Limiting oneself is crucial for both life and gambling. As you are aware, pushing oneself too far can be risky; its a slippery slope. To begin with, the first thing that will enable you to play correctly is your inherent self-awareness. Recall that the purpose of a game should be enjoyment, not guilt trips. A tight budget and frequent breaks are two more effective strategies for maintaining the right balance between leisure and responsibility.
We have to do things with moderation no matter the way they appears so interesting and amazing to you, the fantasy we get in gambling should be dealth and handle with care so that it does not get over on us that we begin to misbehave on how we gamble and loose concentration, if we are gambling, just as you've said, we need to have the interest of our own life put in consideration and then the gambling we are doing to follow suite, gambling is not to harm or leave us vulnerable to making disadvantages, but we allow those things manifest due to our own careless attitude towards gambling responsibly.
Yeah, gambling requires constant mental observation. If a person notice any unusual behavior in their gambling habits, they have to follow Op's advise, atleast take a break. To some extent gamblers don't want to understand or obey the law of diminishing return. Many addicted gamblers today, must have made lots of profits through gambling, and during the period of winning they took gambling activity more seriously, allocating extra money and time into it. When they stop winning, start losing more money and time, such players fail to pause it. The behavior like during the winning times reoccurs in times of losses, increasing the player's frustration, because s/he doesn't win anymore yet plays more.
Hence, if a player pays close attention to their gambling lifestyle and the economy of their life, they can differentiate between when they weren't gambling and now that they gamble. If the development is poor; short of funds, repulsive gambling and questionable attitudes. A sensible player, can begin to cut short on the time and money spent in gambling, and increase their chances of staying clear from gambling addiction.