under 18 shares your phone or computer, do not let the browser remember your password, and turn on parental controls.
Where to get help
Gambling Help Online — 1800 858 858 is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, anywhere in Australia, for people who are gambling too much and for the people around them. Online chat and email counselling are available through the same service, and BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, is another option worth knowing about.
Tools inside your account
- Deposit limit — set it before your first session, not during one.
- Loss and time limits — what you decide calmly still applies when you are not calm.
- Take a break — close the account for days or weeks at a time.
- Self-exclusion — a permanent close; ask customer support for it.
Warning signs
You are gambling with money meant for something else; you are gambling to win back a loss; you are hiding it from the people close to you; the stakes have to keep climbing to feel like anything. One of those is enough to take seriously.
How the odds actually work
Every game in a casino is built with a margin for the house, and it is in the maths rather than in any single round. A pokie publishes a return-to-player figure: over a very large number of spins, that share of the money staked comes back to players collectively. It says nothing at all about your session. A crash round ends at a point chosen at random, and the round before it carries no information about the next one. There is no pattern to read and no system that changes the margin — if one existed, the game would not be offered.
Two consequences are worth holding on to. The first: a losing run is not «due» to turn. The second: chasing a loss increases the amount at stake without changing anything about the odds, which is why it is the single most expensive habit in gambling.
Bonuses are not free money
A matched deposit comes with a wagering requirement: the bonus, and often the deposit with it, has to be staked a set number of times before anything can be withdrawn. Game weightings usually mean live tables count for a fraction of a pokie spin, and there is normally a cap on the stake you may place while a bonus is running. None of that makes a bonus bad — it makes it a product with terms, which is why this site sends you to read them rather than quoting a number it cannot source.
If it is someone else
Gambling harm rarely stays with one person. If someone close to you is gambling too much, the same helpline takes calls from family and friends, and the counselling is free for them too. Two things help more than arguing about the money: talking about the behaviour rather than the amount, and not taking on the debt yourself, which usually removes the reason to stop.
Small habits that help
- Decide the amount in advance and treat it as the price of the entertainment.
- Never borrow money to gamble.
- Take breaks, and keep time for things that have nothing to do with gambling.
- A bonus or a VIP tier is not a reason to play more.
18+ · Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly.