Self-Exclusion, Deposit Limits and Cooling-Off
Every control described on this page lives inside the player account at the operator, not on this site — we are an independent review portal and can neither set a limit nor lift one. What follows is the practical version: where each setting sits, what it actually restricts, how quickly it takes effect, and the one thing a reader in Portugal should understand before relying on any of it — that the SRIJ self-exclusion register and an account-level self-exclusion at an internationally licensed operator are two different instruments with two different reaches.
How to Set a Deposit Limit, Step by Step
- Log in and open the account menu — the setting normally sits under Responsible Gaming or Account settings.
- Choose Deposit limit and pick the period: daily, weekly or monthly.
- Enter the ceiling in euros. Pick a figure you would be content to lose entirely, because that is what the number means.
- Confirm. A reduction, or a first-time limit, applies immediately.
- Check it worked by opening the cashier — the maximum it will accept should now reflect the cap.
A deposit limit caps the money entering the account over the chosen period; once it is reached the cashier stops accepting payments until the period turns over. It belongs to the account, not to a card or wallet, so switching from MB WAY to Trustly does not get around it. And it counts money going in, not money lost — worth remembering when choosing the figure, since a €100 monthly cap recycled through winnings can still produce a much larger turnover.
Changes are deliberately asymmetric. Lowering a limit takes effect at once, because nobody should have to wait in order to spend less. Raising one is held back by a cooling-off period, typically around 24 hours and longer under some regulators, so the decision has to survive the mood that produced it. While the increase is pending it can normally still be cancelled, and if the account is simply left alone the old ceiling stays.
Loss Limits, Session Limits and Reality Checks
Money coming in is not the only thing that can be capped. A loss limit fixes how much may be down over a period and is the more honest control of the two, because it counts the net result rather than the funding. A wager limit caps total turnover regardless of whether winnings are being recycled. A session limit ends play after an agreed number of minutes. A reality check interrupts nothing: every thirty or sixty minutes a message shows time played and net result, and play continues if you choose. Several of these can run at once, and for most people the sensible starting pair is a modest deposit limit plus the reality check — they cost nothing in flexibility and make a pattern visible.
These tools suit somebody who still wants to play but wants the session to have edges. They share one weakness: nothing is closed, and the decision returns to you every time a prompt appears. A warning dismissed without being read has stopped doing any work, and noticing that in yourself is the signal to move to the heavier instruments below.
Time-Out and Self-Exclusion: How to Self-Exclude
A time-out (sometimes labelled "cooling-off" in the account menu) is a short break of a fixed length — commonly a day, a week or a month. While it runs the account accepts no deposits, the games are locked and promotional messages should stop, though a withdrawable balance can usually still be paid out. Self-exclusion is a far heavier instrument, normally measured in months or years: it closes access rather than pausing it.
The labels are where most of the confusion starts, because no two operators name these controls identically. The same short pause appears as Time-out, as Timeout, as Take a break and as a cooling off period — four names, one mechanism. The funding cap appears as Set deposit limit, as Deposit limit, or simply under a Limits heading inside a Responsible Gaming menu. Read what a setting does rather than what it is called: a cooling off pause locks logins and deposits for a fixed stretch and then expires by itself, whereas self-exclusion closes the account for months or years and requires a deliberate act to undo once the term has run. If you want a break rather than an ending, the timeout is the correct tool and choosing it is not a lesser step.
The procedure is the same in both cases. Open the account menu, find the responsible gaming section, choose Self-exclusion or Time-out, select the period, confirm — the block starts immediately. If the option cannot be found, write to support asking in plain words to be self-excluded for a stated period; a licensed operator must act on that request, and putting it in writing gives you a timestamped record.
Know four things before pressing the button. Real money left in the account is normally returned; active bonuses, free spins and unfinished wagering progress are usually forfeited and do not come back. Neither a time-out nor a self-exclusion can be lifted early on request, which is exactly the point — support staff have no authority to override it however reasonable the reason sounds. When the period ends the account is not reopened automatically; a deliberate step is needed, and often a further waiting period first. And marketing should stop, so if promotional email keeps arriving during an exclusion, that is itself something to complain about — see our complaints page.
The SRIJ Register vs Account-Level Exclusion
This is the distinction that matters most for a reader in Portugal. The SRIJ — Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos, part of Turismo de Portugal — maintains a national self-exclusion register, the Registo de Autoexcluídos. Registering on it blocks access across every operator holding a Portuguese licence at once, which is precisely what makes a national register worth having: one action, and the whole regulated market closes.
It covers SRIJ-licensed operators only. Ginga runs under an international licence rather than a Portuguese one, so an entry in the SRIJ register does not reach it, and self-exclusion there has to be set inside the account as described above. The practical consequence is uncomfortable but worth stating: an account-level exclusion is a door closed at one operator, not across the market, and it does nothing about the next site a search engine offers. If a market-wide block is what you actually need, the SRIJ register plus device-level blocking software is the combination that delivers it, and the national register is one of the concrete arguments for playing inside the Portuguese licensed system in the first place.
Where to Get Help in Portugal
If gambling has stopped feeling like a choice, help is free, confidential and available without an appointment. In Portugal, SICAD (Serviço de Intervenção nos Comportamentos Aditivos e nas Dependências) coordinates treatment for addictive behaviours including gambling, and the public Linha Vida — 1414 answers calls and points callers to local services. Gambling Therapy provides online support in several languages and is tied to no country, and Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings in person and online. None of these services is connected to any operator and none is selling anything.
Practical measures sit alongside conversation. Many Portuguese banks let a card be blocked for gambling transactions from inside their own app, and free blocking software such as BetBlocker covers a phone or a home network — that is the layer an account-level exclusion cannot provide. Telling one person you trust makes a limit far harder to undo quietly. If debt has become the pressing part of the problem, free financial advice is a better first call than another deposit. Broader guidance is on our responsible gambling page, and the account settings themselves are reached after logging in — the route is covered in our account guide.