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I know "Brick n Mortar" casinos have special counseling and advisors on call for people with gambling addiction and they also apply some measures for the gamblers with gambling addiction to "ban" themselves.

How can online gambling sites deal with gambling addiction? The Brick n Mortar" gambling sites have a social responsibility and local licensing requirements than needs to be adhered to for them to operate in a specific country or town, so they cannot avoid doing this.

Please give your inputs and ideas on how this can be done with online gambling sites.  ;)

It is hard until the player admits for themselves that they are an addict to gambling. Even if a gambling site put a feature that gamblers can find a counselor and talk to them it will be pointless until a person admits to his own addiction.

The main problem, most gamblers are not admitting that they are addicted. Actually it is not that hard to see who are addicted gamblers, especially the one who own the gambling site. By looking at the activities of the gambler, how they deal with loses and wins while gambling. Probably the gambling site that offers counseling and advisers has their own team to manage this addicted gamblers, maybe they hire Psychologist and other experts to control their gamblers. Once they see there is a suspected addicted gambler then the gambling site will talk to the gambler to offer the counseling. Just my speculation.

Perhaps, the online gambling site can open courses or make conversation for the addicting person to gambling so they can share their problem and find a solution. But it will be difficult since if we want to make a consultation with someone, we need to talk face to face so they can understand the problem and can help us.

To be honest, I don't have any vision about this because I never heard this way was applied before (or maybe it exists?).

But I think that is a great idea if someone can apply this and he should have a website so people can register first before they can tell the problem. The best thing is that courses will be free for the addiction people.

I think there will be many people who want to share their addiction and ask you how to solve their problem because gambling games will attract more people to become addicting.

addiction is common for everyone if we had a huge interest in something it will turned into addicted think so gambling is more addictive but it is not the big problem it changed into a disease then only we need to considered as a big problem so the solution is all about changing his lifestyle to the different dimension will helpful for recovery.

I do not see why would the online gambling sites provided some kind of support for gambling addicts, they may be the most important source of their earnings. The only way to force them to make some move in that direction is the statutory provision, but that would mean less profit for them, and for tax collectors. If such a law existed, it would be quite easy to implement it - every online gambling site should have chat support for gambling addicts, so if you have problem you can ask help instead of losing more money.

With regard to the amount of money that is turning in this industry, it is not realistic to expect solving this problem in the near future.

Tracking someone who's addicted is difficult and I agree to what the others have said above there won't be any action taken unless the person admits his/her addiction.

Once the person confirms his/her online gambling addiction there are ways to deal with it some people use this subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/problemgambling/) to confess their addiction. Online casinos could link the subreddit to encourage others who aren't aware of their addiction.

Few bitcoin gambling sites manage gambling addictions by having a "self exclusion".

Nitrogen have their own self exclusion feature on the account settings(screenshot (http://prntscr.com/n1u29o)).

Sportsbet would give you durations on how long you prefer to be self excluded.

Their certainly have enough resources to do so. And doing it is a really and truly civilized way of handling operations.

Of course, you can't help everyone since not everyone is willing to put in the hard work and live one day at a time like it is called. I like to call those kind of things step by step.

But the ones that can be saved should be saved and those kind of Casinos should be held in high regard and respect.

You're right mate, in an online gambling operation, gambling addiction is equivalent of profits. Actually, gambling sites that operate it will tell people that they manage gambling addictions of their users but the truth is, they don't and they won't. If you really wanted to know how would they manage addiction to gambling of their customers, then you are actually missing the point why they have started their operation.

If no one is addicted to gambling, the should have not committed in the industry. End of the story.

That should definitely need some regulations for gambling then only it will be approved by the country also who are not trying to accept gambling in their country specially online gambling are developed a huge in recent times so we can definitely trust them and put it as a part of the country.

Not only does the Brick N Mortar casinos have the gambling licenses, nowadays most of the online casinos too have them to cover a wider range of audiences. As similar to BnM casinos the online casinos can have such particular techniques to prevent gamblers from getting addicted more towards the gambling or to prevent them from getting a loss over huge sums of money. The foremost things is that, online casinos don't indulge in such practices commonly since they don't want to have a lesser profits while the gamblers loses the game.

