Responsible gambling

· Maintained by Evan Whitmore

18+ only. Gambling is not a way to make money and is not a solution to financial stress. If it stops being fun, stop. Free, confidential help is available 24/7 in Australia.

Australian help lines (24/7)

  • Gambling Help Online — free, 24/7 counselling and online chat. gamblinghelponline.org.au · 1800 858 858
  • BetStop — National Self-Exclusion Register. A single request blocks you from all licensed Australian online wagering services for 3 months to a lifetime. betstop.gov.au
  • Lifeline — crisis support. 13 11 14
  • Beyond Blue — depression / anxiety support. 1300 22 4636
  • Financial Counselling Australia — free financial counselling if gambling has caused debt. 1800 007 007
  • Relationships Australia — family support if gambling has affected your relationships. 1300 364 277

Self-assessment — PGSI (Problem Gambling Severity Index)

Nine standard questions from the AU-developed PGSI instrument. Anonymous, scored locally — nothing leaves your browser.

For each item, reflect on the last 12 months. Answer honestly.

1. Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?

2. Have you needed to gamble with larger amounts to get the same excitement?

3. When you gambled, did you go back another day to try to win back the money you lost?

4. Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?

5. Have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?

6. Has gambling caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety?

7. Have people criticised your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem, regardless of whether you thought it was true?

8. Has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household?

9. Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?

The PGSI is a publicly-validated screening tool developed as part of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index and widely used in Australian gambling-harm research. This implementation is a self-assessment, not a clinical diagnosis — if you are concerned, please call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858.

Gambling-harm prevalence in Australia

Broad-brush context for understanding the scale of the problem. Headline figures from published AU research:

  • Roughly 1% of Australian adults meet the threshold for problem gambling by PGSI score (8+), per successive AU national surveys.
  • A further 3–5% experience "moderate-risk" harm (PGSI 3–7).
  • For every person with gambling harm, an estimated 6–10 others (partners, family, employers) are affected — the harm footprint is wider than the player alone.
  • Online gambling, including offshore casinos, has grown substantially faster than land-based gambling over the past five years; harm indicators have followed.

These are population-level figures; individual risk varies enormously. A useful question is not "am I in the 1%" but "would a friend who saw my play patterns over the last month be concerned".

Warning signs

  • Spending more time or money gambling than you planned.
  • Chasing losses with bigger deposits.
  • Borrowing to gamble, or hiding gambling from family.
  • Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed when not gambling.
  • Missing work, bills, or sleep because of gambling sessions.
  • Lying about how much you gamble or how much you have lost.
  • Using gambling as a way to escape problems or a bad mood.

If two or more of these apply, please contact Gambling Help Online today on 1800 858 858.

Tools at the operator

The operator's account settings expose the following responsible-gambling controls. They are requested under the Curaçao eGaming licence and must be honoured once set:

  • Deposit limits — daily, weekly, monthly. Increases take 24 hours to activate; decreases are instant.
  • Loss limits — cap net losses over a set period.
  • Session time limits — auto-logout after a chosen duration.
  • Reality check — periodic pop-up showing time and money spent in the current session.
  • Cooling-off — 24-hour to 6-week account freeze.
  • Self-exclusion — 6 months minimum, cannot be reversed before expiry.

To use any of these at RocketPlay: log in, open Account → Responsible Gambling. If a tool appears to be unavailable or a self-exclusion is not being enforced, contact the operator's support and, if unresolved, the Curaçao Gaming Control Board.

What BetStop does — and does not do

BetStop is the Australian National Self-Exclusion Register, launched in 2023. It is genuinely useful but its coverage is specific:

  • Does: block every licensed Australian online wagering operator from taking your bets or opening new accounts. Includes TAB, Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, Pointsbet, bet365 Australia and the rest of the AU-licensed field.
  • Does not: extend to offshore casinos. RocketPlay, Jackpot Jill, SkyCrown and every other Curaçao-licensed operator is outside BetStop's remit.

This is a real gap for players who self-exclude to stop online casino play and discover that BetStop does not reach the casinos they were using. If that is your situation:

  1. Register with BetStop anyway — it closes the AU-licensed route.
  2. Self-exclude directly at each offshore operator account you hold (the tools described above). 6-month minimum self-exclusion cannot be reversed.
  3. Install a device-level block (Gamban, BetBlocker) to cover operators you have not named individually.
  4. Ask your bank for a gambling-transaction block.
  5. Call Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 to talk through the next steps with a counsellor.

Blocking gambling content at the device level

  • Gamban — paid, blocks gambling sites and apps across all your devices, typically non-reversible for a chosen period.
  • BetBlocker — free, charity-run alternative. Works on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS.
  • GAMSTOP — the UK equivalent of BetStop, useful if you travel or use UK-licensed operators.
  • Ask your bank to apply a gambling block on your card — CommBank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ and most neobanks offer this in-app for free. See our MCC 7995 page for the toggle locations.

Helping someone else

If you are reading this because of someone else's gambling:

  • Gambling Help Online — Family Line. The 1800 858 858 service is for affected family members and friends as well as players themselves.
  • Relationships Australia — family counselling, 1300 364 277.
  • Financial Counselling Australia — free financial advice when gambling has caused debt, 1800 007 007. They can help negotiate with creditors and stop the escalation while the core gambling problem is addressed.

The evidence on what helps: practical financial support, non-judgemental conversation, and removing access to money rather than controlling the person. Hiding savings or taking over finances is usually less effective than calling the family line above and talking through options with a counsellor.

Protecting minors

RocketPlay is restricted to adults 18 and over. If children share a device, use your operating system's parental controls and keep account passwords private. Never gamble on behalf of a minor. Australian law prohibits providing gambling services to people under 18 regardless of where the operator is licensed.