Markets586 words
Voluntary self-exclusion: what the form actually does
The Commonwealth's self-exclusion programme is a legal instrument, not a promise to yourself. It is worth knowing exactly what it reaches before you need it, and exactly what it does not.
What is in this piece — 6 sections
Massachusetts launched its voluntary self-exclusion programme in 2015, to coincide with the opening of the state's first casino. It is run by the Gaming Commission rather than by the operators, and that single fact is what makes it work: it is not a setting inside an account that the account holder can change at three in the morning.
The terms on offer
An enrollee chooses one year, three years, five years, or a lifetime exclusion. The lifetime option carries a condition: it may be selected only by someone who has first completed a shorter term. The Commission's own evaluation of the programme reported that a majority of enrollees choose five years (53%), with one year next (28%) and only about 3% on the lifetime option.
Read that condition carefully, because it is the humane part of the design. The permanent decision is not available to a person in the worst hour of a bad week. It becomes available to someone who has already lived a shorter exclusion and knows what it was like.
What it reaches
- The gaming floor of every licensed Massachusetts casino. Not one property — all of them, because the list is held centrally.
- Removal from marketing. Enrollees are taken off direct-marketing and promotional lists, which is the mechanism that otherwise reaches a person who has decided to stop.
- Sports wagering. The programme has been extended to the Commonwealth's sports wagering licensees as that market came online; the Commission's current programme page is the authority on exactly which licence categories are covered today, and it is worth reading rather than assuming.
What it does not reach
It is a Massachusetts instrument. It does not exclude anyone from a casino in another state, from a tribal facility outside the Commission's jurisdiction, or from the state lottery's products, which sit under a different authority. An enrollee who understands the boundary can plan around it; one who believes the form covers everything will be surprised at the wrong moment.
Where you actually sign up
Enrolment is in person, with identification, at the Commission's offices, at a GameSense Information Center inside a Massachusetts casino, or through the other intake points the Commission lists — including arrangements made with treatment providers. The GameSense centres matter here: they are staffed, they are inside the building, and they mean the decision can be made in the place where it is needed.
Help lines operate independently of enrolment. The Massachusetts problem gambling helpline is 1-800-327-5050, and the national line is 1-800-GAMBLER. Neither requires anyone to sign anything.
Three things to settle before filling in the form
- Which term. Lifetime is not available first; decide between one, three and five knowing that.
- Which licensees. Check the current programme page for the categories covered, because the scope has grown since 2015.
- Who else needs to know. Removal from marketing lists happens through the programme; accounts, cards and anything on a phone do not remove themselves.
What the Commonwealth takes from this industry, and where to read it, is in what −110 both ways really costs; the advertising rules that decide what reaches a person who has stopped are in two material connections that look identical. The promotions that a marketing list carries in the first place are the subject of the donor material on this desk: the beginners' guide to casino bonuses. Desk index: Markets; full index: the archive.
What we read
Every figure above comes from one of these documents. If a number is not in them, it is not in this piece.