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Start here if you want one number
Gambling Help Online, 1800 858 858. Free, confidential, available at any hour, and the right first call whether the gambling is yours or someone else's. If you read nothing further on this page, that is the number.
Everything below exists because "get help" is not one task. Talking to a counsellor, sorting out money, keeping yourself out of a venue and understanding what a venue is obliged to do are four separate problems with four different services attached, and people lose weeks ringing the wrong one. Our responsible gambling page holds the contacts and the general advice together; this page is about which service does which job.
What actually happens when you ring 1800 858 858
The main reason people do not call is not knowing what calling involves. So, plainly:
You do not need a diagnosis, a plan, a decision to stop, or a referral. "I am not sure whether this is a problem" is a complete and ordinary reason to ring. You can ring about another person's gambling without their involvement, which is one of the most common calls these services take. It is free, confidential and available at any hour — which matters at eleven at night, when the question tends to arrive.
Practically, a call is a conversation with someone who does this all day: what has been happening, what is most urgent, what options exist. Those may include ongoing counselling, financial counselling, help thinking through an exclusion arrangement, or support for a family member. Nothing has to be decided on the first call. If speaking on the phone is the obstacle, Gambling Help Online also provides online support.
Who does what
| Service | What it is for | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling Help Online | Immediate and ongoing support, for your own gambling or someone else's; the first call if you are unsure where to start | 1800 858 858, any hour, or online |
| Gambling Harm Support SA | The South Australian service directory: what support exists in this state, including face-to-face options | gamblingharmsupport.sa.gov.au |
| National Debt Helpline | Free, independent financial counselling: debts, creditors, bills, hardship arrangements | 1800 007 007 or ndh.org.au |
| Your bank | Blocking gambling transactions on your own card or account, where the bank offers it | Ask your bank what controls it provides |
| The venue | Exclusion and barring arrangements for its premises, and the help information it is obliged to display | Ask at the venue, or ring it |
| Consumer and Business Services | The regulator: the code of practice that sets what venues must do | Gambling Code of Practice |
Money is a separate service, and often the urgent one
This is the distinction most worth taking away. Gambling counselling and financial counselling are different professions: one talks about the gambling, the other deals with the debt, the creditors and the overdue bills.
If the pressing problem is money — a bill that cannot be paid, a creditor calling, rent at risk — the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 is a free service with people who negotiate with creditors for a living. It is not a loan and not a debt-consolidation business. Use it alongside a gambling service; they are not alternatives.
Barring and self-exclusion are not the same thing
These two get used interchangeably and they are structurally different, which matters when you are asking for one.
Barring is something done by someone else. A licensed venue can refuse entry to a person and keep them out; it is an exercise of the venue's own authority and it does not require the person's agreement. In South Australia there are also formal barring arrangements involving the regulator, so it is not exclusively a venue-level matter.
Self-exclusion is something you ask for. You initiate it, for yourself, as an arrangement intended to keep you out of a venue or a gaming area. Self-exclusion arrangements are among the matters the state's Gambling Code of Practice requires venues to have in place.
What this guide will not do is set out the forms, the durations, which venues a given arrangement covers or how it is enforced, because we have not verified those mechanics to the standard we apply elsewhere and the detail matters too much to guess at. The questions to ask, of the venue or of a support service: which premises does this cover, how long does it last, how is it recorded, what happens if I try to enter, and who do I contact to change it. 1800 858 858 will talk through which arrangement fits before you approach a venue, which is usually the easier order.
Bank-level blocks
A control that sits outside the gambling industry entirely, and often the most practical first step. Many Australian banks offer a way to block gambling transactions on a card or account. Availability, coverage and how quickly a block can be switched off again vary, so ask your own bank: what does it block, how long does a reversal take, and can it apply to a joint account. Separately, credit cards may not be used for online gambling in Australia at all, under a prohibition in force since 11 June 2024 and administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
What a venue can and cannot do
Expectations of venues are frequently either too high or too low. The accurate picture:
- It can refuse you entry, and keep doing so. That is the venue's own authority and needs no consent from you.
- It must have the information available. The code requires help-service information, signage and self-exclusion arrangements; asking staff where they are is a normal request.
- Its staff have obligations under the code towards a player showing signs of distress. Staff are not counsellors, and the duty is not advice.
- It cannot refund losses. Anyone promising to recover gambling losses for a fee deserves great suspicion.
- It cannot give financial advice. That is the National Debt Helpline above, free.
- It cannot keep you out of other venues. Ask which premises an arrangement covers rather than assuming it is all of them.
- It cannot tell you anything useful about a machine. No machine is "due".
If you are ringing about someone else
You do not need the full picture of another person's gambling before asking for support, and waiting until you do is how months pass. A service can help you think about how to raise it, what to say, what not to take responsibility for, and how to protect a shared financial position meanwhile. If joint money is exposed, split the two conversations: the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 for the accounts, Gambling Help Online on 1800 858 858 for everything else.
Distance, and why the phone is not second-best here
Outside the cities, face-to-face appointments can be a drive away and may not be available this week. In the Barossa that is a real constraint, and it makes the telephone and online services the main route rather than the fallback. Both are free and confidential, and 1800 858 858 is answered at any hour, including the hours when a country evening has gone wrong. The shape of distance out here is described on pokies in regional South Australia.
Contacts and toolsResponsible gambling in SA →Venue obligationsWhat a gaming room is →The state rulesWhat applies everywhere →
Sources and getting help
Gambling Help Online is at gamblinghelponline.org.au; South Australian services are listed through Gambling Harm Support SA; free financial counselling is at the National Debt Helpline. Venue obligations, including signage, help-service information, cash facility restrictions, self-exclusion arrangements and staff duties, are in the Gambling Code of Practice published by Consumer and Business Services. The credit-card prohibition for online gambling, in force from 11 June 2024, is administered by ACMA. The procedural detail of barring and self-exclusion arrangements is not set out here because this guide has not verified it from a primary source; ask the venue or a support service. Reviewed 9 October 2026.
Gambling Help Online is free, confidential and available at any hour on 1800 858 858. There are no sponsored links anywhere on this page, by design.