But some of the legit gambling websites have certain roles and responsibilities towards their customers. One such being, they do have certain real time chats to prevent gamblers from being addicted. Another such thing is the Stop Loss prevention. Gambling websites Cam easily track through the profits and losses of a particular gambler. If the gambler seems to be more towards the loss, he can be automatically prevented from being participating in further games. By this way he would be prevented from playing more and certainly losing more.

But we need to understand that, gambling websites probably are not involved in such things and it's up-to the gamblers to limit and prevent themselves from being addicted and not losing their money. If the gamblers take back, gambling sites find a hard time to have such huge profits.

I think most of the sites have a hyper link to gambling addicts or need help kind of services but those are not directly related to the casinos. They’re more like NGO based organisations and casino doesn’t really put something from their site. However, they do promote help for the gambling addicts and that’s important. A forum just for crypto gambling addicts is much desirable at this point.

I am curious as well.  They may be ignoring the problem in order not to lose customers. Anyway they aren't the only addictive businesses that ignore addiction problems.

The Online gambling could simply add a warning about addiction including links for treatment and prevention.

I don’t think not having a face to face consultation will really be a big deal, it shouldn’t be a challenge, after all people read books and get transformed without a direct contact with the author and am even sure they could also have a provision for video chat.

It is really a good idea but I suggest a provision for a link to find out the symptoms of an addicted gambler or questions and answers from where they deduce those suffering from addiction because most addicted gamblers will never admit they need help nor they need to stay away from gambling. This is the reason they do realize only after severe consequences of addictions.

There are certain forums specifically for gambling addicts which is really ideal to be read on if you are aware that you are already addicted to gambling.
Its really good to see that online casinos redirects gamblers to those site which somehow shows some concern to their players about addiction but overall
they would most likely ignore this thing since they do know they can make much money out of these addicted ones.

It is great that this kind of gambling sites are being responsible for these kinds of things but to be honest, this is not their problem. It is kind of them to help those gambling addicts but they should not always put themselves on the part of helping those people, it should start with the people around that addict. As far as I know, people around that people cause them to be addictive into something and it will be better if they have their family, friends or loved ones in their side helping them. Also, since you said that it is a gambling site, how would they know that that person is really addicted and what if that person denies that he is addicted?

It is not their responsibility to keep players out of addiction, they do have some general guidelines in their website which gamblers should follow in order to not fall in addiction.

However the casinos do not care much if a gambler becomes or not becomes addicted as they clearly have a point in their guidelines to gsmble responsibly and with that they remove their responsibility from them.

First of all very interesting discussion and watching this had made me curious to ask this (hope that OP doesn't have problem with it) that:

Does this online way of controlling gambling addiction by providing an option of "self exclusion" works? Suppose I have addiction problem and I applied to be self-excluded for some months and the next day I received some money that I can afford to lose and register again at the same site. So whats the use of implementation of self-exclusion in online platforms at all?

I haven't played in real casinos but I am pretty sure that they would oppose a player to play again if they happen to try again before the expiry of self-exclusion period but in online casinos how can you keep things up?

That's the difference between online and physical casinos.If they both decide on giving out self-exclusion period then implementing will be different.
We know that online things will really be hard to stop due to accessibility.No one can stop you to play if you do have the funds online, so these things are useless.

Some people prefer to make a conversation face to face to consult their problem, but the other might be fine to make a conversation with using a video call.

So perhaps, we need to ask a simple question to people who feel that they are addicted to gambling before they consult to us and from their answer, we could determine how big their addicting and how to solve their problem.

We can hope that soon, and these courses will be open for the addicting people to gambling, so they know where they need to go. And for people who are not yet start addicted, they know how to prevent to become addicting to gambling.

That's a good feature for a site but at the end it's up to someone if he would take it or not. Especially in online, such thing should be done personally. If it's just in online, things might not fully work and ended up owner is just wasting money, it's all about business after all. For me, addiction can only help mainly by yourself, others are guide.

Exactly

So whats the point of providing? Another tool for casinos to say that they have advantage over others?  :P


Untill or unless the gambler realises that he has a gambling addiction and really wants to stop it , he can't control himself from gambling. Self-Exclusion in online platforms are useless if the person again goes out of control at early point.


