Playing fair with yourself

It's free, your time isn't

Demo credits refill when the page reloads, so a session never runs dry on its own. There's no closing bell.

A real show day has one built in. The light goes, the trucks are loaded, everyone heads for the car park. On a screen you have to bring the dusk yourself. Limits matter even when no money is involved, because an evening lost to spinning reels is still an evening you don't get back, and habits formed on free games can follow you elsewhere.

Habits from the show office

• Pick a finish time before you open a pen, and set a timer on your phone rather than trusting yourself to notice.
• Roughly every half hour, stand up and leave the screen for a decent spell. The site puts up a small card after thirty minutes on a page, but you don't have to wait for it.
• Leave the demo slots alone when you're upset, worn out or a few drinks in. Those are the evenings when "one more go" stretches furthest.
• Keep it to one tab. Two pens at once is twice the time for half the attention.
• Have something lined up for afterwards, like a walk, a meal or a phone call, so stopping has somewhere to go.

Signs to pay attention to

Take notice if any of these sound familiar:

• You play for longer than you meant to, most times you sit down.
• You come back to the demo slots to get away from worries or a low mood.
• You feel irritable when you can't play, or when someone interrupts.
• You've started thinking about trying real-money gambling because the demos seemed to go well.
• People close to you have mentioned how much time it takes up.

Ticking a single line on that list proves nothing by itself. Several together are worth talking over with someone, and the services further down are there for exactly that.

Leaving Belmorhaven

There are no accounts here, so there's nothing to close or cancel. Shut the tab and you're back out the gate.

If you'd rather not come back, you can block the site. Most phones, tablets and computers have screen time or content restriction settings where you can add belmorhaven.com to a blocked list, and most browsers have extensions that do the same job. BetBlocker, listed below, is free blocking software you can set up on your own devices.

Help in New Zealand

None of the groups below has any tie to Belmorhaven. We don't run them and they don't run us.

• Gambling Helpline, 0800 654 655. A free phone line you can ring to talk about gambling.
• Problem Gambling Foundation, 0800 664 262. Ring the number, or start from their website.
• Gambling Therapy. Free online support, so you can reach it from wherever you are.
• Gamblers Anonymous. Their website explains how to get in touch with them.
• BetBlocker. Free blocking software for your own devices.

For whānau and friends

If you're worried about someone, start with an ordinary conversation at a time when neither of you is rushed or cross. Say what you've noticed rather than what you think it means. Listening tends to get further than a lecture.

Look after yourself in this too. Nothing stops you making the first call to one of the services above, even if the person you're worried about doesn't want to talk yet.

Demo results mean nothing for real-money play

Demo slots run on demo credits, and a good afternoon in the pens tells you nothing about what would happen with real money. Practice or success at social casino games does not imply future success at real-money gambling.

If a run of demo spins has you wondering about the real thing, treat that thought as one of the signs above, and give it some room before you act on it.