Online casinos are steadily on the rise and are not about to go out of trend anytime soon in India. Moreover, we predict it will become even more prevalent in the coming years – like a fixture in our society. The more acceptance it gains, the more likely that an increasing number of people fall prey to problem gambling.
While it’s a good thing that skill gaming (poker, rummy, and horserace betting) is already regulated by Indian Gambling Laws, making these industries safer because of legal recourse, online casino is largely still unregulated in India. And that means people are free to sign up on any offshore online casinos owned and operated by foreign-based companies as they are not governed by Indian laws.
But that makes it super important that casino players make sure that they are playing on online casinos that are legit and trustworthy. And what’s more – one needs to make sure that one is not gambling “too much”. It should remain a form of entertainment and not develop into an addiction. Here are some tips to avoid that:
- Restrict the time spent on casino sites or sports betting sites. Fix the amount of time you can gamble every day or every week or month, and then stick to that allotted time.
- Limit the amount of money you can spend on online gambling or betting. Remember – a good rule of thumb is to bet only what you can afford to lose.
- Treat it like entertainment and not a source of income. Betting or gambling comes with high risk so it cannot and should not be treated like a dependable source of income.
- Self-exclude immediately and seek help if you feel like it’s getting out of control. Some indicators that you need help are stress about your gambling/ losing money, reduced interaction with the outside world, lying to family and friends about your gambling habits, and spending the majority of your time playing on casino sites.
Most reputed online casinos will have a self-exclusion tool or functionality where you can ask customer support to put your account on hold for a particular period of time. This is absolutely necessary in order to prevent a gambling addiction from developing.
If you’re playing online casino games, you should not try to “win back” the money you lost. That’s a slippery slope, and you may just end up losing more. Instead, you can redeem some of your losses by making use of cashback promos that most casinos offer these days. You will be able to at least save some percentage of your losses by using the cashback bonuses many online casinos offer.
There’s no problem in playing online casino games as long as it remains a healthy hobby and does not threaten to take over your life.
