Self-exclusion and gambling help in Manitoba
This page answers a quiet question: where do you turn when gambling stops feeling like a night out? It lists Manitoba's helpline and explains Voluntary Self-Exclusion with Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. GameSense Advisors and a short list of signs worth noticing round it out.
One number, any hour of the night
Manitoba's Problem Gambling Helpline is 1-800-463-1554. It is available 24 hours a day, which counts for something in a city where winter nights run long. You do not need a crisis to call. A worry that keeps coming back is reason enough.
The line is not only for the person playing. Family and friends who are worried can call the same number. Watching someone you love lose money, or lose sleep over it, is hard on you too. Saying it out loud to someone outside the house can help.
Voluntary Self-Exclusion, step by step
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries runs a Voluntary Self-Exclusion program, usually called VSE. It covers the company's gaming premises, PlayNow.com, or both. You choose the scope. Club Regent Casino in Transcona and McPhillips Station Casino are both run by Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries.
To enrol, go in person to Club Regent Casino or McPhillips Station Casino. If walking into a casino is the last thing you want, call 204-957-2500 ext. 8468 to set up an off-site appointment. A PlayNow-only exclusion is handled from the player's own account.
Both Winnipeg casinos also have GameSense Advisors, available between 2 and 10 p.m. daily. Asking questions before you sign anything is a sensible order of things. The GameSense Info Centre takes calls at 204-985-0419.
Signs worth taking seriously
- Spending more than you planned, and doing it more than once.
- Chasing losses, going back to win back what is already gone.
- Hiding play, or the money it costs, from the people close to you.
- Borrowing to gamble, whether from a card, a friend or the rent money.
- Feeling restless or irritable on the evenings you are not playing.