Responsible Gambling

Before you play at MyStake

This page sits on my-stakes.app, an independent guide. We do not take deposits and we cannot set a limit on your behalf: every control described below lives in your account with the operator, not here. If you decide to play at MyStake, set your limits in the account settings before your first deposit rather than after a losing session, when the decision is hardest to make. If you would rather we did not send you there at all, simply close this page — nothing on this site requires you to gamble.

Gambling is entertainment, not income

Every casino game is built with a mathematical edge in the house’s favour. Over enough spins that edge decides the outcome, whatever a session’s run of luck suggests. A game with a 96% return to player is not a promise that you get 96% of your money back; it is an average over millions of rounds, and no individual session is bound by it.

The safe way to treat the money is as the price of an evening out. If losing it would change your week, it is too much.

Set limits first

Licensed operators are required to offer tools that put a ceiling on play, and they work best when set before you need them:

• Deposit limits — a daily, weekly or monthly cap on what you can pay in. Reductions usually take effect at once; increases carry a cooling-off delay, which is the point of them.
• Loss limits — a cap on net losses over a period, which bites even when you are recycling winnings.
• Session and reality checks — a timer that interrupts play and tells you how long you have been going and what you are down.
• Cool-off — a short lock, from a day to several weeks, that cannot be undone early.
• Self-exclusion — a long or permanent block. Many countries also run a national scheme that covers every licensed operator at once, which is far stronger than excluding yourself one site at a time.

Signs worth taking seriously

Problem gambling rarely announces itself. The pattern usually shows up in behaviour before it shows up in the balance:

• Playing longer or for more than you planned, repeatedly.
• Returning to win back what you lost.
• Gambling with money meant for rent, bills or food.
• Borrowing, selling things, or hiding what you have spent.
• Lying to people close to you about how much or how often.
• Feeling restless or irritable when you try to cut down.
• Playing to escape stress, loneliness or low mood.
• Losing interest in things you used to enjoy.

One of these on its own may mean little. Several together, over weeks, is worth acting on.

Practical habits

Decide the amount before you start and leave the card out of reach. Keep a clock in view. Do not play while drinking, or after bad news, or when you are chasing a loss. Take the win as a win: withdraw it rather than letting it roll. Balance gambling against things that have nothing to do with it — if it is the only thing in the week worth looking forward to, that is the signal, not the stake.

Keeping under-18s away

Gambling by minors is illegal everywhere we publish, and operators are obliged to verify age. If a child shares your device, keep accounts logged out, do not save payment details in the browser, and consider content filtering. Blocking software that covers gambling sites across a whole device is available, some of it free, and it is worth installing before it is needed rather than after.

Where to get help

Help is free, confidential and available whether or not you have decided to stop. Gambling Therapy (gamblingtherapy.org) offers support online in many languages wherever you live. Most countries also run their own gambling helpline and free counselling service, usually funded independently of the industry — searching for the national gambling helpline in your own country will find it, and speaking to someone in your own language is generally the better route.

If money has become the immediate problem, a free debt advice service in your country can help you deal with it, and doing that early makes it smaller. Talking to one person you trust is usually the hardest step and the one that changes things.