Responsible Gaming

Our starting point

Let’s not dress it up. A bet on the football or twenty minutes on a slot is entertainment you pay for, same as a cinema ticket, and it is not a way to earn money. Every market we price has a margin built in. Every casino game has a house edge. Play for long enough and the maths wins, no matter how good your tips are or how lucky the week has been. We’d rather say that at the top of the page than bury it. One more thing before the detail: beta-hoy.co.uk is for adults only, 18 and over, and we check that before a single withdrawal goes out.

Tools built into your account

Everything below lives under Responsible Gambling in My Account, and you can set it up on day one, before you’ve put any money in. Make a limit tighter and it applies straight away. Make it looser and you’ll wait 24 hours. That gap is there on purpose, so a decision made at two in the morning after a bad run doesn’t take effect until you’ve slept on it.

• Deposit limits by day, week or month, including a net version that takes your withdrawals into account
• Loss limits that simply stop play once you’ve lost the amount you set
• Reality checks that interrupt the screen at whatever interval you pick and show the time and money spent
• Time-outs from 24 hours up to six weeks, with no login possible until they end
• Self-exclusion for six months up to five years
• Closing the account for good, which you can ask for over chat or by email

Self-exclusion

Here’s what actually happens when you self-exclude. The account closes for the period you’ve chosen. Whatever balance is left goes back to the payment method on file. Marketing stops. You can’t open another account with us while it runs, and we won’t lift it early, however you ask or whatever the reason, because an exclusion you can talk your way out of isn’t worth much. When the period ends, nothing reopens by itself. You’d have to get in touch, and even then there’s another 24 hours before you can place a bet.

GamStop

We’re part of GamStop, the national scheme that covers online gambling across Great Britain. One registration there and you’re blocked from every licensed online operator in the country at the same time, us included, for six months, a year or five years. It’s free, it takes a few minutes on gamstop.co.uk, and it’s far more thorough than excluding from sites one at a time. If you’ve already signed up to GamStop, you won’t get past our registration form, which is exactly how it should work.

Blocking software

GamStop only reaches licensed sites. For everything else there’s software like Gamban or BetBlocker, which sits on your phone or laptop and stops gambling sites and apps from loading at all. Worth adding on top: most UK banks now let you switch on a gambling block for your debit card. Once it’s on, payments to any gambling merchant bounce, and the bank makes you wait before you can turn it off again.

Signs worth noticing

Chasing losses. Spending more than you’d decided to before you started. Borrowing to fund a bet. Not mentioning it to the people around you. Feeling edgy on the days you can’t play. Those are the things specialists ask about first. One on its own doesn’t mean much; plenty of people have gone over budget on a Saturday. Two or three at once, though, and it’s worth talking to someone who isn’t in the middle of it with you.

Free and confidential help

The National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, is on 0808 8020 133. It’s free from any phone, open every day, all day and all night, and there’s a live chat on gamcare.org.uk if you’d rather type than talk. The NHS has specialist gambling clinics across England; your GP can refer you, or you can refer yourself. Gamblers Anonymous meets in most towns and online. And if it’s someone else’s gambling that’s worrying you, a partner, a parent, a friend, the same helpline will talk to you too.

Under-18s

Anyone under 18 placing a bet is breaking the law, and so are we if we let them. We check age when an account is opened and again before the first withdrawal. If an account turns out to belong to a minor, it’s closed, the stakes go back and any winnings are withheld. If there are younger people in the house who use the same tablet or laptop, log out when you’re done and don’t let the browser remember your password. It’s a small habit that saves a lot of trouble.

How to reach us about this

You don’t have to do any of this through the settings menu if you’d rather not. Open live chat or email [email protected] and someone on the team will set a limit, close the account or just go through the options with you. Everyone on support has been trained on safer gambling, and if you ask for a restriction it goes on the same day, not after a review.