When it stops being fun
How to stop gambling
Remove the access first and deal with the reasons second. Willpower against an app that is four centimetres from your hand is a losing setup, and it is not a character test.
Self-exclude, block at the device level, separate the money, then call somebody. In that order.
Today, in about twenty minutes
Self-exclude. In Ontario, PlaySmart covers every room on the Ontario register with one registration, plus OLG.ca and the physical casinos, and you choose the length.
Delete every gambling app rather than logging out. Reinstalling and signing in again is friction, and friction is the entire mechanism.
Install blocking software that works at network level so it covers the browser as well as the app. Blocking apps one at a time never holds.
Take the cards out of the phone wallet and out of any saved cashier.
This week
Hand day-to-day money management to somebody you trust, temporarily. It feels drastic and it is the step people say afterwards made the difference.
Call a free line. ConnexOntario is 1-866-531-2600, any hour. Provincially funded counselling generally costs nothing and needs no referral.
Tell one person. Secrecy is load-bearing in this, and removing it takes a surprising amount of weight off.
When it slips
Lapses are common and they are not the end of the attempt. What matters is the gap between the lapse and telling somebody about it.
Every tool and helpline mentioned here is listed with the details on take a break. No operator links on that page and no tracking on it either.
FREE, 24 HOURS, CONFIDENTIAL
ConnexOntario answers at 1-866-531-2600. Every province has an equivalent line and they are listed, with the blocking tools and the self-exclusion routes, on take a break. Nothing on that page earns this site anything.