Responsible Gambling

Gambling can be a very enjoyable pastime, but it’s pivotal to remember that it’s a potentially addictive activity which, if not enjoyed responsibly, can be very damaging both to you and those around you. On this page, we’ll discuss responsible gambling in Australia to help you understand what it is, and how to practice it.  

Gambling in Australia has grown significantly in Australia in recent years, with the increased accessibility of gambling sites – which has occurred largely through the development of Australian betting apps which make it incredibly easy to punt on the go. 
 
That growth in popularity has meant that the concept of responsible gambling has gained an increasing amount of attention, and virtually all major betting sites in Australia now offer a range of different gambling tools to help their customers ensure they are gambling responsibly.  
 
We will go into more specific detail about these responsible gambling tools later on in this page. For now, however, let’s take a look at some of the broader tools you have to get help if you’re struggling to gamble responsibly.  

There are a number of different places where you can get help limiting your gambling, or helping you to ensure that you gamble responsibly. Some of these responsible gambling services are listed in this section. 
 
If you want to speak to somebody about your gambling habits, you can check out the following organisations: 

• Gambling Help Online (www.gamblinghelponline.org.au, 1800 858 858) 
• Gambling Therapy (www.gamblingtherapy.org) 
• Gamblers Anonymous (www.gaaustralia.org) 
• 100 Day Challenge (www.100dc.com.au) 

You can also access a variety of mental health services if gambling is impacting on your mental health, including the below organisations: 

• Lifeline (www.lifeline.org.au, 13 11 14) 
• Beyond Blue (www.beyondblue.org.au, 1300 224 636) 
• 1800RESPECT (www.1800respect.org.au, 1800 737 732) 
• R U OK? (www.ruok.org.au) 
• Relationships Australia (www.relationships.org.au, 1300 364 277)  

As mentioned earlier on this responsible gambling page, there are a number of different responsible gambling tools offered by bookmakers to help you to keep your gambling in check. Not all bookmakers will offer all of these tools, but typically the larger betting agencies will have some if not all of them available. 

Deposit Limits 

Deposit limits, as the name suggests, allow you to place limits on how much money you deposit into your betting account with a particular example. This is a relatively flexible tool; you can choose to set a limit on how much you deposit in a month, a week, or another period of time, and once you set it you can’t exceed that amount.  
 
If, for example, you set a deposit limit of $50 for a month, you can change it during that month but the change won’t come into effect until the end of that month. This means if you decide you wish to deposit more, you won’t be able to do so until that month has passed, meaning you can’t make the decision on a whim. 
 
This is a really valuable tool and is one which most bookmakers now promote when you sign up with them, asking if you want to set a deposit limit once you create an account. It is worth noting that these deposit limits only apply to the bookmaker on which you set them, so if you’re trying to limit your overall expenditure you need to factor in your deposit limits across all betting sites that you use.  

Self-exclusion 

Self-exclusion is a more definitive responsible gambling measure than setting a deposit limit, which essentially locks you out of your betting account with a particular betting site for a predetermined period of time. Once you take this route, you won’t be able to change your mind and the account will be locked until the end of the exclusion period. 
 
There are generally a few options for how long you wish to exclude yourself for. Usually, you can set it for a short period of somewhere between one and 30 days, or you can set it for a longer period of time, from six months up to five years or more. 
 
Obviously the intention behind this is to ensure that even when you have an urge to gamble, the option won’t be there – at least with the particular bookmaker from which you’ve excluded yourself. Again, as with deposit limits, this is only applicable for the betting sites for which you exclude yourself, so if you want to stop gambling entirely make sure you do it across all betting sites. 

The responsible gambling tools which are available with Australian betting sites are generally relatively accessible. Typically, you’ll be able to find them in the menus which are usually on the left-hand side of a bookmaker’s desktop site or at the footer menu, so if you’re on your computer this can be the way to go. 
 
Alternatively, if you’re one of the many punters who is always on the lookout for the best betting apps in Australia, you’ll be able to find the responsible gambling tools on these, too. This means you can set a deposit limit, take a break or find information about where to get help quickly and easily from your mobile device on Australian betting apps.  
 
The best betting apps will almost without fail make these reasonably easy to find on your mobile, and for me this is the simplest way to access these tools. Such is the irony of betting apps; they are what makes it so easy to gamble in Australia and subsequently increase the likelihood of punting too much, but equally it’s through them that you’ll be most easily able to access responsible gambling tools.  

While much of responsible gambling is centred around preventing addiction, it’s also important for punters to bet with betting sites that are legitimate in order to reduce the potential harm of betting. 
 
This is for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is simply that if a bookmaker is not licensed and regulated by a legitimate organisation in Australia, then they’re not somebody who you should be giving either your details or your money to.  
 
What’s more, illegitimate gambling sites will not have the responsible gambling tools that we’ve mentioned above. Even if they don’t turn out to be a complete scam, they’re still not going to be regulated to the extent at which they need to set deposit limits or implement other responsible gambling tools. 
 
At BettingTop10, we review a number of different Australian betting sites and Australian betting apps, and all of them are licensed and regulated in Australia. That means that if you see a reviewed site on BettingTop10, or come across it in our list of all betting sites in Australia, you can be confident that they are a legitimate betting site.