When betting, it’s always a good idea to have an idea of how much money you can afford to or are willing to lose. Some people have the willpower to mentally select a figure and then stick to it, whilst others need a little bit of help stopping themselves from continuing to deposit money even after they’ve gone past the amount that they had in their head before they started betting.
Thankfully, bookmakers are on hand to stop us from going overboard with our depositing. Every bookmaker that has been licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission will allow you to set a deposit limit, meaning that you can only deposit up to that amount over a given period of time. Any attempts to deposit more will be refused, with changes to the deposit limit amount taking time to be implemented.
Why You Might Want to Limit Your Deposits
Each bettor is unique, with every person who has a flutter having their own way of managing their betting habits. Some will put a certain amount into their account and place bets until that amount, alongside any winnings, has been wiped out. Others will be more keen to place money in then take out any winnings, putting more money in when they fancy another flutter, depositing and withdrawing at will.
Controlling Your Spending
Whatever the method that you think you’d opt for, there’s a reason why being able to limit your deposits is a thing. Let’s say that you don’t want to spend more than £10 per week on betting but over the past couple of weeks you’ve noticed that you’ve lost track of your betting and actually spend an average of £25 per week. It would be really easy to introduced a deposit limit, meaning that you will be reminded when you’ve passed the amount you want to spend.
Problem Gambling
Of course, there’s no skating around the fact that some people are problem gamblers and will be aware that they don’t have the willpower to be able to stop themselves from depositing more money into their account long after the limit they wanted to stick to has past. Someone in this situation will often be grateful for a helping hand, which is provided to them in the from of a deposit limit placed on their account.
In other words, there are a myriad of different reasons why someone might want to place a deposit limit on their betting account, with each person’s logic being entirely different. The one thing that everyone will have in common is that they’re not going to be harmed by imposing a deposit limit, given the manner in which it will stop them from betting more than they can afford to once the limit is in place.
How to Set a Limit
Knowing that you can set a limit and being aware of how to do so are two separate things. Most betting companies make it really easy for punters to set a limit on their account, giving options on the likes of the length of time that a limit will last for as well as the amount that you’re limited too. Obviously each gambling company will have its own way of handling things, so this is a generic guide using specific examples.
My Account > Responsible Gambling
The first thing that you’ll want to do is find the section on your chosen website labelled something along the lines of ‘My Account’. From there, you’ll be able to trigger a dropdown menu that will say something such as ‘Responsible Gambling’. Clicking on that will take you to another page where you can go through the process of putting a deposit limit in place, which is normally really obviously signposted.
Your Options
Again, this isn’t something that betting companies are trying to keep hidden from their customers, so even if you can’t find it for some reason then you’ll have the option of speaking to a customer services representative and they’ll be happy to guide you through what you need to do. The options on most Responsible Gambling pages include the following:
- Deposit Limit – Put a limit on how much you can deposit into your account
- Loss Limit – Limit how much you can lose from your account or transfer to other parts of the site
- Reality Check – This allows you to set a timer that will inform you when you’ve been logged in and betting for a certain length of time
- Take a Break – You’ll be effectively logged out of your account for up to 30 days, unable to login during this time
- Self-Exclusion – You can block yourself from being able to login to your account for as long as you choose, blocking yourself either from the entire site or a specific product
Set Your Deposit Limit
You’ll want to either set up your Deposit Limit or, if you’ve done it in the past, edit the amount you’ve limited yourself to. Once you’ve clicked on the ‘Set Deposit Limit’ button, you’ll be presented with a box that asks you whether you’re limiting yourself to a Daily, Weekly or Monthly time period. After that, you simply need to input how much money you want your limit to be, meaning that you won’t be able to deposit more than that during your chosen time period.
Once you’ve chosen how much you want to be allowed to deposit and how long a period of time you want your limit to apply for, you simply press ‘Set Deposit Limit’ or similar button to save your preferences. You might be asked to confirm your choice, but this depends on the company that you have chosen to place your bets with. After that, your new deposit limit will be in place.
What Happens Next
Once you’ve set your limit, each time you attempt to deposit money into your account the bookmaker or betting company will check your account and ensure that accepting the deposit that you’re attempting to make will not result in your going over your deposit limit. As long as you’re going to come under the amount that you set, your deposit will be accepted and you’ll be able to place bets with the deposited money.
If, on the other hand, the deposit is going to take you over your deposit amount then the betting company will reject your deposit. If this happens, you’ll need to wait for your chosen time period to elapse before you’ll be allowed to make another deposit into your account. You can make changes to you deposit limit, but this normally takes as long as seven days to come into effect, which is worth bearing in mind.
The reason for the seven day limit is in order to give you time to think about your change. It’s the equivalent of a cooling off period after you’ve ordered something, taking time to come into effect so that you can you change your mind if you wish to. Even if you wish to completely remove your deposit limit, it will take seven days for that to happen too so as to ensure that you can’t just remove the limit and deposit more money as and when you fancy.