How to Keep Yourself Safe When Gambling Online & Live

4 minutes
Gambling is undoubtedly a fun and exciting pastime. However, it can also be the root of many problems if you’re not careful when engaging in it.
Staying safe and in control when gambling is an absolute priority if you want to avoid gambling-related issues or potential addictions.
With that in mind, we want to share the best tips for keeping yourself safe when gambling.
1. Know Why You’re Gambling
When reading this now, this may seem like a redundant and useless thing to think about. But, it’s something you should ask yourself every once in a while when gambling online or live.
In other words, consider your motivations for gambling.
If you’re gambling for entertainment and can afford to lose some side money in exchange for fun Friday nights – perfect.
But, if you’re resorting to gambling to get yourself out of debt or pay for different expenses, you’ll only cause yourself more problems.
That said, gambling primarily for profit can also be good, but you have to keep your bankroll and betting sessions under control to avoid any financial issues.
2. Make Sure the Casino is Trustworthy
To ensure that you’ll keep yourself safe, you need to make sure that the casino you’re playing at is safe and trustworthy.
If you’re playing in a land-based casino, do some research on its history, reputation, and try to find any player-related issues that the casino has been involved with.
If you’re gambling online, you can verify the casino using several different criteria. Firstly, you can check for valid gambling licenses from known and reputable jurisdictions.
After that, you can read up on customer feedback or go through gambling review sites to see if your site of choice is on the list of top 100 online casinos.
3. Keep Your Bankroll Under Tight Control
In line with the first tip, you should always keep track of how much you’re spending. Create spending limits you’ll stick to no matter what.
You should even consider creating a winning limit. So, when you lose or win a specific amount, you know it’s time to quit.
This will save you from unnecessarily losing more money than you should and help you get the best value for the money you put in your favorite casino games.
4. Record How Much Time You Play
Besides recording how much you win and lose, it’s also a good idea to keep track of how much you play during each gambling session.
If you spend ten to fifteen or even more hours a week gambling, you might have a gambling addiction problem.
If you’re on the brink of reaching these numbers, recording how much time you play will help you reduce the amount of time you spend on gambling without having to quit cold turkey.
Of course, this is much easier to do when you’re gambling online, but you should still try to do it if you’re playing in a real land-based casino.
You can set alerts or alarms that will pop up on your phone and let you know you should take a break or stop playing for the day.
5. Be Prepared to Lose
Admittedly, this isn’t a very optimistic way of looking at things, but it’s undoubtedly the right way.
It’s no secret that the casino has the edge over you in every game you play.
So, it’s tough to stay profitable in the long run unless you’re extremely lucky, extremely skilled, or both.
The truth is that most players lose. If you’re prepared to lose, gambling will feel lighter and more enjoyable. More importantly, you’ll also be more efficient with your bankroll.
6. Educate Yourself on Everything Important
There’s an old saying that claims that knowledge is power. It perfectly applies to the gambling landscape.
The more you know about every aspect of the gambling experience, the safer, more enjoyable, and more successful your gambling sessions will be.
Make sure to read up on the games you like playing, be it slots or whatever else, and understand every important rule.
If you’re betting online, read all of the critical terms and conditions, know the fine print of every bonus and the payout percentages of every title you enjoy gambling on.
Being conscious of all of this will go a long way in keeping you safe when gambling.
7. Take a Break If You Need It
Sometimes, you might feel that none of the tips can help you or that you can’t carry out any of them without relapsing to your previous behavior.
In such cases, it’s best just to walk away from gambling and take as much time as you need to get your head in the right space for playing again.
This may be for several weeks or several months. There’s no way to tell until you try.
Moreover, nowadays, there are countless gambling support groups available online. Don’t hesitate to reach out for professional help if you feel like it’s getting too much.