IMO best course of action should be to help the user's with some blogs or readings about controlling their addiction in brief.

A forum for gambling addict will be useful as well.  But I wonder why you prefer crypto based forum for the addicts. I think they will get thesame experience from both non crypto forum for addicts and crypto forum for addicts

yes I agree with you addiction will came only for the person who had a lots of interest and time to spend with can be so there is no other responsibility will came for the addition of a single person.

I think it is difficult to implement because in a sense there is 2 different paths for a business. You want the clients to play more obviously, but at the same time to be ethical and stop addicted players you must prevent them from playing more.

I have personally seen good admins in bitcoin casinos talk to problem players and work it out personally. Like they lock their accounts only to let them chat but not gamble.

Ok, the best suggestion I saw to resolve this issue is some link on the gambling site to a gambling addiction website that deals with gambling addictions. Another good idea, might be to add a chat option on the site, where people can reach out for help, if they cannot cope with their gambling addiction. <I would hope that the person on the gambling side, had some training to deal with gambling addiction>

Why do gambling sites need to deal with this? It is quite simple, if you ruin some persons financial life, they stop gambling.  ;)  <You want them to enjoy the experience and you want them to constantly come back to the site.>

It's not in gambling sites' interest to fight against gambling addiction. Oppositely it seems they do their best to support it. Free spins and different kind of bonuses can be a prove for that.

They could do it by setting up limits for losses but this would allow people to sue them. If you lost 100 thousand dollars and wanted to play some more to earn the money back but they wouldn't let you it would be reason enough to sue them.

They could count the time you spend on their site and suspend your account for a day or two but this would also be a stupid idea. If you forgot to log off and went to bed the timer would keep ticking and eventually ban you.

Online activities really addictive, even simple Facebook can make us addicted what more is gambling online, so it is really hard to avoid or even limit ourselves through gambling online even if they have a limit for bets if they still want to play they will still continue playing using other account or they can have multiple accounts right? So it now really depends on a gambler on how they will ban themselves from getting addicted.

I find it hard to understand how would they do it since in the first place they have worked hard just get a lot of people but when someone starts to complain about addiction I don't think they have to tell them to stop playing in our platform. Though BnM has the right to do it since it is required upon taking licenses.

All of this the answer is self discipline to avoid addicting while playing in any kind of gambling online casino or playing in land, even if there have counseling if the people have nothing discipline it's the way to become addicting.

Not all gambling sites do their best though as one user pointed out online casinos do have a link about gambling addiction making everyone aware of it. Free spins or any kind of promotion is not a proof that a online casinos encourages gambling addiction, they're only doing their best to attract more gamblers. There's a possibilty that someone could be addicted through it but without a real evidence(stats) I wouldn't say so.

Exactly. I haven't encountered yet an online casino limiting the games of their players just because they noticed the trend behavior of that person. It is really up to the gambler how he will control himself into this addiction. It would be nice if there are online casino sites doing personal check and balance of their players thru their bets and time spent on their site. But I highly doubt that would ever happen.

You cannot simply discount this problem as a non-issue and blame the individual for their actions. Every industry has a social responsibility to ensure that their product and service are safe to use. This is why we are seeing compulsory warning signs on tobacco products and also alcohol products.

They also know that excessive gambling addiction will cause more harm than good to the whole gambling industry, because regulators will step in to protect the consumers, if this goes unchallenged.  ;) 

I think gambling sites will not care about that and the facilities for addiction. while addiction provides the biggest advantage for the gambling site? if you want to get out of addiction, you have to work on your own, gambling sites have no deal in healing it

I don’t understand the idea of Brick and Mortar casinos applying a measure for gamblers with gambling addiction to ban themselves. Addicted gamblers would never accept they are suffering from addiction in the first place, so how do they expect them to ban themselves.

If this site actually cares about addicted gamblers, they would be able to know gamblers who are suffering from addition from their history and then auto ban them, and also request that they seek professional help. But, I have the feelings that most of these sites make more money from those addicted gamblers and they will find it difficult to put measures in place to automatically ban an addicted gambler and advise them to look for help. 

The gambling sites will not provide any kind of prevention for addiction show the people who are addicted will definitely the problem is on his side so without addiction for everyone is not possible but making without addicting to gambling is possible by everyone.

