Most people who gamble do it without harm. For some it stops being entertainment, and the signs are identifiable before the damage is severe. This page is what to look for and what to do, including the specific gap that exists when the operator is offshore.
Get help now
- ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600, free and confidential, available around the clock.
- Provincial support Every province funds its own problem gambling service; your provincial health line can connect you to it.
- Gamblers Anonymous Meetings across Canada, in person and online.
- Gam-Anon Support for the family and partners of someone gambling.
Warning signs
- Staking money set aside for rent, bills, food or debt repayment.
- Chasing losses, and increasing stakes to recover them faster.
- Lying about time or money spent, or hiding statements and accounts.
- Gambling to change how you feel rather than for entertainment.
- Needing larger stakes for the same interest, or being unable to stop once started.
- Borrowing, selling possessions, or opening credit to keep playing.
- Missing work, study or family commitments because of it.
If several of these look familiar, the helpline above is a better use of the next ten minutes than anything else on this site.
Tools that work
- Deposit and loss limits. Set them in each account while you are calm. A limit decided in advance is a different thing from a decision made mid-session.
- Session time reminders. Where an operator offers them, switch them on.
- Turn off promotional email and push notifications at the account level. A reactivation offer arriving at the wrong moment is a known mechanism, not bad luck.
- Never gamble with borrowed money or with money already committed to something else.
- Take real breaks. Most operators offer a cooling-off period of a day to several weeks.
Provincial self-exclusion, and its limit
Each province runs a self-exclusion programme through its lottery or gaming corporation. In Ontario, enrolling bars you from the regulated sites operating there; other provinces bar you from their own regulated and retail venues. It is enforced against those regulated operators.
It does not reach offshore sites
A provincial programme covers the operators that province regulates. It has no relationship with a casino licensed in Curacao, Malta or Kahnawake, so enrolling cannot bar you from one. If self-exclusion is a tool you need, this gap matters and you should plan around it rather than assume you are covered.
Device-level blocking is what closes it. BetBlocker is free and covers offshore casinos. Gamban is paid and covers them too. Install on every device you use, and have someone else hold the password if that helps.
Under age
Online gambling in Canada is restricted to players 19 and over (18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec), and this site is not intended for anyone below that age. If you share a device with a young person, parental control software and an account password they do not know are both sensible.
Our own position
This site earns commission when a reader registers with an operator, which means we are not a neutral party and you should not treat us as one. That is exactly why this page is not a formality. If the ranking is useful to you, the limits and the blocking tools are more useful.