Online casinos offer an accessible and entertaining way to engage in gambling activities from the comfort of one’s home. With their convenience and wide array of games, it’s easy to see why many people find them appealing. However, the ease of access can also lead to pitfalls such as overspending or spending too much time on these platforms. To maintain online gambling as a fun and safe activity, it is crucial to approach it with responsibility. This article discusses various strategies and advice for enjoying online casinos responsibly, ensuring that gambling remains a form of recreation and not a problem.

Understanding Responsible Gambling

Responsible gambling involves practices and behaviors that prevent gambling from becoming harmful. It includes setting limits on the amount of money and time spent on gambling, understanding the odds of games, and gambling for entertainment rather than as a way to make money. The essence of responsible gambling is self-control and an awareness of gambling’s risks.

Setting Financial Limits

One of the most effective responsible gambling strategies is setting financial limits. Here’s how you can do it:

• Budgeting: Allocate a specific amount of money for gambling activities, which should be a sum you can afford to lose. Treat this as part of your entertainment budget, and it does not need to be a large sum of money, $5 deposit casinos ensure you stay within budget.
• Use Deposit Limits: Many reputable online casinos offer tools to limit your deposits daily, weekly, or monthly. Utilizing these tools can help you stay within your budget.
• Avoid Chasing Losses: One common mistake is trying to win back money you’ve lost, often leading to even more significant losses. If you hit your limit, walk away.

Managing Time Spent Gambling

Time management is crucial in maintaining gambling as a recreational activity and not letting it interfere with your daily responsibilities:

• Set Time Limits: Decide how much time you can afford to spend gambling and stick to it. Many online platforms allow you to set time limits on your gaming sessions.
• Balance Gambling with Other Activities: Gambling should not become your primary hobby. Instead, engage in activities like spending time with family, exercising, or exploring other hobbies.

Knowing the Games and Their Odds

Understanding the games you play and their odds is crucial:

• Learn the Rules: Know the rules and strategies of your games. This knowledge can enhance your gaming experience and improve your chances of winning.
• Understanding Odds: All casino games have a house edge, an advantage the casino has over the player. Recognizing that the odds are generally against you can help keep your gambling expectations in check.

Utilizing Responsible Gambling Tools

Many online casinos offer various tools designed to help you gamble responsibly:

• Self-Exclusion: If you feel you’re losing control over your gambling, consider using self-exclusion options, which block your access to your casino account for a certain period.
• Reality Checks: Some sites provide reality checks that periodically remind you how long you’ve been playing and how much you’ve spent.
• Permanent Account Closure: If gambling becomes a serious problem, the best step may be to close your account permanently.

Recognizing Problem Gambling

Knowing the signs of problem gambling can help you recognize if recreational gambling is turning into a risky behavior:

• Preoccupation with Gambling: Spending excessive time thinking about gambling or planning to gamble.
• Increasing Amounts: Feeling the need to gamble with raising money to achieve the desired excitement.
• Failed Attempts to Cut Back: Repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling.
• Irritability or Restlessness: Feeling irritable or restless when reducing or stopping gambling activities.

If handled correctly, online casinos can be a fun and exciting way to spend your time. By implementing the strategies discussed above—setting financial and time limits, understanding the games, using responsible gambling tools, and being aware of the signs of problem gambling—you can enjoy online casinos responsibly. Remember, gambling should always be done for entertainment, not as a way to make money or solve financial issues. With these tips, you can ensure that your gambling habits remain a safe and enjoyable activity.

Frequently Asked Questions About Responsible Online Gambling

How do I choose a responsible online casino?

• Look for casinos that are licensed and regulated by reputable organizations. Check if they promote responsible gambling by offering tools like deposit limits, self-exclusion options, and links to gambling help resources. Additionally, read reviews to understand user experiences, particularly regarding the casino’s commitment to player safety.

What should I do if I feel like I’m spending too much time or money on gambling?

• Immediately utilize the responsible gambling tools provided by the online casino, such as setting stricter deposit and time limits or activating a temporary self-exclusion. Consider seeking professional help if you feel unable to control your gambling habits on your own.

