Playing with a floor under you
20 questions make up the Gamblers Anonymous self-assessment, and most compulsive gamblers answer yes to at least 7. In Canada, ConnexOntario's helpline is 1-866-531-2600 and Québec's Jeu : aide et référence is 1-800-461-0140; deposit limits, cool-offs and self-exclusion work best when set before you play.
- Updated
- Sources
- Listed at the foot of the page
- Market
- Canada
The direct answer
Gambling is entertainment with an expected cost — every guide on this site prices that cost openly. Responsible gambling is not a lecture; it is a set of tools that keep the cost inside what you chose in advance: limits set before playing, honest self-checks, and exits that work when you need them. This page lists the ones that exist and where the real help is, for readers in Canada in particular.
A self-check that costs nothing
Gamblers Anonymous publishes its classic self-assessment: answer all 20 questions, honestly, and look at the pattern. Their own guidance is blunt — most compulsive gamblers will answer yes to at least 7 of them. The questions take five minutes and nobody sees your answers. If the result unsettles you, that is information, not judgment — and it is better to have it early.
Tools that work before you need them
Deposit limits, loss limits, session reminders and self-exclusion all share one property: they work best when set while you are calm, not while chasing. Set the deposit limit at signup — every serious operator offers one — and treat raising it as a decision that deserves a day's delay, not a click. In Ontario specifically, the provincially regulated market operates a centralized self-exclusion covering its registered sites; if you play there, use the province's own tooling.
Where the real help is
If gambling has stopped being a decision, talk to someone: the help below is free, confidential and independent of any casino, and none of it requires you to have hit bottom. One thing to know before you dial — in Canada these services are provincial, not national, so the line that matters is the one for where you live.
In Ontario, ConnexOntario is the province's free, confidential line for mental health, addiction and problem gambling support — information and referral, answering at any hour of any day, on 1-866-531-2600. It is an Ontario service; if you are elsewhere in the country, it is not your number. Ontario also runs the official self-exclusion register for its regulated online market, BetGuard, at betguard.ca — that is where an exclusion covering the whole regulated market is filed, rather than site by site.
In Québec, Jeu : aide et référence is the province's gambling help and referral line, reachable at any hour on 1-800-461-0140, or at aidejeu.ca.
Everywhere else in Canada the equivalent service is provincial too, and this page will not print a number it has not verified — a wrong line at the wrong moment is worse than none at all. If you are outside Ontario and Québec, look up your own province's problem-gambling helpline rather than calling either of the two above. The earlier the conversation, the easier it is.
Frequently asked questions
- Are deposit limits worth it if I am fine?
- Yes — that is exactly when to set them. A limit set calmly costs nothing while things are fine and holds precisely when they are not.
- Does self-exclusion actually work online?
- With registered operators, exclusion is enforced at the account level; in Ontario the regulated market runs it centrally across its registered sites. With offshore operators you rely on each site's own program — one more difference worth knowing about.
- Is the Gamblers Anonymous questionnaire a diagnosis?
- No — it is a structured self-check, not a clinical assessment. Its value is honesty at low stakes: twenty questions, five minutes, nobody watching.
At a glance
Key facts
- Market
- Canada
- Published by
- Monteclar editorial desk
- Updated
- Data completeness
- Only figures backed by the cited sources are shown; anything we could not verify is left out.
Sources
Informational content; not legal, tax, or financial advice. Adults 18+ only — gambling carries a risk of financial loss.
Machine-readable summaryCanada
- Canonical source
- https://monteclar.com/en-CA/guides/responsible-gambling
- What this page does
- guide with cited sources
- Offers on this page
- This page shows no casino offers
- Evidence
- 4 cited sources: gamblersanonymous.org, connexontario.ca, aidejeu.ca, iGaming Ontario — the province's regulated igaming market
- Partner links
- Where present, labelled and routed through monteclar.com/go/ so a sign-up can be attributed; source links stay direct.
- Not advice
- Informational only. Check your country's rules and the operator's terms before you play. Adults 18+ only.