Safer gambling on tombola and tombola arcade

You’ll find all of them under My Account, then safeplay, and every one of them covers tombola.co.uk and tombolaarcade.co.uk together (clause 19.15 of the General Terms). If you’d rather talk it through, the Safe Play team takes calls on the freephone number 0800 29 888 73, which clause 19.14 gives for self-exclusion.

Spend Limit

Caps your deposits minus your withdrawals over a day, a week or a month. Lowering it works at once, even if it’s locked. An increase only starts after 24 hours, once you confirm it, and a lock stops any increase until the lock ends (clauses 19.1 to 19.4).

Stake limit

The most you’ll stake on a single game, on either site. It can be set from 5p to £2 if you’re 18 to 24, and from 5p to £5 if you’re 25 or over. Turning it off or raising it waits 24 hours, and then you confirm the change. You can also lock it (clauses 19.6 to 19.9).

Time keeper

A reminder once you’ve played for 1, 2 or 3 hours, with the option to stop there (clause 19.12).

Game freeze

Removes a game you don’t want to see. Unfreezing it takes 24 hours, and the game’s chat room stays open (clause 19.11).

Cooling off

Closes your account for anything from 24 hours to five months (clause 19.10).

Self-exclusion

Closes your account for six months to five years, or for good, and it can’t be reversed once you’ve asked for it (clauses 19.14 and 19.16).

Don’t rely on group matching: tombola recommends self-excluding from every other gambling site where you hold an account (clause 19.18), so confirm an exclusion with each operator.

Sources: General Terms · register: tombola.

A self-exclusion doesn’t reopen your account by itself when it ends. To come back, you have to phone customer support, and a 24-hour cooling-off period runs before the account is reactivated, during which you can still cancel (clause 19.22). A permanent exclusion is never lifted (clause 19.15).

If you do return after an exclusion of six months to five years, your Spend Limit starts at no more than £500, locked for at least 24 hours, and a lower limit you already had stays in place (clause 19.23). The terms themselves say a personal limit is better, so it’s worth setting your own figure before you play.

A GAMSTOP registration keeps your tombola account closed for as long as it runs. Tickets you bought in advance for bingo games still play during an exclusion, as the bingo rooms guide explains.

Sources: General Terms · GAMSTOP · promotion rules.

• GamCare, for anyone in England or Scotland: the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, where calls and web chats are free, private and picked up at any hour.
• In Wales, the NHS gambling helpline takes free calls on 0808 2819 265, round the clock, every day.
• GAMSTOP shuts you out of every online gambling account with a company licensed in Great Britain, tombola’s two sites among them. You pick the term (six months, one year, or five years, which can also roll on by itself), and nobody can cut it short. When it ends, the block carries on, for up to seven more years, until you ask GAMSTOP to lift it. GAMSTOP admits a block can miss, which is why it asks you to tell it when your name, address or email changes.
• Blocks that work without any name matching: your bank can stop card payments to gambling firms, and an app such as Gamban or BetBlocker can keep gambling sites and apps from loading on a phone or laptop. GAMSTOP suggests both kinds of block on top of its own scheme.
• Samaritans, if gambling is weighing on your mental health: 116 123, free, any time.

Sources: GAMSTOP · GAMSTOP terms · how GAMSTOP works · GAMSTOP coverage.