If gambling stops being fun in Manitoba

The Gambling Helpline, 1-800-463-1554, answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Calls to it are free and confidential. Shared Health, formerly the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, runs the line and also offers free counselling. The province also lists a local 24-hour number for the Problem Gambling Helpline: 204-944-6382.

Two other lines take calls as well. The Manitoba Addictions Helpline, run by Shared Health, is 1-855-662-6605. The Hope for Wellness Helpline for Indigenous people answers 24/7 at 1-855-242-3310.

Inside the province-run casinos in Winnipeg, Informed Gambling Advisors work on site: at McPhillips Station Casino on 204-985-1240 and at Club Regent Casino on 204-985-0419. PlayNow players can reach its player-health specialists by phone and by live chat. No text or chat channel was found for the Gambling Helpline itself. Evive, formerly GamTalk, offers online peer chat instead.

MBLL Voluntary Self-Exclusion, or VSE, can cover the Casinos of Winnipeg, the Shark Club Gaming Centre, PlayNow.com, or all of them. Enrolling in person bars entry to Club Regent and its Event Centre, McPhillips Station, the Shark Club and future MBLL gambling facilities. It also blocks PlayNow. Online VSE covers PlayNow.com only and is set up under My Account > Self-Exclusion. The account is then cancelled and its balance paid out.

Terms run for a minimum of 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or 3 years. To enrol, see casino staff in person or call 204-957-2500 ext. 8468 for an off-site appointment. Photo ID with a signature is required, along with a signed agreement and a photo. Only the person can enrol themselves.

Honouring the exclusion is the player's responsibility, and money lost during it is not returned. VSE ends only once the term is over and the free Pause and Plan course is complete. A written request then goes to VSE@mbll.ca, and the exclusion lifts once that request is confirmed in writing.

First Nations casinos run their own exclusion programmes, separate from MBLL's. At Sand Hills Casino, voluntary self-exclusion lasts one year or longer. It needs a consent form, a gambling education course and a photo, and re-entry needs an application after at least one year.

Aseneskak Casino's Voluntary Exclusion Program is indefinite: re-entry is only through an application for Reinstatement of Access. For South Beach Casino & Resort, this guide found no exclusion programme details on the casino's own site. Anyone considering it there can ask the casino at 204.766.2100.