Help, and how to tell when you need it.

ProPickz publishes sports analysis and picks. We are not a sportsbook. We do not accept wagers, hold customer funds, or process bets of any kind, and we have no financial relationship with the outcome of anything we publish.

Everything on this site is information and entertainment. No outcome is guaranteed, and no pick, calculator or guide on this site can make a losing bet profitable. Every wager can lose. Anyone telling you otherwise — including anyone claiming to speak for us — is not being honest with you.

You must be 21 or older to bet legally in most US jurisdictions, 18 in some others, and legality varies by state and country. It is your responsibility to know the law where you are.

Problem gambling is not defined by how much money is involved. It is defined by the relationship. Any of the following is worth taking seriously:

• Betting more than you planned, or more than you can afford to lose
• Chasing losses — increasing stakes to recover money already gone
• Borrowing money, selling things, or using funds meant for something else
• Lying about how much you bet, or hiding it from people close to you
• Betting to escape stress, boredom, anxiety or low mood
• Feeling restless or irritable when you try to cut back
• Gambling interfering with work, sleep, study or relationships
• Feeling that you cannot stop, even when you want to

If several of these are familiar, that is worth a conversation with someone trained for it. The helplines above exist for exactly this and cost nothing.

• Set a budget before you start, not during. Decide what you can lose in a month, and treat it as spent the moment you deposit it.
• Use deposit and loss limits. Every licensed sportsbook offers them, and they are effective precisely because you set them while thinking clearly.
• Set time limits too. Money is not the only thing being spent.
• Never bet with borrowed money. Not credit cards, not loans, not money from someone else.
• Do not bet to recover losses. Chasing is the single most reliable route from a bad week to a serious problem — and it is why fixed stake sizing is the first thing any honest guide teaches.
• Take scheduled breaks. A week off is a useful test. If it is difficult, that is information.

Self-exclusion bars you from betting for a set period, or permanently, and it is enforced by the operator rather than by willpower.

• At each sportsbook. Every licensed operator has a self-exclusion tool in account settings, usually with cooling-off periods from 24 hours upward.
• State-wide. Most US states with legal betting run a voluntary self-exclusion programme covering every licensed operator in that state at once.
• Blocking software. Tools such as Gamban and BetBlocker restrict access to gambling sites across your devices. BetBlocker is free.

If you have self-excluded and want to stop receiving anything from us, email support@propickz.com and we will remove you from all communications. You do not have to give a reason.

Every helpline listed above takes calls from family and friends, not only from gamblers. You do not need to have the full picture, and you do not need to have decided what to do — that is what the call is for.

Gam-Anon and the NCPG both run support specifically for people affected by someone else’s gambling.