Responsible gambling
If it has stopped being entertainment, stop.
We write about casino resorts as buildings. We are not neutral about the activity inside them, and this page is the least architectural thing on the site on purpose.
Gambling is entertainment you can afford to lose. It is not a way to make money, and it is not a way to make back money you have already lost. The building is designed by professionals to be a pleasant place to spend more time than you planned. That is not a conspiracy, it is the brief they were given. Knowing it is most of the defence.
Signs it has stopped being entertainment
- Playing with money set aside for something else: rent, bills, the trip itself.
- Going back to win back. This is the single most reliable warning sign there is.
- Losing track of time or of the amount, or being surprised by the total afterwards.
- Being vague with people about how much or how often.
- Feeling you have to keep playing rather than wanting to.
- Borrowing to play, in any form, including a credit card cash advance at the venue.
If more than one of those is familiar, the phone numbers below are free and they are not going to lecture you.
Help in the UK
GamCare
0808 8020 133The National Gambling Helpline. Free, confidential, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, across Great Britain. WhatsApp and live chat as well as phone. This is the one to ring first. gamcare.org.uk
Gamblers Anonymous UK
0330 094 0322Peer support meetings, in person and online, run by people who have been there. Phone line 7:30am to 10:30pm daily. gamblersanonymous.org.uk
Gambling Therapy
Free online support, moderated forums and groups, available internationally, which makes it the useful one if you are reading this in a hotel room in Singapore rather than at home. It is run by Gordon Moody, not by GamCare. The two are frequently confused and there has been no merger. gamblingtherapy.org
A note on GambleAware
You will still find begambleaware.org printed at the bottom of a great deal of British gambling advertising, including some published this year. GambleAware closed as an organisation on 31 March 2026, after the statutory levy replaced voluntary industry funding, and NHS England has run the programme in England since 1 April 2026. The domain still resolves. We are not going to point you at it first, and neither should anyone else.
Help where these buildings are
Singapore
1800-6-668-668The National Council on Problem Gambling helpline, open daily from 8am to 11pm. Anonymous. Singapore also runs a formal system of exclusion orders, which can be self-requested, requested by a family member, or applied automatically in certain circumstances. ncpg.org.sg
South Korea
1336Run by the Korea Problem Gambling Agency. Free, seven days a week. The agency was renamed from the Korea Center on Gambling Problems in July 2022, though the old domain still works. kcgp.or.kr
Philippines
(02) 8248-9568PAGCOR's responsible gaming line. Be clear about what this is: it is a contact number for the regulator's responsible gaming programme, not a 24-hour crisis line, and we are not going to dress it up as one. In an emergency in the Philippines, use local emergency services. If you are a UK traveller, GamCare above is open right now and is free.
What we are not listing
We are not printing a Gamblers Anonymous number for the Asia-Pacific region, because we could not verify one that we would be willing to put in front of somebody in trouble. A wrong number on this page is worse than a missing one. If you know of a verifiable regional service, please tell us.
Tools that exist
These are facts about how the industry is regulated, not recommendations, and nothing on this page is an invitation to use any venue.
- Self-exclusion. A formal request to be refused entry or service for a set period. In Singapore this is a statutory exclusion order and family members can apply on someone's behalf.
- Deposit and loss limits. Caps you set in advance, when you are thinking clearly, rather than in the room.
- Cooling-off periods. A shorter, temporary block, usually easier to start than a full exclusion.
- Time-outs and reality checks. Scheduled interruptions. The reason they work is the reason they are needed: these rooms are built to make time disappear.
The entry charge is not a safety tool. Singapore's S$150 levy on residents is sometimes described as a protective measure. It is a barrier, it is real, and it applies only to citizens and permanent residents. It is not a substitute for any of the above, and if you are a British visitor it does not apply to you at all.