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Too many players skip past the responsible gambling features when they sign up with an online casino. Although it’s not mandatory to implement such restrictions and set up certain self-imposed limits as recommended by the American Gaming Association, it’s always a good idea to do so. The loss limit, in particular, is a perfect way to ensure you don’t lose more than you can afford to.
But how do loss limits work and how can you set up a loss limit effectively and why it’s important to do so.
What are Loss Limits?
When you’re playing casino games or betting on sports online, it can be a whole lot of fun. In fact, it can be so much fun that it’s really easy to lose track of how much you’ve spent or how long you’ve been gambling for. Knowing when to wrap up a betting session is one of the most prevalent challenges faced by both novice and seasoned gamblers alike. Whether they admit to it or not is a different question.
So, when should you stop? Unfortunately, the answer to this issue is not clear-cut. It actually depends on a number of variables. This ranges from your attitude toward gambling, your level of self-control, and if you fit the profile of someone who is more likely to develop an addiction. To that end, quitting while you’re ahead is one of the most popular concepts. That is, however, easier said than done.
Our first word of advice is this: don’t get too over-confident, no matter how great that winning streak feels. It’s important to be self-aware and understand when you need to set yourself restrictions. At the end of the day, when gambling online, you need to avoid going down a rabbit hole that’ll only end in addictive behavior. You need to remember that this pastime should be practiced for the sole purpose of having fun. If you’re chasing a win, the entertainment factor of this activity has clearly been forgotten. Also be weary that those 50 free spins no deposit bonuses are there for a reason. Make sure you use them to your benefit and not the casino’s.
Because of this, online casinos’ Loss Limit function is a handy and useful tool. Its purpose is to promote safe gaming and prevent players from spiraling further into a gambling addiction by trying to make up for lost money.
How Does Loss Limit Work?
Loss Limit, as the name implies, places a cap on the amount you can lose. Therefore, the player should just decide, after giving it some careful thought, how much money would be acceptable to lose when gambling, and then establish that amount as their loss cap. When you hit the limit, the casino will stop letting you play for a certain amount of time, which is referred to as the “cool-off” time, so you can no longer lose money. This makes the loss cap impervious to error when it comes to putting a halt to exorbitant losses.
Getting to Know Other Limitation Features
As part of responsible gambling measures, most online casinos that adhere to responsible gambling standards will offer a variety of limitation settings to safeguard players’ gambling habits. Below is a brief breakdown of the most commonly used features.
Deposit Limit
Contrary to the loss limit (which is designed purely to stop you from exceeding a certain loss threshold), the deposit limit forces you to end your gaming session even if you’re on a winning streak. As implied by its name, your gaming session is halted once your set deposit is met.
Wager Limit
This limit doesn’t have to do with how much you deposit or lose. It’s just a cap on how much you can wager over a given period of time. This could be a daily, weekly or even monthly limit. Irrespective of how much money you’ve deposited or lost, you cannot place more bets once you hit this limit.
Session Limit
Also known as a ‘session time limit’ this tool stipulates the duration of time you can continuously play at an online casino or sportsbook. In most cases, there’s also a minimum amount of time (break) that needs to be given between each gaming session. For instance, if you’ve setup a self-imposed session time limit of 60 minutes, then you’ll be automatically logged out of your account after 60 minutes. You won’t be allowed to log back in until a pre-defined amount of time has lapsed.
Limitations are Strongly Recommended for All Online Gamers
There’s one common denominator that unites all of these limit features and it’s the fact that they’re all self-imposed. This makes sense because a how big or small a loss may be is very dependent on a player and their specifically set budget restrictions. Therefore, a player needs to be judicious enough and decide how much money they can afford to lose over a given period of time and set up said limitations accordingly.
And remember, even if you perceive yourself to be very disciplined, online gambling can be insidiously compelling. This is why we always suggest setting up a loss limit. You might not be as disciplined as you think you are, so better safe than sorry!