I know that Crypto-Games allows players to contact them when they have problems with gambling addiction and they'll ban that player's IP address if they want it.
I think there are perhaps other casinos that offer similar arrangements, but I personally can't think of any examples.

The least that casinos should offer is a link to gambling addiction resources or a helpline.
Most of them do that luckily.

It depends on each of the gamblers, the personality possessed by the gambler will determine whether they can avoid addiction or not. This must be understood because every gambler must be able to control emotionally well. Addiction is a problem, but when a gambler has a special formula for doing good management, they will be able to avoid addiction by themselves.

If the gambling sites has a system that monitoring gambling addiction and those members that are suspected to be in a serious gamblers and losing often should be block from making deposit. It is also very important for the gambling sites to interview the members in other to find out if someone is addicted to gambling.

Im guessing that they embrace it in this case and why shouldnt they if the gambler is trying to take their money.
You can ask to be excluded but if it has come down to this part in your life, you really might need to seek other helpful options.
Like any other addiction there are ways to prevent your desire to gamble.

This is was right, you can do it your self and we can't blame gambling site of being an addiction. It can be avoided if gambler noticed that it makes feel personality possessed on gambling. However, controlling your self is not just easy but if you can apply self-discipline probably you made it. Don't let gambling control your emotion, you must have to adjust on it to have a better profit.

It's very difficult if you really want to record all the players and ask if they are addicted or not? This is a very ridiculous choice where those who are addicted to gambling often do not realize what they are doing and cannot control everything that has been spent and are emotionally difficult to anticipate, there is no system that can prevent everything from returning to own feeling and consult with the closest people to get more support but unfortunately they are not honest with what they are feeling right now, nobody can prevent it all.

Gambling sites and casinos dont usually concerned about the person getting addict in gambling because for the fact it gives them more profit that regular gambler. But in that case, i guess online gambling are harder to be stopped because of the easy access. Even you ban yourself from the site, you can use difderent accounts to play.

That’s true and most of the addicted gamblers only admit this one when the’ve lose everything. Well, this can be a good advantage to the gambling site because more players will stay. A gambling site with a legal team to address addiction is also a good sign that the gamblin site is serious to help their players not to be addict.

Yes, addiction is that their main concerns instead they'll be happy that many we're fall into that so they can generate more income from them(loyal gamblers). Online gambling will have that disadvantage also cause even young minds can still access their sites and it could lead them to be out of the school.

I agree with you. Most of them are not aware if they have already addicted to gambling. While others refuse to get treatment from counseling and advisors. These cases need big support from their families, especially from parents, wives or husbands. They should ensure the addicted gamblers to consult or get special treatment. Besides then, the role of the advisor or consultant determines the result.  

Simply because its their advantage to earn more so literally if you are addict casinos/gambling sites will not help you to recover on that, maybe they will lend you more money so you will play more. Its hard to stop addiction, whether its online or on casinos, your desire to help yourself is the most important thing to do.

I don't know about such "brick'n mortar" casinos.The offline casinos in my country don't have such social responsibilities.It would be great if the online casinos implement some sort of betting limits per account/IP address,but I don't think this will solve the gambling addiction problem.Many players will use VPNs and swithc their IP adress.Implementing KYC and ID verifications can partially solve this,but many players will just run away from online casinos with KYC rules.

I don't think so. Once a person is addicted to something, he must be aware of that. Perhaps he refuses not to stop because of greediness which part of human nature. Only himself can help him from that addiction.

a gambling addict can help his own self but its better if he can seek mental help from other people because that can give him an encouragement to be able to speed up his recovery process  . @kawetsriyanto thats impossible if a person didnt know that he is addicted on gambling or not because once a person is addicted in gambling , he can play more longer in an inapropriate way   . he might not unabe to eat or sleep due to being busy playing execsive gambling  .

I think when it comes to online casinos, they would barely take it head on. It's terrible that it's happening in real life but beneficial towards the idea of casinos having a "stream of money" from that person.

An action they could take is check the login times of people and maybe see who is not logging out and keeps on playing on the screen (Not the people who use bots to gamble with them) instead. Maybe estimate if how much they are willing to wager and continue monitoring them. It may be bad for the casino to interfere, but someone who has addiction should be dealt with.

