What is Self-Assessment Test?

A self-assessment test is a short questionnaire that helps someone judge whether their own gambling has become harmful. Licensed operators are generally required to link one, and independent support organisations publish their own; the questions are usually drawn from established screening tools and take a couple of minutes. The questions are about behaviour rather than amounts. They ask whether you have gambled more than you intended, chased losses on another day, borrowed money or sold something to gamble, felt guilty about it, or been told by someone else that it was a problem. Money spent is deliberately not the measure, because the same sum means different things to different households; the pattern around the spending is what the screens look at. A test is an indicator, not a diagnosis, and no result obliges anyone to do anything. What it is useful for is turning a vague feeling into something specific enough to act on, and the actions sit close by: deposit and loss limits, a reality check, a time-out, self-exclusion at one operator or through a multi-operator scheme, and free confidential support from a national helpline. Results on an operator's own page are usually shown only to you, but where an operator says it uses interaction data, that is stated in its responsible-gambling policy.