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  • Budgeting is important to keep track of your play and make sure you don’t spend more than you are willing to lose. 
  • Make sure you have a game plan and know how much you’re willing to lose and how long you want to play.
  • Most financial advisers recommend that you spend up to 5-10% of your after-tax income on entertainment and recreation.
  • Lower risk gambling guidelines suggest spending 1% or less of your household income on gambling.
  • Play within your gambling budget. Once you hit your budget, it’s time to move on to something else.

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  •  You should not use credit or borrow money to gamble. It increases your risk of experiencing gambling-related harm.
  • Credit is more than just cards. It’s also lines of credit, credit card cash advances, PayPal, and loans from credit unions, banks, friends, or family.
  • Using a credit card enables debt to pile up quickly.
  • Leave the plastic at home and only take cash with you to in-person gambling venues.

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  • Gambling is a form of entertainment, like going to a concert, not a way to make extra money.
  • The gambling odds are stacked high against you. Expect to lose and remember you’re playing to have a good time.
  • Never chase your losses, it almost always leads to bigger losses.
  • Don’t leave the fun to chance. Only gamble with money you have budgeted for entertainment purposes. 

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GameSense

PlayNow.com

Casinos BC

Lower Risk Gambling Guidelines

General Financial Literacy

  • Your Financial Toolkit (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada)
  • Financial Education (Credit Counselling Society – workshops, webinars, online courses, building your budget, money tips, debt reduction tips)
  • Financial Resources (Credit Counselling Society – blogs, calculators, workshops, budgeting tips, understanding credit)

Budgeting

Debt help

Credit Counselling

Related material
Skill vs. chance
Skill vs. chance

Understand how skill and chance work and how they affect the games you play.

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Self-Assessment Test
Self-Assessment Test

Take this quiz to get a better understanding of your gambling habits.

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Randomness
Randomness

Understand the role randomness plays in games of skill and how it affects the outcome of the game.

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Our operations span the entirety of the province that we now call British Columbia. We respectfully acknowledge that we are guests in the territories of more than 200 First Nations, each with unique traditions, cultures, and histories. We are grateful to these First Nations caretakers for their stewardship of these lands and waters since time immemorial. 

BCLC is committed to establishing and maintaining good relations with all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in British Columbia and beyond. Our journey has only recently begun, and we have a lot of work to do in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples to understand the Truth, reconcile the past, and truly generate win-wins for the greater good, together.

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