Play Safe

Gambling should cost you an amount you decided in advance and were content to lose. When it stops working that way it usually stops quietly.

Signs worth taking seriously

• Depositing again to win back something already lost
• Gambling with money set aside for rent groceries or bills
• Hiding how much you play or how much you have spent from people close to you
• Borrowing to fund play or selling things to cover it
• Play stopped being enjoyable and became something closer to a compulsion

Tools that exist on every site in our ranking. Deposit limits are the most useful and the least used. Set one when you open the account while the decision is still theoretical. Loss limits and session reminders are usually alongside them. Cooling-off periods lock you out for a short defined window. Self-exclusion is longer and harder to reverse which is the point of it.

Free confidential help in Canada

• ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 operates around the clock for Ontario residents
• Problem Gambling Institute of Ontario publishes provincial resource directories
• Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings across the country and online
• GameSense provides free provincial support in several regions
• Your provincial health line can refer you locally and the call is free

For family. Living with someone else's gambling is its own difficulty and the services above support family members directly rather than only players. You do not need the person gambling to agree before you call.

If reading this list produced a flicker of recognition that is worth acting on today rather than after the next deposit.