When it starts to go beyond control

What self-exclusion is

Many operators provide for self-exclusion in their documents. It means the player can ask for their own account to be closed for a fixed period or permanently, and during that period the account is not opened.

This site did not read the self-exclusion clauses of these ten operators separately, so there is no detail here of anyone's period, procedure or conditions — what we did not read is not written here. What can be said is that such an arrangement is common in this industry and is usually mentioned in the responsible gaming or account management section.

One thing you will never find on this site: any way out of a self-exclusion. Not a hint of it, not a discussion of it. For someone who has put that stop in place for themselves, this page is not the place for a route around it.

Where you can talk to someone in India

The services below are free and work with confidentiality. They are not limited to the gambling category — they are for mental health and psychological distress, and conversations about addiction and the stress that comes with it fall within their scope.

Tele-MANAS is the Government of India's national tele mental health service. It is available around the clock and can be spoken to in many Indian languages. Its toll-free number is 14416, and it can also be reached on 1–800–891–4416.

KIRAN is the helpline of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, on 1800–599–0019. It too runs around the clock and is available in many languages.

iCall, a service of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, offers conversations with trained counsellors by telephone and email. Its details are on the iCall (TISS) page.

Beyond these, many government hospitals and medical colleges have mental health departments, and in some places separate clinics run for technology-related and behavioural addiction. The mental health department of the district hospital is often the nearest place to start.

Losing money is not the only loss

Discussion of this subject usually revolves around the amounts, but for people whom help reaches late, the loss often shows up somewhere else first.

Sleep goes first — staying up late, then tiredness during the day, then the same cycle. After that, attention: checking the phone repeatedly in the middle of work or study, and tasks taking far longer to finish than they used to. Then relationships, because hiding is a burden in itself and that burden starts showing a little in every conversation.

This sequence is not the same for everyone, but it helps to know that the feeling that "everything is under control" running alongside these changes is not unusual. So there is no need to wait for some large loss before talking to someone.

If you are worried about someone else

A large share of the people who ask for help are calling not for themselves but for someone else. All the services listed above are for such conversations too, and they can be asked how to start the conversation.

Two things generally help. First, moving the subject of the conversation away from the amounts and onto their effects — sleep, work, money worries, irritability — because talking about amounts often turns into defence. Second, accepting that nothing will be settled in the first conversation, and that this is normal.

What this page does not do

This page does not give clinical advice and does not take the place of a diagnosis. It recommends no service. Nor does it explain how to get around any prohibition, any block or any limit — there is no such material on this site.

What it does is only this: list the signs and give the addresses. The frame of the law is on what the law says, and this site's own rules and the source of its earnings are written on how we read the terms.