Thats the only thing that they can do on where they can redirect addicted gamblers to those helplines,forums etc. but generally they wont really care at all too much
for their players as long they are making profits with them.Good to know that Cryptogames do offer such banning of IP but its still useless in all sorts because on internet
we can either just simply play with other gambling sites or just simply use vpn then you are ready to go.

It's a wise and noble goal actually. but I doubt if gambling sites can provide such things. each player has responsibility to themselves after all. every player know the risk in gambling, about being addict or bankrupt, so they have to deal any problem with themselves

It is a big challenge for an online gambling site ro identify an addicted gambler. For the KYC enabled online casinos, a limit can be placed on a person's account that he can play only a certain number of bets in a day. But that can't be enforced for a crypto casino where KYC is not required because an user can create another account using vpn to continue playing!

So online casinos will have to rely on the user only. In most of the cases gamblers don't understand that they are addicted. So online casinos can't do much about it.

I suggest every online casino to use a simple redirect feature. Once an user logs out from the website, the final page can be redirected to the "International Problem Gambling Help" webpage. Every casino websites use their link at the bottom of their website so they can definitely redirect their users to that website. But the final action really depends on the end user!

Frankly I think that it is not the responsibility of the gambling firm to provide counseling services. Their duty is to provide a honest gambling platform, and it is up to the player to control his addiction.

The problem I have seen with gambling addition is that most of its victims would never own up that they are suffering from addition so that they can get immediate help. That’s why I always tell gambler to try as much as possible to have self-control and also a good management so they won’t end up becoming addicts. Gambling game is naturally addictive and it takes only a man with self-control to avoid this. Spending too much time on the game will lead to addiction in the long run.

I think it will be quite difficult for gamblers to apply self-exclusion on the site as most addicted gamblers will never agree to be suffering from addiction.

The best a site can do is to take note of the gamer’s history; there should be a way they would know. Maybe from the number of hours spent to the amount, then they can have a link that will send the addicted gambler to chart with experts, maybe advise the gamer to go seek an offline professional help or if it is possible put a ban on the gamblers account.

Yes. Eventhough gambling sites have disclaimers or sort of several banners posted on their site about responsible gambling, it's up to gamblers if they will be eaten by their greed and become addicted. Honestly being addicted is usual. It's part of the "natural" effect when doing gambling. But somehow if their addiction results into unusual and inappropriate activity, that's the time they need some guidance.

It's not necessary for a gambling site operators or owners to implement a counseling service but Im glad some doing that.

I don't know how sincere the gambling site's advisors in this matter. In the first place they must think of the benefit of their business and every gambler must be welcome as long as they give profit to the site, in the other hand, since they had agreed to this matter to give counseling to gambling addicts then they must do it contrary to their goal. Their goal is to make profit and not to save gamblers from addiction. This sounds irrelevant and insincere to me.

Yes.This might be hard to believe but if this is real,then it would be good for addicted gamblers.But since most of the addicted gamblers today do not admit as they are so it would be a task for the gambling site to recognized them and make counseling afterwards.Though they will make less profit with this but atleast they will be able to help with those addicted ones.

Yeah sure, players can easily circumvent it, but at least it's a bit more than just directing addicts to gambling addiction helplines etc.
I think they'll also disable your account, so there's an added step that addicts need to take to start playing again, at least on Crypto-Games.

And yeah, they can always just play on a different site, there's nothing to stop that. Unless there was some sort of system of globally banning IPs across many different gambling sites.

Well, I would say that it is a very nice initiative and it will be good if all online casino sites can apply same technique of having a provision for self/auto ban to players having addiction. Addicted gamblers are always aware there is something wrong with them but they find it hard to control it.

I don’t want to believe there would be anyone suffering from addiction without their awareness, just that they always want to keep it secret but with a medium like this, it should go a long way in helping. But, self-ban is not enough, the casino should also ensure to follow up on the gamer to be sure they have received necessary help from family and friends or even they can partner with a rehab where they refer them to.

How can an addicted gambler not know this, it’s not possible for anyone to be suffering from addiction and not be aware, except the person is just not ready to come out of it. I have seen cases of people who complain that they do not know how to control themselves and they truly feel like putting a stop to gambling excessively.

