Free confidential help, first. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is available 24 hours a day on 1-800-522-4700, by phone and by text, anywhere in the United States. Gamblers Anonymous runs in-person and online meetings nationally. Neither is affiliated with this site.
Warning signs worth taking seriously. Depositing to recover a loss. Gambling with money needed for bills. Hiding how much or how often you play. Borrowing to fund a deposit. Feeling you must keep playing to get even. Chasing a loss is the single behaviour most strongly associated with serious harm.
The tools that work. Set a deposit limit at the account level rather than relying on intention, because the limit applies at the moment intention is weakest. Use cooling-off periods. Use permanent self-exclusion if you need it to hold.
A gap specific to offshore sites. The operators reviewed here are not connected to US state self-exclusion registers. Excluding yourself at one offshore brand does not propagate to another, and brands under common ownership do not reliably share exclusion lists. If you need exclusion to actually hold, device-level blocking software is the more reliable route.
Never gamble to make money. Every game on every site reviewed here is built with a house edge. Treat any deposit as the price of entertainment and as money already spent.