Can gambling turn into an addiction?

• Yes, gambling can become addictive for some people. It triggers the brain’s reward system much like drugs or alcohol can, potentially leading to problem gambling. Recognizing the early signs and seeking help can prevent gambling addiction.

Are there any online resources for gambling addiction?

• Yes, several online resources can help with gambling addiction:
• Gamblers Anonymous offers various tools and has a directory of local meetings.
• National Council on Problem Gambling provides support and treatment facilities.
• GamCare (UK-based) offers support, information, and advice to anyone suffering from a gambling problem.

How influential are self-exclusion programs?

• Self-exclusion programs can be highly effective as part of a broader approach to halt gambling. They prevent you from logging into your casino account and can help break the cycle of compulsive gambling behaviors. However, the effectiveness often depends on personal commitment and the additional use of support services.

Is it safe to use credit cards for online gambling?

• A6: While using credit cards can be safe if the online casino has secure payment processing, avoiding using them for gambling is generally advisable. The risk of spending more than you can afford is higher when gambling on credit. Consider alternatives like debit cards or e-wallets that help maintain a better check on spending.

How do I maintain a healthy balance between gambling and other life activities?

• Set strict time limits for gambling and ensure it does not interfere with your work, personal relationships, and other responsibilities. Keep a detailed calendar and schedule gambling sessions as you would any other entertainment activity, ensuring it’s balanced with healthier lifestyle choices.

What are some signs that online gambling is no longer recreational?

• Signs that gambling is no longer recreational include spending more money or time than you can afford, neglecting work, school, or family obligations, borrowing money to gamble, and gambling to escape stress or depression. If gambling starts to feel like a necessity, it may be time to reassess your habits.

By HENRY SREBRNIK First of all, before I go any further, we should get something straight: this whole so-called debate about anti-Zionism vs antisemitism is nonsense on stilts. 

Sure, especially before the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, many Jews were dubious about or even ideologically or theologically opposed to the Zionist project of recreating a Jewish state in the land of Israel. These groups ranged from various socialists on the left, such as the supporters of the Jewish Labour Bund, to haredim like the Satmar Hasidim. The latter still are, but no one thinks of them as “antisemites.”

All of this has virtually nothing to do with today’s so-called “anti-Zionists,” almost all of whom are non-Jewish antisemites making use of a word to confuse people about their desire to destroy a modern sovereign Jewish state, now more than 75 years old. (Yes, there are some misguided Jewish students involved, and the media loves them, but this is mainly a matter of ignorance and “Stockholm Syndrome.”)

Do you remember, not so long ago, that when right-wing Republicans and/or supporters of Donald Trump, made even mild criticisms of one or another Jewish politician or Jewish organization, leftwingers immediately said these were “dog whistles,” implying that this was code for antisemitism.  

Now, though, when protestors parade around proudly with placards reading “F—k Zionism,” or ask Jewish students whether they are “Zionists,” this has nothing to do with wondering whether they are a member of a Zionist organization or a person who subscribes to the Jewish nationalist ideology centered on the Land of Israel. They are asking whether these people are Jewish, pure and simple. 

“Zionist” has simply become a derogatory slur or abusive term for “Jew,” used by Jew-haters as a synonym, and not all that different from earlier, now archaic, versions such as “kike,” “sheeny,” or “Yid.” The animus is also directed at Hillels, synagogues, and other institutions which are Jewish, not technically “Zionist” as such. Is this really that hard to understand? And we Jews should not play their games by arguing the point.

After all, the word “antisemitism” is itself a euphemism, coined by a German Jew-hater in the 19^th century, so as to appear a more “scientific” word for hating Jews. It’s not even accurate – as we know, Arabs and other peoples are also Semites, and no one who hates Jews has them in mind. Judeophobia would be a more accurate term, and we should make more use of it.

Anyhow, we also must stop trying to be “even handed” by trying to equate old-style Jew-hatred on the right with today’s versions, which are coming overwhelmingly from the left, under the rubric of “anti-Zionism.” Remember, anti-Israel demonstrations began the very next days after the Oct.7 massacres, and almost three weeks before Israel even launched its counterattack.

