All The Health Lottery’s games are meant to be fun. You help vital health projects all across Great Britain by playing, but they should be healthy for you too.
Here at The Health Lottery we take care that you, our players, enjoy all of our games, but not to excess or beyond your means.
To keep you safe online our system tracks the way you play in real time and will call out signs of potentially unhealthy or unsafe gambling behaviour. We’ll communicate with you immediately if that happens but you can reach out to us for advice and support too.
We want you to be in control of the way you play. Take regular breaks and set your limits of play to keep your spending within an affordable budget (My Account/My Details/Play Limits).
If you are worried about the way you or someone you care for plays, a first step is to honestly consider if you or they are displaying any of these five signs of unhealthy play:
Five signs for yourself
1. Preoccupation– Do you spend much of your day thinking about betting? Are you finding it distracting you whilst at work, or taking you out of the moment when you spend time with friends and family? Often thinking about or planning to gamble can be one of the early warning signs that gambling could be harmful.
2. Withdrawal – Removing yourself from social and professional situations so that you can place a bet is another warning signal that your gambling might be going too far, and that the urges to gamble are potentially harming other areas of your life.
3. Escape – Life can be overwhelming at times, and you might feel like you want to escape it for a while. Using gambling as a coping mechanism is a sign of harmful gambling and can lead to losing significant amounts of money.
4. Chasing losses – The main motive of gambling is to win money but during a gambling session, that motive can change. Chasing losses is where your motive from winning money changes to winning back the money you have already lost. This can be dangerous and lead to significant losses.
5. Lying – If you find yourself hiding how much you are spending or lying about the amount of time you are gambling, or perhaps asking for money to cover bills that you are spending. These are just some signs that gambling is harming your life, and possibly risking your relationships with family and friends.
Five signs for someone else
1. Withdrawn– Not wanting to join in or losing interest in usual activities or hobbies like going out with friends or spending time with family can be one of the early warning signs that gambling could be harmful. Wanting to stay at home more frequently, needing to check their phone constantly to check the latest results as so much is riding on a bet.
2. Changing mood – There could be noticeable changes to their mood and behaviour, including looking worried, agitated or upset for no apparent reason.
3. Sleeping problems – If someone is chasing losses and losing money they might not be sleeping. Anxiety or constant worrying can lead to people being up all hours. Continuing to gamble on their phone during the night could lead to sleep patterns being affected.
4. Financial signs – Has money gone missing from bank accounts, or are they regularly short of money on a regular basis and are having to borrow money? There may also be more pressure to get loans out, chasing losses now not just to generate income.
5. Lying – Are you noticing that this person is lying about what they’re doing with their time, or perhaps asking for money to cover bills that could be for gambling. This can be risky as they will feel very vulnerable at being found out and very low that they have let people down.
Set your limits
At The Health Lottery we will always respect your decision to block yourself from playing. You can instruct any of our retailers not to sell you tickets, and if you wish to restrict access to gambling or lottery products from your computer, the below software can be used to filter and/or block gambling websites:
Cyber Patrol
GamBlock (this is also available for Mac users)
Net Nanny
OptenetPC
Betfilter
Self-exclusion
At The Health Lottery we operate a self-exclusion policy. This means that you can exclude yourself from using this website to purchase tickets for future Health Lottery draws.
You can make this change yourself in the self-exclusion section of your Health Lottery account, or by calling the Health Lottery Helpline 0330 390 2289.
If you opt for self-exclusion, we will refund all the money in your Health Lottery account at that time. Your account will be suspended for at least six months. You can choose a longer period If you want. When the exclusion period ends we won't contact you to ask if you'd like to be reinstated. It's up to you. If you decide to sign up again, there will be a week’s cooling-off period before you can play, giving you time to consider if you have made the right decision. You can choose to suspend your account at any time.
You can also visit your Health Lottery retailer and ask to be self-excluded for a minimum period of six months. The retailer will take the appropriate action to register your self-exclusion and will notify The Health Lottery Head Office accordingly.
If you are considering self-exclusion, you may wish to register with GAMSTOP as well.
GAMSTOP is a free service that enables you to self-exclude from all participating online gambling companies licensed in Great Britain.
To find out more and to sign up with GAMSTOP please visit www.gamstop.co.uk
When we say play with heart, we mean it, in every possible way.
