Gambling Self-Assessment Tests

Gambling self-assessment tests: what they are and who offers them

A gambling self-assessment test is a short set of questions about how you gamble and how it affects your life. You answer honestly, the tool adds up your responses, and you get a result that tells you whether your gambling looks recreational or whether it may be causing harm. There are no trick questions and no right or wrong answers; the point is to give you an honest snapshot of your own behavior¹.

These tests are offered by three kinds of organizations:

• Help services, so you can check yourself before reaching out for support. BeGambleAware's gambling harms self-assessment gives you advice and content tailored to your answers, plus access to free and confidential support⁸.
• Government-backed bodies. In Japan, the Public Sports Gambling Addiction Counseling Center provides phone counseling, email counseling and a self-check tool⁴, while Japan's KEIRIN.JP betting site links a self-check tool and a consultation service for anyone worried about their betting⁵.
• Operators, which build them into their responsible gambling pages, from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to online bookmakers².

In Macau, the Responsible Gambling Kiosk provides gambling disorder assessment with a printable behavior report, alongside responsible gambling information, electronic self-exclusion applications, problem gambling family counseling, a 24-hour helpline and interactive games, for both residents and visitors⁶. In South Korea, Sportstoto's responsible gaming code commits to developing services such as self-diagnosis for gambling-indulged players and self-exclusion⁷, and the Korea Center on Gambling Problems (KLACC) hosts a self-diagnosis test for gambling addiction risk on its site⁹.

Here is where you can find a free self-check in Asia and beyond:

If you are new to the wider topic of gambling harm, our overview of safer gambling in Asia explains the warning signs, self-exclusion and help lines across 12 jurisdictions.

The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)

The Problem Gambling Severity Index, or PGSI, is the screening questionnaire you are most likely to meet in Asia. It is the test behind Singapore Pools' Betting Behaviour Self-Assessment, which is built on the PGSI and asks 9 questions¹.

The questions cover the past 12 months and focus on the practical signs of harm:

• Whether you have bet more than you could really afford to lose
• Whether gambling has affected your relationships, work or finances
• Whether you have tried to win back losses or felt unable to stop¹

Because the questions look back over a full year, the result reflects a pattern rather than a single bad night.

Singapore Pools makes the test available in two ways:

1. Account customers log in and choose "Self-Assessment" on the left navigation bar.
2. If you do not have an account, you click the "Non-Singapore Pools Account Customer" button and take the same test¹.

The test is free, and Singapore Pools is the sole betting licensee for lottery, sports betting and horse wagering in Singapore, so this is the official self-check for the country's main legal betting products¹¹.

The PGSI is not the only place you will meet the idea of a self-check in Singapore. The National Council on Problem Gambling's counseling services page invites you to do a self-test under the heading "Do you have a gambling problem?", and its services cover counseling, self-exclusions and visit limits, family exclusions and third-party exclusions¹². If you already suspect a problem, the council also lets you apply to limit or stop your access to gambling facilities¹³.

Other screening questionnaires besides the PGSI

The PGSI is not the only questionnaire in use. Several shorter and longer screens appear across Asia's operators and help services.

The Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS). This is a 3-question test offered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in both English and Chinese². The 3-item BBGS is based on the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and its questions cover the core areas of harm, for example whether you have had such financial trouble as a result of your gambling that you had to get help with living expenses from family, friends or welfare¹⁹. The scoring rule is simple: answering "yes" to any one of the three questions indicates a possible problem gambling impact and the need for further assessment².

The Gamblers Anonymous 20 questions. GA's questionnaire asks 20 questions to assess potential gambling problems; the more questions you answer "yes" to, the more you may be at risk of developing a gambling disorder. Operators such as Cloudbet point players to this 20-question self-assessment in their Japanese and Thai help pages¹⁴, and V9Bet recommends it too³.

The GamCare self-assessment. GamCare offers an anonymous self-assessment tool for players at gamtest.se/v3/gamcare, which V9Bet and WPT Global both link from their responsible gambling pages³. WPT Global describes it as a confidential self-assessment test to help you better understand your current playing habits¹⁶.