All this is by way of a segue to a very important matter coming our way this November: For whom will American Jews turn out in the forthcoming presidential election? We all know the statistics: For almost a century, a large majority of Jews have voted for the Democratic candidate, beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. No Republican, including those who were victorious, came even close to capturing a majority of Jewish voters. Over the past several decades, according to data from the Pew Research Center, an average of 70 per cent of Jewish Americans consistently voted for the Democratic Party.

But October 7 has been a genuine zeitgeist shift. Even Jews blinded by an almost-religious loyalty to the party understand that it is being quite quickly captured by its far-left wing. Joe Biden may even be the last “pro-Israel” Democratic president (and he hasn’t exactly shone in that regard of late). The president himself has been unable to really condemn unequivocally and without moral relativism the outrages taking place on campuses.

I have for a long time thought that Israel shouldn’t have put all its defence needs in the U.S. basket. America is changing, demographically and ideologically, in a manner detrimental to Israel. The Democratic Party post-Biden will sooner or later be in the hands of the left-wing Congressional representatives known as the “Squad.” The protesters on the American university campuses should be called “Young Squadniks!”

The Hamas onslaught has left a mark on how Diaspora Jews look at their identity, especially in the United States. A recent survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee found that 78 per cent feel less safe since Hamas attacked Israel. “We are seeing an awakening, a heightened sense of consciousness among Jewish Americans,” asserted Steven Windmueller, professor emeritus of Jewish Communal Studies at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.

They now have seen how elite university campuses like Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, many of which are heavily funded by Jewish donors, have been breeding and spreading a climate of antisemitic hate.

As apparently some 100 university campuses across the United States are aflame with anti-Israel and “anti-Zionist” fervor, and Jew-hatred has now become mainstream in Democratic politics, Jews are reconsidering many of their basic assumptions about their position in America generally and the Democratic Party specifically.

Many liberal Jewish Americans also feel betrayed by some of their alleged allies, those whose causes they had supported throughout the years, from the Civil Rights movement to Black Lives Matter activists. The left doesn’t care about antisemitism if they deem it inconvenient to their cause. They just call it “anti-Zionism” and carry on.

A few weeks ago, a sermon by Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue in New York delivered a stern warning to the Democrats. “Do not take American Jews for granted.”

Hirsch explained, “I have spoken to many American Jews in the past few months who have surprised me with their anxiety about developments in the Democratic Party, and their perception that it is becoming increasingly hostile to Israel, and tolerant of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in its own ranks.”

Jewish Democratic voters who never considered voting for Republicans have been announcing that they are voting for Trump, or will stay home or vote for independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., but will never vote for Biden.

It is true that New York and California have the largest Jewish communities, and they remain firmly in the Democratic column, even if not a single Jew were to vote for them. The Jewish vote for Biden will decrease, and in the very blue states where Jews live, like California and New York, it doesn’t really matter. But four swing states –Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona — may well be decided by their large Jewish communities. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Pennsylvania, the swing state with the largest Jewish population – about 300,000 voting-age Jews — in a state President Joe Biden won by roughly 80,000 votes in 2020. (We are U.S. citizens who vote absentee ballot in Pennsylvania.)

I’m guessing that many Jews will sit it out. Of those voting, it will be hard for a lot of them to vote for Trump, constantly vilified day after day, but it may still reach 40 per cent. Still others who do vote may just leave the presidential line blank, and vote for Republicans for House and Senate seats.

I think there will be an almost perfect correlation between Jews who feel a deep attachment to the Jewish people — be it religiously, culturally, ethnically, or whatever –and voting Republican this year. For those who are Jewish mainly by “biology and genealogy” and for whom being Jewish is relatively unimportant, they are far more concerned with universal matters that now come under the rubric of terms like social justice, liberalism, diversity, inclusion, and so forth. They will come in at about 85 per cent for the Democrats. But as we don’t know the relative percentages of these two groups of Jews, predicting the overall Jewish vote for each of the two parties is difficult.

Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.

By MYRON LOVE With her latest book, “Rising” (published by Candlewick Press in the United States), acclaimed Winnipeg-born author Sidura Ludwig has taken her career in a slightly different direction. 

According to publicist Evan Munday (who works for Penguin Random House Canada, the Canadian distributor of the book), “Rising” is  “a quiet, joyful story celebrating a Jewish mother’s tradition of making challah with her child. A child and a mother measure, mix, knead, shape, and tuck their dough under a towel like a sleeping baby, then wait while their dough rises, soon to be baked and gratefully shared at a Shabbat gathering with loved ones.”
In “Rising,” he continues, “Sidura turns a Jewish family’s gathering into a lesson in patience, slowing down, faith, and love.”
He adds that there is an easy-to-follow recipe for challah at the end of the book –  along with a glossary and an author’s note describing the personal meaning of her family’s weekly ritual.
He describes “Rising” as “a much needed picture book that acts as both an exultation and balm in this time of exploding antisemitism in North America.” 
 As was reported in earlier stories about Sidura Ludwig in the pages of The Jewish Post & News,  the daughter of Israel and Maylene Ludwig has been writing seriously since she was a teenager.  She left Winnipeg originally in 1994 to study at York University.  After graduation, she was back here for a year working as a teacher’s assistant, then went back east to study journalism at Carleton.  In between, she married and she and her husband eventually settled in Thornhill in 2004. 

Sidura noted in an earlier story that she worked for a time as a journalist and in communications – largely on a freelance basis before starting a family.  Her first book, a novel, “Holding My Breath,” was published in 2007. 
She pointed out that, as a young mother, she didn’t have a lot of time to read novels and, as a result, gravitated to short stories – which was always her first love.
 “I had started on a second novel,” she notes, “but it just wasn’t working for me.  I began to focus on the individual characters and develop each as a short story.”
She noted that she set herself a goal of trying to send out five submissions a week and, after a year, had nine short stories published in different media.  That gave her the confidence that there was enough interest in the stories to approach a publisher.  The result was her second book , “You Are Not What We Expected” (published in 2020), which recounts the lives of the multi-generational Levine family and their neighbours over a period of 15 years, capturing the celebration, transitions and drama in their lives.
 
In November 2021,Sidura was presented with the Vine Award for fiction for “You Are Not What We Expected.”  You could rightly say that Sidura Ludwig was “over the moon” about being named the winner of that award for her first collection of short stories. (The Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature “honour both the best Canadian Jewish writers and non-Jewish Canadian authors who deal with Jewish subjects in Fiction, History, Non-Fiction, Young Adult/Children’s literature, and Poetry”. Each winning author receives a prize of $10,000. The 2021 three-person jury reviewed 42 entries to the Fiction, History, Non-Fiction and Young Adult/Children’s categories.) 
 Earlier that year,  Ludwig graduated from  a Masters Degree program in Fine Arts, specializing in writing books for children and young adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.   “Rising” is in that genre.
Ludwig’s first children’s book was inspired by her own new-found love of baking challah four years ago when Covid lockdowns were in place.
“With everything turned upside down, I was looking for a way to reintroduce some consistency, something familiar into our lives,” the mother of three teenagers recalls.  “As I was stuck at home, I began waking up early on Friday mornings, mixing the dough and baking challah following a recipe.  It became my anchor. It was something quiet and peaceful I could do on a regular basis.  As well as showing my love for my family, I felt a spiritual connection.”
 
“Rising” was illustrated by Tel Aviv-based expatriate Canadian illustrator Sophie Vincent Guy.who now lives in Tel Aviv. “Rising” is scheduled to be arriving in book stores in a couple of weeks with a launch in Winnipeg set for Thursday, June 6, at McNally Robinson.  
Sidura is currently working on some picture books for younger children and a novel intended for middle grade students.   The latter is entitled “Swan” and is based on the life of 19th century Nova Scotian Anna Swan, who grew to be 8’ tall.  The book, published by Nimbus Publishing is due out in September.
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