Responsible Gambling

• Only bet money you can afford to lose completely — never rent, bills, savings or borrowed money.
• Decide your limits before you start — a deposit limit, a loss limit and a time limit — and never move them mid-session.
• Never chase losses. A losing day stays lost; chasing is how small losses become serious ones.
• Expect to lose. Bookmaker margins mean the average bettor loses over time — a model edge, even a real one, does not change the variance.
• Don't gamble when upset, drunk, bored or under pressure.
• Keep gambling one small part of life — if it competes with family, work or sleep, it has already gone too far.

Any of these is a reason to stop and talk to someone:

• betting more than you planned, or with money you need;
• chasing losses or “borrowing” from other budgets to bet;
• hiding bets or lying about how much you gamble;
• gambling to escape stress, anxiety or low mood;
• restlessness or irritability when trying to cut down;
• letting work, study or relationships slip because of gambling.

• Deposit, loss and session limits — every licensed bookmaker offers them; set them the day you open an account.
• Self-exclusion — licensed operators must offer it, and most regulated markets run register-once schemes covering every licensed operator (for example GAMSTOP in the UK and ROFUS in Denmark).
• Blocking software — free tools such as Gamban and BetBlocker block gambling sites and apps on all your devices.
• Bank card blocks — many banks can switch off gambling transactions from the app.

If you’re outside these regions, Gambling Therapy operates worldwide in multiple languages, and your national health service can point you to local support.

Melven is strictly for adults. Underage gambling is illegal everywhere and correlates strongly with later gambling harm. If you are under 18, please close this site.

Our full terms are here; what the numbers actually mean is in the methodology.