Responsible Gambling
Gambling is a form of entertainment that costs money, in the same way that a night out or a concert ticket costs money. It is not a way to earn an income, and it is not a solution to a financial problem. Played that way, it stays enjoyable. Played any other way, it stops being entertainment quickly.
This page sets out the tools available in every Ricky Casino account, the signs worth paying attention to, and where to find help in Australia if gambling has stopped feeling like a choice.
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What Responsible Gambling Means in Practice
It comes down to a few plain ideas:
- You decide before you start what you are willing to lose, and that amount is money you can afford to lose entirely
- You stop when you reach it, whether you are ahead or behind
- You never gamble with money set aside for rent, bills, food or debt
- You never borrow money to gamble, from a person, a card or a lender
- You do not chase losses, because a losing session does not become a winning one by continuing
- Time matters as much as money. A session that has gone on far longer than you intended is worth ending regardless of the balance
None of this requires willpower on any given night if the limits are set in advance. That is exactly what the tools below are for.
Signs Worth Paying Attention To
Nobody plans for gambling to become a problem, and it rarely announces itself. These are the patterns that tend to appear first:
- Spending more than you intended, more often than you intended
- Playing longer than planned, or losing track of how long a session has been
- Chasing losses, depositing again to win back what has gone
- Borrowing money to gamble, or gambling with money meant for something else
- Hiding how much you play, or how much you have lost, from people close to you
- Feeling anxious, irritable or low when you are not playing
- Gambling to escape stress, boredom, loneliness or a bad day rather than for enjoyment
- Missing work, study, sleep or commitments because of playing
- Telling yourself a big win will fix the situation
Recognising one or two of these does not mean something is wrong. Recognising several, repeatedly, is worth acting on rather than waiting to see whether it settles.
Tools Available in Your Account
Every Ricky Casino account has controls in the responsible gambling section of the profile. They can be set at any time, and none of them requires an explanation to anyone.
Deposit Limits
Cap how much you can put into the account over a daily, weekly or monthly period. Once the limit is reached, further deposits are blocked until the period resets.
This is the most effective single tool available, because it works at the point where money enters rather than at the point where it leaves. A deposit limit set on a calm afternoon is what protects a session that goes badly three weeks later.
Loss Limits
Cap the total amount you can lose across a set period. Where a deposit limit controls what goes in, a loss limit controls what actually goes down, which suits players who deposit and withdraw regularly.
Stake Limits
Cap the size of an individual bet. Useful for anyone who finds their stakes creeping upward during a session, particularly after a loss.
Session Limits
Set a maximum length for a single session. Time passes differently while playing, and a session limit is the difference between deciding to stop and noticing that three hours have gone.
Time-Out
A short break from playing. Set a fixed period in your profile and the account closes for that time, reopening automatically at the end. Nothing is lost and no explanation is needed.
A time-out is a reasonable response to a bad week, not an admission of anything. Plenty of people use one after a session that went further than planned.
Self-Exclusion
A longer or permanent break. Self-exclusion can be arranged in your profile, or by asking live chat or writing to [email protected]. Support handles these requests without argument and without trying to talk anyone out of it.
Where self-exclusion is arranged through support, the account can be reopened later if you ask. Where you need it to be permanent, say so and it will be treated that way.
How to Set a Limit or Take a Break
- Log in and open Account, then Profile.
- Go to the Responsible Gambling section.
- Choose the control you want: deposit, loss, stake or session limit, a time-out, or self-exclusion.
- Set the amount or the period and confirm.
Alternatively, open live chat at any hour and ask an agent to arrange it. Live chat is available 24 hours a day, and [email protected] works for anything you would rather put in writing.
One practical note: if you are self-excluding or taking a long break, withdraw your balance first. Accounts with no login or gameplay for twelve consecutive months attract a €25 monthly dormancy fee that continues until the balance reaches zero.
Habits That Help
Set the limit before you play, not during. Decisions made mid-session are made by someone who has just won or just lost, which is the worst moment to be deciding anything.
Use a separate account or card for gambling. It keeps the spending visible instead of blended into everyday banking.
Do not play while drinking, upset or exhausted. Every one of those makes it harder to stop at the point you meant to.
Take breaks. Get up, leave the screen, do something else for twenty minutes. Sessions that continue without pause are the ones that overrun.
Balance it with other things. Gambling that is one of several ways you spend your free time behaves very differently from gambling that is the only one.
Keep track of what you actually spend. Not what you remember spending. The game history and transaction history in your account both show the real figures.
Treat wins as wins. Withdraw some of it. A win that is immediately staked again was never really a win.
Understanding How the Games Work
Some misunderstandings make problem gambling more likely, so they are worth clearing up.
Every spin is independent. A pokie has no memory. A game that has not paid out in two hundred spins is no more likely to pay on the next one, and a game that just paid is no less likely to pay again.
The house edge is built into the mathematics. Every game on the site, at every casino, is designed so that the operator keeps a percentage over time. Return to player figures describe long-run averages across millions of rounds, not what any individual session will do.
No strategy beats a random number generator. Betting systems that increase stakes after losses do not change the odds of anything, they only change how quickly a bankroll disappears.
A game is not “due”. This belief is the single most common reason people keep depositing during a losing session, and it has no basis in how the games are built.
Bonuses are conditions attached to a deposit, not free money. Fifty times wagering inside three days means real play at real stakes. There is no penalty for declining a bonus, and unticking the box gives you a clean cash deposit with nothing to clear.
Protecting Minors
Ricky Casino accounts are strictly for players aged 18 or over, or older where local law sets a higher age. Proof of age can be requested at any point.
Where an account is found to belong to someone underage, it is closed, all bets placed during that period are voided, genuine deposits are refunded and any winnings are confiscated.
If children or teenagers have access to your devices:
- Never let anyone else use your account, and do not share your login with family
- Log out when you finish, and use a lock screen on any device the casino is installed on
- Turn off saved passwords in shared browsers
- Consider parental control software such as Net Nanny, Qustodio or the filtering built into your router
- Keep payment cards and wallet apps out of reach
Where to Get Help in Australia
Free, confidential help is available at any hour, and reaching out early makes it considerably easier to sort out.
Gambling Help Online offers 24/7 counselling by phone, online chat and email at 1800 858 858, along with self-help tools and referrals to local services.
Lifeline provides 24/7 crisis support on 13 11 14 for anyone in distress.
Gamblers Anonymous Australia holds meetings in every state, in person and online, for people who find a peer support group useful.
National Debt Helpline offers free, independent financial counselling on 1800 007 007 for anyone dealing with gambling debt. Financial counsellors are free and do not work for lenders.
BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register at betstop.gov.au, allows Australians to exclude themselves from all licensed Australian online wagering services in one registration.
You can also talk to your GP. Gambling problems are treated seriously in Australian primary care, and a referral to a counsellor or psychologist is a straightforward conversation to start.
Support for Family and Friends
Living with someone else's gambling is difficult, and the services above are not only for the person gambling. Gambling Help Online supports family members on the same 24/7 line, and Gam-Anon runs groups specifically for partners and relatives.
If you are worried about somebody, a few things generally help: raise it when neither of you is in the middle of a crisis, focus on what you have noticed rather than on accusations, and avoid taking over their finances or paying off gambling debts, which usually delays the point at which they get help.
Contact Us
To set a limit, arrange a time-out or self-exclude, open live chat from the icon in the bottom right corner of any page at any hour, or email [email protected].
These requests are handled without questions and without any attempt to change your mind.