Responsible Gambling

I. Counselling across Austria

Spielsuchthilfe advises players and their relatives throughout Austria: free of charge, confidential and anonymous on request. Its services range from prevention and counselling to therapy and support (in German).

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) keeps a list of counselling and treatment centres for problem gambling for all nine federal states, from Burgenland to Vienna.

II. Player protection unit at the BMF

Under § 1 (4) of the Austrian Gambling Act (GSpG), a player protection unit (Spielerschutzstelle) has been set up at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

According to the BMF, its tasks include informing the public about the risks of gambling, assessing the player protection concepts of federal licence holders and working with authorities and counselling services at federal, state and regional level.

III. Self-exclusion in the player account

At the Austrian operator win2day, an account can be blocked for the whole platform or for individual game areas; players choose the area and the duration in their profile. According to win2day, an exclusion takes effect immediately and cannot be reversed. It only ends once the chosen period has passed.

Other operators describe limits and exclusions in their own terms, usually in the account area under player protection or responsible gambling.

IV. Warning signs

These are reasons to talk to a counselling service:

• You play longer or with more money than planned.
• You try to win back losses.
• You borrow money or hide your gambling.
• Other parts of daily life take a back seat.