Safer Gambling Week 2023
Safer Gambling Week is an annual industry initiative designed to promote the best and safest gambling practices. Whether an operator or a comparison site like us, we’re working to together to shed light on how to gamble safely with all the tools that are at your disposal.
The History
Having started in 2017, SGW is now a well established part of our industry’s calendar. Every year, the campaign focuses on new and different areas to remain relevant and helpful to players. You can view our previous Safer Gambling Week posts for some more history and context by scrolling down to the end of the article.
The Now
What does Safer Gambling Week mean in 2023 and how can it help educate us all about a safe, secure gambling environment?
This year, Safer Gambling is more player-centric than it has been in the past. This year the website is offering heaps of direct advice, support and knowledge for players to implement practically in their gambling.
Let’s Talk About Safer Gambling
This year, SGW is focusing on four points for players to remember. These are:
- It’s good to set yourself limits – Online gambling sites offer great tools such as time or deposit limits that you can set in your account. According to SGW’s statistics, 400,000 players are setting a deposit limit every month. It’s a great place to start to make sure you’re gambling within your means and comfort level.
- Gambling is not a way to make money – Being a professional gambler is not a real profession. Pretty much every game you play has a house edge. Statistically every gambler loses money and you should always bear that in mind. Will you get lucky sometimes? Probably, but the emphasis there is on the word “lucky”…
- It’s good to take a break – Isn’t that one of life’s lessons? Always be prepared to step away when things are too intense, painful, sad or making you angry. As the slogan goes, “Take time to think!”
- Friends and family are more important than gambling – In fact, the people nearest and dearest to you in your life are more important than anything. If you ever feel that gambling is affecting your social life and relationships, please get in touch with one of the support services that we’re going to list below.
Setting Limits
As the first in SGW’s four pronged mantra, there’s a real focus on limit setting this year. These are some of the best ways that you can set limits in your gambling account:
- Set a Reality Check reminder – this will trigger on screen alerts which will tell you how long you’ve been playing.
- Time trackers – some casinos will have a clock tracking how long you’ve been playing constantly visible. Keep an eye on it!
- Gambling Deposit Limits – These are the surest way to make sure you don’t spend more money than you want to or can afford. There are other types of limits available as well such as wager limits or loss limits. A deposit limit is perhaps the simplest.
Off site, you can also limit the gambling content you see on social media as well as have your bank block gambling transactions. More information about this can be found on the site!
Self Exclusion
Remember, if you’ve just had enough then you can self-exclude from any and every gambling operator in the United Kingdom. Individual online casinos or networks will have their own self-exclusion schemes which are usually in force for a minimum of 6 months.
However, the GAMSTOP scheme offers a blanket self-exclusion to players from all UK licensed online gambling sites. This has been one of the most important innovations in online gambling over the past decade.
More Information
Stay safe and if you need any help and support, head over to one of these fantastic resources.
National Gambling Treatment Service – 0808 8020 133 (Free Telephone Number)
Gamcare – Live Chat
Support for Young People – Big Deal