Gambling: Entertainment or addiction?

Sports betting is primarily meant to be for fun and entertainment. Only a very small percentage of sports punters at the best sports betting sites are able to show a long-term profit, something which requires huge amounts of time, preparation, study and discipline.

James Pacheco

Sports Betting Editor

Last updated: 2024-07-16

Fact checked by:

A. Tzamantanis

Sports Betting Editor

4 minutes read

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Table of Contents

But if you’re not able to do this, you should at least engage in responsible gambling, which ensures everything is always under control.

The dangers of irresponsible gambling and gambling addiction

Losing this control, whether that means losing more money than you should or more seriously still, suffering from gambling addiction, can have extremely serious consequences on all aspects of your life, including:

•    Losing money you can’t afford to lose.
•    Gambling too much can affect your professional performance at work or lead you to neglect parts of your personal or family life, in favour of betting.
•    Excessive gambling, especially in a losing cause, can lead to mood swings or irritability.
•    Poor general health, both physical and mental, from spending too much time gambling rather than having a balanced lifestyle.
•    Legal problems such as debt or even bankruptcy.

Using Responsible Gambling tools

The betting industry is very aware of the pitfalls of their customers not taking responsible gambling seriously and has worked hard to find a good balance between customers enjoying betting and not letting things get out of hand. One of the key areas has been encouraging betting sites to provide responsible gambling tools to all customers. These include…

Time Limits

After you’ve played for a certain amount of time, you’ll be prevented from playing anymore for a specified period.

Deposit and Loss Limits

The first refers to how much money you’ve decided you want to deposit over a specific time period. Once you’ve reached it, you won’t be able to deposit more for the period selected. Loss limits mean that when you’ve lost a certain amount, you’ll automatically be logged out and won’t be allowed to play anymore for a predetermined period.

Time Outs

This means asking the betting site to let you know when you’ve been playing for a certain number of minutes or hours, so you don’t lose track of time. It then depends whether you’re stopped from playing more or just made aware of how long you’ve been playing for.

Self-exclusion

If customers decide they want, or need a break, then self-exclusion, though perhaps not a tool as such, could be the sensible option. It’s similar to a Time Out but the exclusion period is normally much longer, ranging from six months to a number of years. During self-exclusion, customers can request to withdraw their funds but won’t be able to do anything else such as depositing, accepting bonuses or placing bets.

Self-assessment tools and organisations you can speak to

In some cases, responsible gambling tools or even self-exclusion won’t be quite enough. Many bookies now offer free self-assessment tools where customers need to (honestly) answer questions about their gambling habits.

Some customers may find out through these tests that they have a genuine gambling problem and need professional help.

The first port of call is to get in touch with the bookmaker’s Customer Service Department and be put in touch with several organisations and charities dedicated to problem gambling, though there will be links to them from the site that can you follow yourself.

These could include online forums where customers share their experiences, trained counsellors who can advise you how to avoid gambling and even physical meetings where problem gamblers speak about how they faced the challenge of gambling addiction and the steps they take to keep it in check.

James Pacheco Sports Betting Editor

James has been writing about cricket, football and tennis betting for the best part of 20 years for some of the biggest operators, websites and publications in the industry. Heroes and heroines include Paul Scholes, Chris DiMarco, Anastasia Myskina, Richard Gasquet, Nat-Sciver Brunt and Kumar Sangakarra.