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Signs it has stopped being a game
- Playing with money meant for rent, bills or food.
- Chasing losses: moving up in stakes or depositing again to win it back.
- Hiding how much you play or lose from people close to you.
- Borrowing, or selling things, to play.
- Feeling restless or irritable when you try to stop.
- Poker crowding out work, sleep or family.
One of these is a reason to pause. Several is a reason to call.
Ways to keep it under control
- Set a budget before you sit down, and treat it as spent. When it is gone, you are done for the day.
- Set a time limit. Long sessions make for bad decisions.
- Never play to fix a money problem. Poker is a poor way to earn what you need.
- Do not play drunk, tired or upset.
- Keep poker money separate from everything else.
- Take your winnings off the site. A balance you can see is a balance you will play.
Tools the sites give you
State-licensed sites must offer deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion, and every licensed state keeps a self-exclusion list that bars you from all its sites at once. Offshore sites offer some of the same tools, but nobody enforces them. That is one more reason to use a licensed room if your state has one.
Where to get help
- 1-800-GAMBLER: the national helpline, by phone or text.
- National Council on Problem Gambling (ncpgambling.org): chat, and a directory of help in every state.
- Gamblers Anonymous (gamblersanonymous.org): free meetings, in person and online.
- Gam-Anon (gam-anon.org): for family and friends.
If you are under 21
Online poker sites and nearly all poker rooms are for adults 21 and over. This site is too.