Safer Gambling Week 2024

By: Claudia Hartley

Published On: 12th November 2024

Every November, the UK gambling industry holds Safer Gambling Week. This year, it’s running from the 18th until the 24th. It’s an initiative that aims to encourage conversation around the topic of safer gambling. Find out what's involved in this article.

What is Safer Gambling Week?

Safer Gambling Week is a whole week dedicated to raising awareness on everything surrounding the topic of safer gambling. Broadly speaking, it covers three topical areas.

1. Understanding How to Gamble Safely

While there are elements of education in every part of Safer Gambling Week, understanding how to gamble safely will probably be the largest learning curve for most of us. You’ll learn how to identify risky behaviours and understand what you can do to change them. Whether it’s setting time limits at an online casino, or setting up a deposit limit for your betting account, little steps can make a big difference to how safely you gamble.

2. Tools Available to Help You Gamble Safely

A super important element of Safer Gambling Week is helping us to find and use tools to help us manage our own gambling. As long as a site has a licence then they’re obliged to offer responsible gambling tools. This could include:

Deposit limits
Loss limits
Time limits
Self exclusion

As well as the options that gambling sites offer you, you can also look into tools from external sources. This could include:

Blocking gambling content
Blocking gambling payments
Blocking gambling websites

3. Where to Go for Advice and Support

The final point that Safer Gambling Week aims to address is making sure that those who need help know where to go to get it. In the UK we’re incredibly lucky to have numerous charities and organisations that can help you to take control of your gambling. We’ll cover more on these charities below.

Who is involved?

Safer Gambling week is spearheaded by the Betting and Gaming Council, but they’re far from the only major players. Plenty of gambling operators, both online and offline, are also involved as well as charities.

Having such a wide range of people on board gives it a super broad reach. This means that Safer Gambling Week should be able to reach the people who might need it most. Now that you’ve read about it, you’ll notice it being promoted everywhere. From the event’s own website, to social media platforms, bingo halls, to horse racing tracks, you’ll be able to spot promotions for the event anywhere that you can play casino games, or place bets.

Advice on How To Gamble Safely

Most of us think that we gamble safely, but there are a few patterns to look out for that might surprise you. Being able to be honest about our gambling is important in making sure that it stays fun - and safe.

Here are some of the warning signs that your gambling hobby might be becoming risky:

Spending more than you can afford on gambling
Gambling as a way to earn money
Talking about gambling constantly
Choosing to gamble rather than spending time with family or friends
Lying about your gambling

If any of these are true, then your gambling hobby might be becoming a gambling problem. Thankfully, there are lots of ways that you can turn this around. Let’s take a look at some of your options.

Tools To Help With Safer Gambling

Your first port of call should be responsible gambling tools. All licensed operators will offer some tools which will be marked with a tick. Sometimes you’ll be able to change settings yourself in your account settings, other times you’ll need to send a message to customer service.

Here are some of the tools that you can use to make sure you’re in control of your gambling.

Deposit/Loss Limits

Setting yourself limits is a simple and effective way to make sure that your gambling spending remains affordable. You can base your limits on your total deposits or your total losses, depending on which feels the most useful for you. Most gambling sites will let you set these limits by day, week, or month.

Time Limits

Ever found yourself several hours in to a slots session and running late for something important? There’s no shame in it, but setting time limits can be a helpful way to avoid this happening. A notification will pop up when your time is up to remind you to switch off for a bit.

Time Out/Self Exclusion

If you feel like you need to take an extended break from gambling then most sites will be able to help you. Time outs tend to last from 24 hours up to 6 weeks, while self exclusions are much longer. Think about how long you need to take to have a ‘full reset’.

Did you know? There is an industry-wide self-exclusion program called GAMSTOP. You can self-exclude from ALL UK-licensed gambling sites via this website.

Organisations That Can Help

If you’re finding that using responsible gambling tools isn’t quite giving you the level of support that you need then there are lots of organisations that can help you. These services are all completely confidential and backed by Safer Gambling Week. Here are two that you can contact any time. There are more on the Safer Gambling Week website.

GamCare

GamCare is the leading provider of information, advice and support for anyone struggling with gambling. You can contact them 24 hours a day on every single day of the year. Calling on 0808 8020 133 is easiest, but there’s also a live chat, a forum, a group chat, and even a course you can take part in. GamCare also offers support specifically for young people, which can be accessed on the same phone number.

The National Gambling Treatment Service

You can also get support from the National Gambling Treatment Service which is a network of organisations in England, Scotland and Wales. They are available online, face-to-face and by phone for both individual and group meetings. Their contact number is 0808 8020 133 and they are open 24 hours a day.

Claudia Hartley

Having spent almost a decade writing about casino games, Claudia now enjoys researching them almost as much as she enjoys playing them. From Yggdrasil’s beautifully designed blockbuster titles, to Relax Gaming’s bumper progressive jackpots, Claudia loves nothing more than getting stuck into top-quality slot games. At AllSlotSites, she hopes to help demystify the world of slot mechanics and features, seek out the best bonuses, and help readers find their next favourite title.