Where to get help in Australia
| Service | What it does | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling Help Online | Free, confidential counselling for gamblers and for family members, at any hour | 1800 858 858, or chat and email at gamblinghelponline.org.au |
| Lifeline | Crisis support for anyone at immediate risk | 13 11 14, or lifeline.org.au |
| BetStop | The national register that stops Australian-licensed interactive wagering services from holding or opening an account for you | betstop.gov.au |
| National Debt Helpline | Free financial counselling when gambling has left debt behind | 1800 007 007, or ndh.org.au |
| Your state or territory service | Venue self-exclusion and local programs, which differ in reach and in paperwork | Through the state body or the venue itself |
Land-based venues and sports betting are regulated by the states and territories rather than federally, so each one runs its own self-exclusion scheme, its own forms and its own list of covered venues. How far a venue ban actually reaches, and what it does not stop, is on the self-exclusion page.
What BetStop covers and what it cannot reach
BetStop is the National Self-Exclusion Register for interactive wagering inside the Australian licensing system: online and phone betting on sport and racing. Once you are registered for the period you chose, those operators are required to close your accounts and to stop sending you marketing, and they cannot open a new account for you while the registration runs.
It does not reach an online casino supplied from offshore. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits the supply of online casino games, pokies included, to a person in Australia without a licence, so the operators in that part of the market sit outside the licensing system, outside the register and outside any Australian complaints process. That is the honest limit of self-exclusion here, and it is why the blocks in the next section matter more than an operator's own switch. The law itself is described on the legal page.
Blocks that work whatever the operator does
- 01
Turn on your bank's gambling block
Several Australian banks have a switch in the app that declines card transactions coded as gambling, and some hold it on for a set period before it can be turned off again. It works at the card, so it does not depend on the operator being licensed here or cooperating at all.
- 02
Install a block on the phone and the computer
Gambling blocking software filters the sites and apps at the device or the network. Install it on every device you actually use, because one unfiltered phone undoes the rest.
- 03
Remove the stored payment methods
Delete saved cards from the browser and from the operator's account, and take the card out of the phone wallet. The friction of finding the physical card is the point.
- 04
Hand the card to someone else
A person who holds the card while you take a break is more reliable than any software, and it makes the break visible to one other person.
- 05
Set the operator's own limit as well, but count on it least
Where an offshore operator publishes deposit limits, loss limits or a time-out, use them. No Australian regulator stands behind them, so treat them as the weakest layer rather than the plan.
The limits worth setting before you deposit
Every limit below is decided before a session and written down, because the one thing that will not work is deciding in the middle of a losing run. Pokies are entertainment that costs money over time, and the only figure fully in your control is the amount you put in.
| A monthly amount | Money you can lose without changing anything else you pay for that month |
|---|---|
| A session length | A timer on the phone, not a mental note, because a session in a browser has no closing time |
| A stake per spin | A share of the session amount small enough that the session lasts the time you set |
| A rule for a win | Decide what gets withdrawn and when, before the balance goes up |
| A rule for a loss | When the session amount is gone, the session is over. No top up, no second deposit |
One more thing skews all five: a bonus. Turnover attached to bonus money decides how long your deposit has to stay in play before any of it can be withdrawn, and a large headline offer usually means a larger commitment, not a larger gift. The arithmetic is worked through on the wagering requirements page, and a first session is walked end to end on the beginners page.
Why a run of luck does not change the maths
A pokie's return to player is a long-run average of what the game pays back across millions of spins, not a forecast for your afternoon. Volatility decides how far a short session swings away from that average in either direction, which is why a good night proves nothing about the next one and a bad one proves nothing either.
No stake pattern, no time of day and no sequence of previous spins changes the published return of a game, because each spin is settled independently of the last. If a system is being sold to you, what is being sold is the story. Both ideas are explained properly on the RTP page and the volatility page.
Signs it has stopped being entertainment
- Money set aside for rent, bills or food goes into a deposit.
- You borrow, sell something or use credit to keep playing.
- Sessions run longer than planned most times, not once in a while.
- You play to win back what you lost rather than because you want to play.
- You hide how much or how long from the people you live with.
- Sleep, work, study or family arrangements are slipping.
- You plan to stop at a point and then do not stop there.
If more than one of those is familiar, calling 1800 858 858 costs nothing, is confidential, and is not a record you have to explain to anyone later. Family members and partners can use the same service on their own behalf, without the person who gambles being involved.
18 and over, everywhere in Australia
Gambling is for adults only. The minimum age is 18 across every state and territory, and no page on this site is intended for anyone under it.
The legal position, stated plainly
The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits the supply of online casino games to a person in Australia without a licence, and the 2017 amendment strengthened enforcement by giving the communications regulator a complaints process and the power to have non-compliant sites blocked. The Act contains no offence for the individual placing a bet: the penalties are aimed at the businesses supplying the service. That is a description of the legislation and not advice about your own position, and no operator listed on this site holds an Australian online casino licence, because that licence does not exist for pokies. The same ground is covered in more detail on the disclaimer.