Gambling Responsibly on Online Slots

What is responsible gambling?

It’s a phrase that you’ll no doubt have seen if you’ve participated in any form of gambling in the past, especially online. The premise of gambling responsibly on slots and other casino games has become much more prevalent over the last decade, as online casinos have become more and more popular.

While the ability to play your favourite casino games on your mobile device has made gambling so much more accessible, it has also presented a serious risk to those susceptible to problem gambling. While there is always an element of risk associated with punting online, it can and should be done responsibly.

Responsible gambling is broadly defined as betting in a way that doesn’t put you at risk. This is predominantly financial-based and means ensuring you do not bet more than you can afford to lose. It can, however, have a significant effect on your mental health if not properly practised.

That is why it’s vital to ensure that online slot safety is at the top of your list of priorities when you are looking to play at the best slot sites.

Tips for gambling responsibly on slots

If responsible gambling isn’t exercised, you could end up chasing losses on slots and that’s not something you should be doing. It’s always important to bet within your means and this includes having a budget for your slots play and knowing when to stop.

Gambling should be an activity that is fun and, when it stops being fun, that’s when you need to walk away. It should never be used as a means to make money or a way to quickly increase your bank balance.

The saying “the house always wins” exists for a reason and, over the long term, that is almost always the case. View gambling as a once in a while, fun thing to do and you’ll be on the right path to gambling in a responsible manner.

There’s a lot of information out there though and ‘responsible gambling’ is quite a broad term. That’s why we’ve compiled some of our top tips for gambling responsibly on slots below.

Decide on a slot budget

Our first top tip is to set a slot budget before you begin playing and sticking to it. This can be as small, or as large, as you’re comfortable with.

The main thing is that you actually stick to it. If you reach your spending limit for that session, you should then close the game and logout of your online casino account.

It’s a common mistake to set a really low budget and this should only apply if you’re used to playing very small stake spins. It’s important that your budget is set at a realistic target relative to your average game play.

For instance, if you regularly bet $50 in a given session playing online slots, then it’s highly unlikely that you’ll stick to a slot budget of $10. So, keep this in mind and even review your past gameplay to get an idea of your average spends.

Once you know what this is, make a note of your slot budget and make sure that you stick to it each time you play. Over time, this will give you a much better chance of being in profit than just playing looking for a big win.

Establish time limits

In addition to your slot budget, you should also establish some time limits on your gameplay. This will help you to avoid chasing losses and continue gambling responsibly on slots if you can stick to it.

A big mistake players make when playing online slots is that they think that the longer they play, the better their chances of winning. This isn’t the case, and never will be.

It’s true that the return to player (RTP) rate of online slots is high, mostly in the high 90-percentile, but long term that means you lose money. Slots are effectively designed to slowly chip away at your funds, giving you some back from time to time to make you feel like you’re winning.

The reality is, however, that even when you win, oftentimes you actually still lose. For instance, if a total stake on a spin is $5 but you “win” $3.50 back, you’ve still lost $1.50.

Over a period of time, this will slowly drain your gambling funds and, only if you’re lucky enough to hit a jackpot, will you be able to avoid this. This is the cornerstone of online slot safety.

So, to ensure you don’t overdo it, you should incorporate our first tip of setting a slot budget, with our second tip of establishing a time limit on your play. These will help to ensure you continue gambling responsibly on slots.

Avoid chasing losses on slots

One fundamental mistake that players make is chasing losses on slots. As we’ve already outlined, the longer you play, the more chance there is of you losing. So, it doesn’t make sense to chase losses.

Slots are cleverly designed to lure players into a false sense of security. They’re very good at making you feel like a big win is coming, in order to motivate you to continue playing.

While it’s not impossible that this may happen, there’s no guarantee it will. This creates a great deal of risk if your sole reason for playing slots is to make money quickly and easily.

Online slots rely on a player’s mentality to tell themselves that a big winning spin is “due” or must happen at some point. The fact is that these events are completely random, decided by random number generator (RNG) software.

You could win big on back-to-back spins. You could equally not win anything for 20 consecutive spins. This randomness is the main reason that chasing losses on slots will only result in you losing more money in the long term.

So, to ensure that you keep on gambling responsibly on slots, you should avoid chasing losses. You should do this, along with the other tips we have provided here, to give you the best possible online slots experience.

Slot self-exclusion and other responsible gambling tools

If you’re losing too much money, or you feel you may have a problem with your gambling habits, then a slot self-exclusion could be an option.

Every reputable online casino will offer players multiple tools to ensure that they are gambling responsibly on slots and any other games that they offer.

Generally, you’ll find these tools in your account section, under the ‘responsible gambling’ header. This is where you can choose which responsible gambling tool is most suited to your needs.

One of the most popular tools that players use is setting up deposit limits on the account. This tool allows you to set a deposit amount limit and the timeframe for which the limit applies.

For example, you could set a $100 deposit limit that can be applied per day, per week or per month. Once you reach this limit, you must wait for the designated time period to expire before your limit resets.

This is a great way to ensure you stay within your slot budget. As is the loss limit tool, which works in a similar way. You set the limit for your losses for a given period and once reached, you’re blocked from playing until the limit resets.

A more permanent measure that you can take is to implement a slot self-exclusion. A self-exclusion is a notice from you to your online casino that you effectively wish for them to block you from being able to deposit and play on their site.

Self-exclusions can be set for a period of 6 months up to 5 years. Once the time has passed, you must also go through a process to remove the exclusion from your account.

However, this cannot be done any earlier than the time frame that you have decided when setting up the slot self-exclusion. So, keep that mind if you’re looking to use this particular tool.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s important that gambling on slots responsibly is at the forefront of your mind when you play online. This will help to protect you from losing money or developing a gambling problem.

We’ve provided these top tips to help you along your way. This will also help to ensure that you have fun when gambling and maintain a healthy relationship with it.

By using things like a slot budget and implementing time and other limits on your account, you can stay fully in control. Over a longer period of time, this will save you money and help prevent you chasing losses on slots.

If things get out of control, you can always implement a slot self-exclusion on your account. This will block you playing slots or any other games and will also prevent you from depositing into your account.

Using these tips when you play online will go a long way to ensuring that you are gambling responsibly on slots. So, stick to them and keep online slot safety in mind when you play at your favourite casino.