Concerned Family and Friends
If you yourself are not a customer with us but are worried about your children, your sibling, your father or your husband, you will also find information and advice about what you can do. This is because gambling not only affects those involved, but can also have an impact on friends, families and colleagues such as you. It is often family members and friends such as you who seek help for gamblers.
If you would like to prevent your children still under legal age from accessing gambling products or are worried that they have already come into contact with gambling, you will find useful information under the heading “Minors“. You will also find information about this, in particular about blocking access to gambling products, under “Filter Software“.
On the other hand, if you are worried about a family member, a friend or even a colleague that could be displaying a problematic or pathological gambling behaviour, you will find further information under the subject “Suspected Gambling Addiction“.
Minors
Specific Risk Group
In terms of a problematic gambling behaviour, minors belong to a specific risk group. Contrary to adults they are significantly more susceptible to actions involving peer pressure and feelings of isolation. In addition they lack the cognitive maturity to fully control their impulses or be able to assess the possible effects of taking risks, in particular with regard to gambling products.
Tipico Guidelines
Along with the statutory prohibition on minors partaking in gambling, this is one of the reasons why we do not accept minors as customers. The registration of individuals under the age of 18 at Tipico represents a breach of our General Terms and Conditions and may lead to the relevant authorities being notified.
We take our responsibility in this respect very seriously and undertake identity checks both in the shop area by trained staff of our franchise partners and online. Along with checking age with methods of payment also available to under 18s, we regularly check the age of our customers. Minors are already forbidden to enter our shop premises. This also applies if accompanied by siblings of legal age or legal guardians.
Please note that winnings by minors using our range of products are void. Any incidents will therefore be reported to the Police.
Tips for You as a Parent
As a parent you will have a specific responsibility. This is because most young adults already come into contact with gambling as minors. Typical instances of gambling are scratch cards, Poker or sports betting.
You are therefore responsible for actively educating them. Here are a few tips to help you prevent minors from coming into contact with gambling:
- Always log out of your betting account if you leave your computer unattended. This allows you to prevent access by third parties.
- Always keep your username, password and payment details out of the reach of children.
- Create separate user profiles and passwords for all users of a shared computer. In this way no-one else receives access to information and programs that you do not want to share.
- Do not save any passwords and do not use the computer’s autofill function.
- Explain to your children the legality of gambling and potential damage.
- Limit the time children are allowed to spend online.
- Use filter software (filter software)
Suspicion of Betting
Should you suspect that your child has managed to access your betting account, used your identity or bypassed our system to allow them to bet online, you can contact our Customer Support at any time with your concerns. However, please bear in mind that due to legal provisions, we will be obliged to request further documents such as proof of identity.
Suspected Gambling Addiction
Possible Indicators
If you are a family member, a concerned friend, or a work colleague and are worried that someone close to you has a problem with gambling, we would like to provide you with a few indicators to help you assess the situation. Where one or more of these indicators apply, we recommend you seek further help.
The following list is not exhaustive, but does set out common behaviours that could be caused by a problem with gambling. The person concerned
- often has no money for essential shopping
- spends a lot of time gambling
- has become unreliable and/or often turns up late
- conceals their gambling behaviour
- borrows money from you, other people in the family or circle of friends, or even work colleagues, and it is only ever rarely paid back
- has uncontrolled outgoings
- withdraws from family activities and their group of friends
- has no obvious interests or leisure activities or, as may apply is no longer involved in their usual hobbies
- is absent from work
- has frequent mood swings and is restless.
What can you do?
- Confirm your suspicion by speaking with others who also know the person concerned.
- Speak to the person concerned and encourage them to seek professional help.
- Do not help them to cover up the problem.
- Do not lend them money.
- Take control of the person’s finances and budgeting where possible.
- Create family routines.
- Seek support within the family, among friends or with self-help groups.
- Seek professional advice (help centres).
Why is your role so important?
Do not underestimate your role in tackling the problem. Family members, friends and even work colleagues spend a lot of time with the person concerned and are best equipped to quickly notice changes in personality and behaviour. If the people close to the person concerned pay attention, listen, and also end up addressing the problem of addiction, there is often a real chance of the person concerned seeking help and thus finding a way out of the addiction. In many cases, people like you manage to get the person concerned to seek help for their addiction. However, it must not be forgotten when doing so, that the person concerned must have a certain awareness of the problem, as well as a willingness to want to change something in order to successfully get through the therapy.
Should you still have further questions about this subject you can contact our Customer Service Department via Live Chat or the contact form.
