Gambling is one of the oldest activities of mankind, a favourite pastime for many. It is thrilling and entertaining, creating an adrenaline rush amongst the players, who place bets to try their luck at winning. For some punters, this urge to gamble becomes uncontrollable, and they can get addicted to gambling. The players spend most of the day gambling, and in their attempt to win more money, they overspend their earnings, becoming bankrupt. The mental health, as well as the financial condition of the players, is hampered. These problems are dealt with by introducing a gambling blocking website where the player can register themselves and self-restraint themselves from gambling.
Gambling addiction is a serious threat to society, and it takes a toll on the lives of gamblers. Self-exclusion is a process in which the players can remove themselves from engaging in online gambling. GamStop is a gambling-blocking software developed with the objective of refraining compulsive gamblers from gambling. There is a period of self-exclusion in GamStop, which the players themselves can select. The “Cooling Off” Period is another prime method that helps you avoid gambling like GamStop, and can be useful in aiding customers to quit gambling for a definite period of time. In this article, a comparative analysis of these two processes is done and discussed.
What is GamStop?
GamStop is a self-exclusion system developed by National Online Self Exclusion Scheme Limited (NOSES), in the United Kingdom, in the year 2018. Gamblers can register on GamStop and exclude themselves from the gambling scene for a certain period of time. The duration of the time period can be of 6 months, a year, or 5 years. The players can select from any of these time periods to self-exclude themselves. First and foremost, the players have to enter certain personal information after logging into the GamStop site.
Once the details are entered and verified by the system, after that, the self-exclusion tenure is activated within 24 hours. During this chosen self-exclusion period, the players will not be allowed access to the UKGC-licensed gambling sites. Therefore the players have to wait for the GamStop self-exclusion period to be over before playing their favourite casino games once again. Some players don’t want to wait that long, so they choose casinos that GamStop does not cover, provided by the CasinoGap team of gambling experts. However, if you can`t control yourself on your own, we highly recommend choosing GamStop casinos.
What is The Cooling-Off Period?
The “Cooling-Off” period refers to a period of break or a small gap taken from online gambling. During this period, the player will be debarred by the casinos from receiving any kind of advertisements, promotions, or notifications. The flow of money to the gambler from the bank is blocked for gambling purposes during this period of time. However, money transactions for any other type of purpose are not restricted. This tool can be effective for those gamblers who might have the tendency to develop an addiction to gambling.
Advantages of GamStop
- GamStop is free for use, that is, no registration fee is needed to be deposited to register on GamStop.
- The lowest duration of time in the GamStop self-exclusion period for self-exclusion is six months. This is quite a long time before which a player will not be able to access gambling sites. This might help in getting rid of the addictive habits of a problem punter.
- Registration on GamStop can be done from anywhere, anytime. This means GamStop can be installed on any kind of device. The process is easy and not at all time-consuming.
- Players can register on GamStop according to their own free will by opting for a selected period of self-exclusion suitable for their condition.
Disadvantages of GamStop
- GamStop is only operational in the UK for the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) registered casinos. In that case, bypassing GamStop will not be difficult. The players can play at the usual brick-and-mortar non-GamStop casinos or at offshore non-UK casinos, thereby staying off the radar of UKGC. This destroys the primary objective of GamStop from refraining a problem punter from gambling.
- The registration on GamStop cannot be terminated unless the self-exclusion period ends. Therefore the player has to be very careful before registering on GamStop and selecting the self-exclusion duration.
- Storage of personal information of customers is done at GamStop, thereby hampering the privacy policy. The archive period is of seven years, after which the data is deleted.
Advantages of Cooling-Off Period
- The cooling-off period is offered free of cost.
- Limits to financial inflow can be set, beyond which the gambler will be restricted from gambling by blocking the bank account.
- There is flexibility when selecting the time period of self-exclusion. This period of self-exclusion stretches for a smaller duration, like three days or a week or ten days, or one month.
Disadvantages of the Cooling-Off Period
This is not quite effective for gamblers who are trying to quit gambling, as the duration of self-exclusion is short. At times, it is seen that gamblers engage in gambling even more
Conclusion
“Cooling Off” and GamStop both seem to be effective in overcoming gambling and beating gambling addiction. Matured, careful application of both can be done to support punters; while GamStop can be used for quitting the habit of gambling, the Cooling-off period can be used for a break from gambling.