Responsible Gambling in South Africa

Tips on How to Gamble Responsibly

Learning how to gamble responsibly is a crucial part of keeping online gambling safe and fun. Here are some of our tips on how to manage and monitor your gambling activities:

• Never aim to earn money when gambling — Gambling is a game of chance, and so by its nature, it’s far from a stable way to earn an income. When you gamble, you should always consider it a source of entertainment rather than a way to make money, as the latter could quickly lead to risky, self-destructive habits. 

• Set a firm, unbreakable limit on your budget — always go into a gambling session with the expectation that you will lose a specific amount, and never go beyond it. Going beyond your means when gambling could cause you significant financial harm.

• Even when you make a profit, stick to your budget — Regardless of whether luck is on your side on a particular day, never spend more than your pre-determined budget. This doesn’t mean calculating your overall losses but how much you have wagered. Doing this not only ensures you’ll maintain better habits, but it also means you’ll actually get to benefit from anything you win. 

• Bet small many times rather than large a handful of times — if you’re gambling for pleasure, try to make many low-risk wagers to keep the entertainment going for longer rather than going all in on a single, high-risk wager. Sure, if it pays out you’ll feel amazing, but it also provokes worse behaviours. Keeping your wagers small also means your fun will last longer (which is especially important if you’re trying to meet wagering requirements). 

• Don’t chase your losses — this adage is as old as casinos themselves, but it’s still vital advice. Trying to make up your losses can be tempting, but you should always know when to cut your losses. Chasing a loss can quickly lead to even greater losses than you might otherwise. 

• Take regular breaks — taking breaks gives you a chance to clear your mind and consider the amount of time or money you’ve spent gambling. You can also have a friend help you enforce this or use time-out tools on betting sites. 

• Assess your mood before gambling — your mood can severely impact your ability to make rational decisions and control your behaviour. So don’t start if you’re feeling depressed, lonely or angry. 

• Don’t let gambling be your only hobby — always make sure to diversify your interests, especially when one of them is gambling. Having many hobbies means that you won’t always be turning to gambling when you need to calm down or entertain yourself. 

• Use responsible gambling tools when you need them — whether it’s a deposit limit, loss limit or self-exclusion, always be willing to use these when you need them. These tools aren’t just for people with gambling addictions; everyone should be using them to help maintain healthy gambling habits. You can also call the National Responsible Gambling Toll-free Counselling line for further advice. 

Gambling Online: How to Stay Safe

We’ve gone over some of our top tips for keeping your gambling habits in check, but now, let's take a look at some specific tools and tactics you can use to keep yourself in check. 

Setting Time Limits

One of the main responsible gambling tools you’ll find at online gambling sites is time limits. This allows you to set a hard and fast limit on how long you can use a gambling site at once (similar to how you might limit the amount of time you can use an app on your phone). By using a time limit, you don’t have to rely on your self-control to make you take a step away from your game for a while. And breaks shouldn’t be limited to this; you can also use time-outs to cut the use of your betting account for extended periods, anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. 

Self-Exclusions

If shorter breaks aren’t doing it for you, you can opt into self-exclusion itself. This is a much more drastic, long-term action to help manage a gambling habit. Self-exclusion will keep you from using your gambling accounts or from receiving advertising emails for months at a time, with the minimum starting at 6 months! This means that if you know you need to keep away from gambling and save up your disposable income, or you just need more time to clear your head, you don’t have to worry about falling back in.

Track Your Spending

You should physically keep track of how much you spend on gambling, how often and when. Monitoring this behaviour will help you understand when you’re most likely to spend more than you’re comfortable with or any other troublesome behaviours. Understanding yourself through a personal log is one of the most valuable tools you have when it comes to enforcing responsible gambling behaviours. 

Setting Deposit Limits

Deposit limits are one of the most valuable responsible gambling tools that you may not have thought to use. Using a deposit limit (or a loss limit, if you’d prefer) means you can enforce your budgets without worrying about controlling your spending through regular willpower. This limit can be per day, week or month, depending on your gambling habits. So, if in the past you’ve known yourself to go a little over budget and regret it later, these limits will help you avoid repeating those mistakes.

Manually Blocking Transactions

We understand if you’d rather not trust the website you gamble with to help you protect your money from lining their pockets. So, if you want to take these things into your own hands, you can always block transactions through your bank instead. For a predetermined amount of time, you can stop your bank from allowing transactions between your account and your gambling sites. This is definitely a drastic step and can feel more permanent than other options, but that could make it a better option for you.

Resources for Responsible Gambling

If you’re concerned that you might be developing an unhealthy relationship with gambling yourself, you can turn to one of the following helplines for professional help. Reaching out for help in this way isn’t a sign of giving in, but is instead proof of your dedication to looking after your health. 

• National Responsible Gambling Programme - https://www.ngb.org.za/stakeholder-information/national-responsible-gambling-programme/

• Gauteng Gambling Board - https://www.ggb.org.za/responsible-gambling-2/ 

• The South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF) - responsiblegambling.org.za 

• GamblersAnonymous - https://gamblersanonymous.org.za/ 

Conclusion: Responsible Gambling in South Africa

In an age where gambling is always at your fingertips, it’s more important than ever to know how to manage your gambling habits. Many tools and resources are available to help you monitor and control your betting, like time and spending limits, self-exclusion and reality checks. 

However, the best way to maintain a healthy relationship is to actively keep track of your habits and understand yourself. Always be honest about how much you’re playing or have spent, and evaluate what you need to do in response. But when that understanding fails you, don’t hesitate to reach out for professional help or to turn to someone close to you for help.