Online gambling is becoming increasingly popular. In fact, according to Statista, the global online gambling market is estimated to be valued at 92.9 billion USD dollars by the year 2023. This means that within five years, the market size will have nearly doubled. Due to several influencing factors, players are also progressively shifting from in-person to online gambling.  As a result, users can now gamble whenever and wherever they’d like, making gambling much more accessible.

As a result of this increased accessibility, it is the responsibility of the operators to ensure that they place greater emphasis on promoting responsible gambling services.Read More: How Current Data Can Help Us Understand the Future of Responsible GamblingWhat are responsible gambling services?In short, responsible gambling services are programs and tools put into place by operators and governments to promote awareness about the potential harms that gambling may cause such as gambling addiction.

In order to encourage and maintain safe gambling, there have been a number of safe gambling strategies that operators have recently promoted and implemented within their gaming websites.

Let’s examine some common responsible gambling tools available for players:

• Age restrictions: One of the most common ways to ensure safe gambling is having an age restriction for those under the legal gambling age. When registering for online gaming sites, many websites will ask for your birth date and/or will ask you to confirm you are above the legal age before being able to play.
• Time limits: Another feature is allowing players to limit the amount spent on a particular website. Depending on the website, players can select a maximum time they’d like to spend playing for any given day, week, month and/or year.
• Deposit limits: Similar to time limits, deposit limits allow players to restrict their spending by inputting a maximum amount of money they are willing and/or can afford to play for any given day, week, month and/or year. In fact, some safe gambling websites even have an incorporated budget calculator that allows players to fill out the slots with their financial information (ex: earnings) in order to help them determine how much they are able to afford to gamble.
•  Gambling blockers: For players who want to limit themselves from online gambling websites, they can install software, such as Gamban or Gamblock, that will restrict their access to these websites.
• Self-exclusion and breaks: Some players may want to restrict their access altogether when it comes to online gambling websites. As a result, players can fill out their information and/or contact the website to have their profile locked for any given period.
• Support organizations: There are a growing number of organizations that aim to assist players when it comes to online gambling and its potential dangers. Depending on your location, you can benefit from a number of support groups that are typically available 24/7. Please check locally to see which organization is most suitable for you.

Self-assessment quizIn addition to these responsible gaming trends that are aimed to promote safe gambling online, there is also another tool available with self-assessment quizzes. This type of quiz can help you better understand your gambling habits and is being offered with more regularity. For example, if you live in Canada, click here to take this test or see an example of one.Final ThoughtsAll in all, it’s clear that promoting responsible gambling is becoming important for not only operators but for players as well. In fact, in recent months, many affiliates have begun highlighting whether the brands they are listing feature responsible gaming. It is also expected that the legislations for this industry will continue to become stringent in the near future. With both of those concepts in mind, it’s clear that responsible gambling is vital and must be made a clear priority for operators.