Help and Breaks Near Gateway Casinos

Ontario's help line covering mental health, addiction and problem gambling is ConnexOntario. Calls to 1-866-531-2600 are free and confidential, any hour of the day.

A phone call is just one option. If typing comes easier than speaking, you can text CONNEX to 247247, and chat is open at connexontario.ca. Put the number in your phone before you leave home, right next to the casino's own line.

OLG runs My PlayBreak, its self-exclusion program for casinos. The length is up to you: a break of 3 months or 6 months, or a span between 1 and 5 years. Entry is then barred at every casino in Ontario, the Bay Street one included. Once chosen, the term cannot be shortened, so pick a length you can live with.

Enrolment goes through casino staff or a PlaySmart Centre; the OLG Support Centre also takes calls at 1-800-387-0098. Anyone self-excluded or trespassed, from this venue or any Ontario gaming property, is turned away at the Bay Street casino.

Call 1-833-888-2306 to reach OLG's Virtual PlaySmart Centre. Its hours are 11 am to 7 pm, every day of the week. That makes it a daytime call, handy for planning before an evening rather than during one. Late at night, ConnexOntario is the line that answers.

iGaming Ontario operates BetGuard (betguard.ca). One enrolment bars you from all regulated Ontario sites for online gambling at once, and that includes OLG.ca. Choices are a custom length, 1 year, 5 years or 6 months. Walk-in casinos, such as the Bay Street venue, fall outside it; My PlayBreak handles those.

ConnexOntario also helps people who are worried about someone else's gambling, on the same number: 1-866-531-2600. A call can come first, before you raise anything with them. A general tip, not a rule: choose a calm moment for that talk. The end of a night at the casino is rarely that moment. For shared evenings out, agreeing on a spending limit beforehand and leaving bank cards at home can take some pressure off.