Responsible Gaming

The single most effective habit is deciding the number in advance, when you are calm, rather than during a session when you are not.

• Decide what you can afford to lose, and treat that as the cost of the entertainment, not an investment.
• Set a time limit as well as a money limit. Long sessions are where judgement slips.
• Never deposit borrowed money, and never use money set aside for rent, food, school fees or bills.
• Use any deposit limit, session reminder or self-exclusion tool the app offers.
• Take breaks. Stepping away for a few minutes breaks the momentum that keeps a session going.

Any one of these on its own may mean nothing. Several together are worth taking seriously.

• Playing longer or spending more than you meant to, repeatedly.
• Chasing losses, trying to win back what you have already lost.
• Borrowing money, selling things, or using credit to keep playing.
• Hiding how much you play or how much you have spent from people close to you.
• Feeling restless or irritable when you try to cut down.
• Play interfering with work, study, sleep or relationships.

If any of that sounds familiar, talking to someone helps more than trying to manage it alone. In India, the Tele-MANAS national mental health helpline is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day on 14416 or 1800-891-4416. The Kiran mental health helpline is available on 1800-599-0019.

Gamblers Anonymous runs peer support groups in several Indian cities and online. Your own doctor is also a reasonable first step and can refer you to someone qualified.

If you are supporting someone else, the same services can advise you. You do not have to wait until it becomes a crisis to ask for guidance.

Real-money play is strictly for adults. If you share a device with children, use the parental controls on the device and on your app store, and keep payment methods off shared profiles.

We are a directory. We make money when people install apps, and we would rather say this plainly than pretend otherwise: that gives us an incentive you should factor in when reading anything here. It does not change the advice on this page, which is the same advice we would give a friend. If playing has stopped being fun, stop.