Topic: Practical "Self-Exclusion" from Bitcoin Gambling Websites (Read 547 times)

Thank you, we are finally in accord.
I totally agree that self-exclusion by itself, or locking your funds away is insufficient to stop (or somehow control) your gambling addiction, by all means this is not enough, you definitely have to supplement the exclusion with ideas such as reading books or online books, participating in forums or physical groups such as GA (I personally don't like GA though), you should also edcuate yourself about why gambling is bad for you or why it's a bad "investment", whatever works for you - I don't think locking your funds away or self-excluding by any means is enough to stop gambling for good.

It works yes in that one can't gamble without money. But like I and many said, there are ways around it and once the funds unlock, another boost of willpower would be needed to lock it again and if that's the case why not just withdraw it than make it useless?

Self-exclusion works as an immediate way to stop the act from happening but to be truly effective it'll have to be part of an intervention. For example during the 1 month lock-down he/she can go into counseling, and then when the fund unlocks move the money into an account family members can monitor so they can find if he/she's in a danger of relapse.

Anyway, it have its use, I never disputed that and I commend you mentioning this option and making a thread about it that members who may feel they are losing control can read and learn from.

What if you are dealing with a website like Stake.com, BetBit.com and others who let you simply sign up for a new account in a matter of seconds? You won't restrict yourself that way.

I've just locked 0.03 BTC using Coinb.in until the 20th of December (2 weeks from now), I need to use them only then ... it's a great feeling that in some way I've now "self-excluded" myself from Crypto Gambling sites because I won't be able to bet now with other Crypto funds, I'm only feeling more deterred from placing bets, and every day that goes by without placing a bet is bringing me more freedom, sanity and a different aspect at life.

Like or not - this method works, at least for me, at least I'm a single individual who can testify that this is a great method that works for me and prevents me from placing bets!

If you use the Coinb.in option then you are not limited to only 96 hours.
Now converting more fiat into BTC as far as I'm as aware by any means is not instant for most people, so as long as you don't have instant access to deposit Bitcoin to a Bitcoin site, then you are in some way protected because you would be deterred by any means to do so in a way that takes a long time, since it's not instant - so you kill the urge at the very moment it's showing upm and basically then you are already making a progress.


The issue with gambling is isolation, many addicts don't tell others - breaking the isolation is definitely one of the best steps towards stopping, however those who are not in this stage would find self-exclusion (or what this thread suggests) to be more useful for them.

I'm personally very happy I've found Coinb.in - I have some BTC in my wallet, I use it only when I need it, but I need to use it only 2 weeks from now, so by locking my BTC for 2 weeks - I won't be buying more BTC from my fiat (not worth the fees, the hassles, the sports odds of 1.95 would be worth 1.70 this way which is demotivating to bet like this) .... I won't be looking to gamble now, on the contrary, I feel in some way much better knowing my BTC cannot be spent and it's not lost.

You guys once again underestimate the power of self-exclusion, self-exclusion means you cannot gamble, whether you like it or not ... of course if I would insist I can find was to place bets but deep inside I feel like I don't want to and I am not having urges to do so ... I just know when my BTC is released I will spend it on what I need to spend it, and nothing else, period.

I absolutely agree with this. I was going to suggest simply keeping your coins in a medium that's harder to access such as a paper wallet or a hardware wallet so you'll need to take more steps to get to where your funds are, but if you've got a somewhat serious problem, you'll probably find the inconvenience of using either of these forms of coin storage to be small compared to the enjoyment you get from gambling. I also don't like keeping funds on third-party platforms no matter how secure they might be, so using your willpower or strengthening it to the point that you can begin to rely on it is the ideal solution.

Talking to others is very underrated today. You can only keep things pent up for so long before they come out one way or another, and friends and family can often provide great advice or even just support through any problems you might have. People especially close to you absolutely do care at least to some degree about what's happening to you personally, so find some way to do so.

Even a 96-hour lockup isn't going to exclude anybody from gambling, let's be realistic. It's trivially simple to just convert more fiat into BTC or another cryptocurrency.

People often even take out loans just for the purpose of gambling, so locking up the funds simply isn't going to cut it.

Personally, I think the only way to stop yourself from gambling is to seek professional help, or let your friends and family know about your issues so they can help you.

Beyond that, it's all willpower. Everything in moderation guys.

If the addict doesn't want to get help - then yes, he would find ways to gamble.

However,

If the addict wants to stop - then in this environment where self-exclusion is not something that is feasible to achieve so easily with Crypto Gambling sites - then suggestions like the ones in this thread could help the addict to prevent himself from going back to gamble.

There is no dispute that self-exclusion works, it simply does - and the goal of this thread is to manifest that concept.

So your conclusion is wrong, however you want to look at it.

Finally it's good to see a sensible comment in this thread.
You're right that any layer, additional or main one - to stop gambling - is a vital layer.