Addicted people always know that something is wrong but that inability to put a stop is what makes it addition and that is where friends, family and relatives now come in to give support and in this case of online casinos that are willing to help addicted gamblers, the gambler can now use self-ban till he feels he’s sane enough to play the game without going to the extreme.

At least where I live currently, casinos don't care about gambling addicts, nor government. You can play as much as you want, if you have a little beard no one asks for ID, just enter and play unlimited + there are a lot of pawnshops here near casinos to put your smartphone, watch or anything and keep gambling + some pawnshop takes items like smartphone and etc without original case. So one cares about gambling addicts, no one + every local website is full of online casino ads, there are a lot of ads in streets too.
Btw on another hand, casinos usually ban your by your request or some of them sets limits on money you can gamble monthly.

No online gambling website or casino will put a limit on the betting per IP address or per account.
This would mean a minimized activity per user and no company would want that. The more they use the website, the more the profit for the company. Know your costumer would make the users run away from the website and they would rather explore new places to do what they want to do. And there is no concept like that in the traditional casinos or gambling industry.

They actually gain more from addicted gamblers and I don’t want to believe that these sites will truly have the interest of addicted gamblers at heart. Every business person wants a consistent client and in most cases do not care about where the money is coming from, that is the same way it is with this gambling sites.

If they truly care, I think it is easy to detect from their system and they can put an alarm or ban the player themselves, then send a mail to advice gamer to call for counseling. I think it’s that easy to do, don’t know if am right though.

But don't you think it will affect their business? I understand they do counselling. Dont you think counselling is itself a marketing. If you are into business you will certainly agree to my point. Just look at every stuff, people get addicted to. They will neither stop selling their products nor stop their advertisement. Its their business, hence nothing can stop one from being addicted unless and until the individual thinks himself and stops.

Who gambling site owner would tend to ban a certain player which do spend tons of cash on their site? For sure no one will do such thing since they do know that they can milk out profits
with those addicted ones.
Showing concern do just act like a mask for them not to be seen that they dont really care at all onto their addicted players. The more addicted players on the site the bigger the smile that do they have.

I think that most online gambling sites have this warning message and disclaimer about gambling and its effects to an individual. Mostly by just agreeing to their consent and agreement terms, a person could already participate in gambling as they believed they already adhered to it. Online gambling sites are mostly operated by businessmen who are inclined to profits alone and these types of problems stem from the decision of the person playing the game.


Like any other business no matter how humanistic or socially inclined they are, all of them are driven by profits. Their goal is to produce the highest profit margin and earn cash for their needs. What I learned in business school is that all business revolve around the word "PROFIT".

I know someone personally who works in a energy/power corporation and there CEO often participates in social responsible events and host environmentalist projects. But all of those are purely for PR and media in order to look good on paper and on media.

That is the hard truth in the gambling industry. Haven't seen a single casino website trying to stop a gambler to play because he's spending too much money and time. I don't think there will be a gambling site that will dedicate their effort to fight the gambling addiction of a person. Let's admit the reality here!

I will disagree because that customer ultimately burns themself out and never comes back.   A good business is built from regular business in a sustainable way, sure some sites might be like that but any long term operation i think allows self suspension for weeks, months maybe a year and even account delete.   Problem with crypto gambling is they can create other accounts but its really upto the individual in that case also

I agree with you completely and I would say you have a great suggestion. Most addicted gamblers are pretty much aware of this addict and they find it challenging talking to someone about it, am very sure majority of this addicted gamblers will be fast to use the self-auto ban button to give themselves the first break, less call this the first aid treatment, even though there might be need to later go for therapy but this would go a long way in assisting them go on break.

I think all that can be done is like a warning on the site while signing up. Just like conditions and warranty of terms before the gambler signs up , where no further registration can continue until the term of reference is agreed upon. Because you can't start advicing someone physically.

I think the reply is obvious. Gambling sites give an opportunity to play a game for money and will an individual become addicted depends only from him and his way of thinking. I believe there are different people, some of them can easy be hooked on the dream of huge possible profit and bonuses. But there are those who stay cool minded and rational.