Merited +1 by me.

I could see locking your own funds as a good way to stop ones urge to gamble i've tried it once but in another way where i'd cash out my funds right away because putting it back in through my local exchange takes days for me since my options are limited. This isn't for everyone since there are other ways for them to get back in but if its effective it can be an additional layer for the other solutions they have.

In addition to the two gambling sites mentioned with self exclusion there's also sportsbet and nitrogensports for sports betting.


I think you misunderstood his post he's agreeing to the self exclusion because no one simply locks others' gambling funds. If anything the gamblers usually request their account to be locked or they do it on their own as few sites have different kinds of self exclusion.

It would have been a great feature if most wallets/exchanges have it. I skimmed through the last thread linked and I found it quite complicated, especially for me who is more "casual". If I ever got to this point I'd probably come clean to my family so they know I have a severe problem, then we'd figure out what to do with it.   



I never expected this. I was about to write that it would be more an exchange rather than casino option as the latter would prefer people to keep spending. You mentioned regulated, are casinos in your country legally required to allow locking up to 30 days or the duration varies according to casinos?


+1 to this. It's a compulsion, the addict will find ways to get his rush. If he leaves one wallet accessible he could still get tempted to use that. And once those funds unlock, he'll have to go through the entire self-exclude again (which I think is a waste since that money could be use for something else). There's only so much an individual can do on his own to fight this disease.

Why do you have a problem with someone wanting to lock his funds for the sake of not gambling with them?
And how could it be against any possible "rights"? Do you have the right to tell someone else what to do with his funds? If not - then save your opinion for yourself. (I just hope you won't have a problem understanding what I'm telling you here because the way you expressed yourself wasn't really impressive).

This isn't  bad idea to stop your addiction from gambling and there is also a method you could try out. The best possible way to stay out of it is to shut down the gambling account, get some of this apps that help in blacklisting some url. That way,  your mind would draw back from the addiction.

what?who are you to lock the bitcoin just because he is addicted?that is against the rightsof everyone ,i assume that you are not a gambler because if yes?for sure you will never say this kind of post
it is not because he cannot buy anything but because he is the owner so no one has the right to take it from him.

you said funds on the vault cant be used for gambling  ? but at the end you said that locking funds wont help restrict you from playing  . actually the last sentence is true  . no one can help you restrict from playing because no matter how you keep your coins but as long as your addiction or urge to play kicks in , you will always find a way to open and get your funds back or you will find other way to make money so that you can play again  but atleast by using vault or alike will make your self a hassel to think that youl become lazy to play again  . it works for me tho

When it is possible for us to self exclude it will be possible to get back to the usage of the same gambling websites. This way everything is the mind that decides how we need to limit ourselves from the usage of gambling websites. There is an feature available with few gambling websites named vault. Here we can keep our funds, and this can't be used for gambling. We need to verify to make use of it. Thi is as simple as verifying through gmail. So I don't think locking the funds will restrict from gambling.

The locking of gambling addicts Bitcoin is a good idea too. But I think the owner of the locked Bitcoin may sell fiat to buy another Bitcoin when the addiction kicks in. But if he ends up locking all his funds, he probably won't have any money to pay bills, money for food, fare, etc

I'm respecting your suggestions about solving gambling addiction I just said locking funds will not be enough we have to bring change into ourselves like you said by being active on other things which maybe anything depends on each personal.Don't stick with your opinion alone let's see what the community thinks about your idea which is the reason why forums are created for.

Which is why the suggestion given in this thread is putting you in control of your funds and not being controlled by website A or website B.
You lock your funds, not your gambling account.
And you do so because those sites cannot really self-exclude yourself with Bitcoin.

PS any website that is allowing you to break self-exclusion as you've shown can be subject to legal lawsuits in certain jurisdictions.

Just to drop one example of self-exclusion from gambling site, site is regulated and players can exclude themselves for max 30 days:



After ticking option number 3) 30 days and hitting "exclude me" button", I got message that I have been self-excluded for 30 days and that I can't "gamble":



Of course, there is "cancel" button, so after I self-excluded myself, I pushed that button and I got following message:



Translated "would you like to cancel "self exclusion"? You will be able to play right away"

After clicking button on the right, self-exclusion is canceled and I can gamble again. So how about that?? Of course, many gambling sites don't have that option and what I already said:
Besides, you can always exclude yourself from one gambling site and go to next one, self exclusion won't work.

So, unplug yourself from internet, go outside, spend time with friends and family, find yourself a hobby and:

Anyone who keeps on posting the same repeated stuff for no reason - please read post #30 in this thread, especially the bold text - please read it before posting to save other readers time and hassles from reading the same repeated stuff.

Please don't post before reading the bold text in post #30 because otherwise you're causing hassles to other readers who want to read this thread without having to repeatedly go through the same thing over and over and over again for no reason.