Operator-built quizzes. Some operators have written their own. Mohegan Sun offers a ten-question self-assessment for anyone concerned about a potential gambling problem¹⁷, and GameSense runs an online self-assessment quiz to find out how much of an impact gambling is having on your life¹⁸.

BeGambleAware's gambling harms assessment. This tool goes beyond a score: it gives you advice and content tailored to your answers and connects you to free and confidential support⁸. Roobet links the BeGambleAware self-assessment for players worried about problem gambling²⁰.

How to score a self-test and read your result

Each questionnaire scores differently, so it helps to know which one you are taking.

The PGSI used by Singapore Pools sorts your result into four categories¹:

You answer the 9 questions thinking of the past 12 months, and the tool places you in one of the four bands. A No Risk or Low Risk result suggests your gambling is not currently showing the signs measured by the test; Moderate or High Risk results are the signal to look closer.

The BBGS is even simpler. It has only 3 questions, and a "yes" to any single one indicates potential gambling-related problems and the need for additional evaluation². There is no score to add up; one yes is enough to take seriously.

The Gamblers Anonymous questionnaire works the other way around: you count your "yes" answers out of 20, and the more yes answers you give, the higher the risk that you could lose control of your betting¹⁴.

If you want to understand what doctors actually look for, our page on what gambling disorder is explains the clinical definition.

What a high score means and what to do next

A result in the Moderate Risk or High Risk bands, or a "yes" on the BBGS, means the questionnaire has picked up signs worth acting on. The recommended next step in every version of these tools is the same: further evaluation or support, not panic.

The most direct step is to talk to a counseling service. The National Council on Problem Gambling in Singapore offers counseling services alongside its exclusion and visit limit programs¹², and the National Gambling Helpline through GamCare is available for free, confidential support²¹. In New South Wales, GambleAware offers help for yourself, and family members can even have their own confidential counseling sessions with a GambleAware counselor²². BeGambleAware's self-assessment offers tailored support as soon as you complete it⁸, and its advice for family and friends includes a self-assessment to understand how gambling might be impacting your life²³.

The second step is to put distance between yourself and gambling. If you suspect you may have a gambling problem, you can apply to limit or stop your access to gambling facilities¹³. In Singapore, individuals may apply to exclude themselves from one or more gambling activities:

• Casinos
• Jackpot machine rooms at private clubs
• Singapore Pools online betting²⁴

Our comparison of self-exclusion schemes in Asia sets out the options, durations and coverage, and our page on how to stop gambling covers the practical first steps.

If money is the immediate pressure, gambling debt help explains where to get credit and debt counseling. If the situation feels urgent, gambling crisis help lists crisis lines across Asia.

Limits of self-tests: what a questionnaire cannot tell you

Self-tests are screening tools, and it is worth being clear about what they cannot do.

They are not a diagnosis. A questionnaire can indicate that gambling may be affecting your life and that further evaluation would be useful, but only a qualified professional can diagnose gambling disorder. That is why the BBGS result rule says a "yes" indicates the need for additional evaluation, not the presence of a disorder².

They only measure what they ask about. The PGSI looks at the past 12 months¹, so a recent change in your behavior, good or bad, may not show up yet. A single big loss, a windfall, or a stressful month can all color your answers in ways the tool cannot distinguish.

They depend on honest answers. These tests work on self-reporting, and the natural instinct to downplay losses or frequency is the most common reason a result understates a real problem. Answering as you actually behaved, not as you wish you had, is the only way to get a useful result.

They do not tell you why you gamble or what to do about it. For that, the signs of a gambling problem and signs a family member has a gambling problem pages go deeper than any 9 questions can, and professional gambling addiction treatment is a separate step altogether.

Can you take a test privately?

For most people, yes, and this matters if you are not ready to talk to anyone yet.

The GamCare self-assessment at gamtest.se is anonymous: you do not need an account, a name or a login to complete it and see your result³. Singapore Pools offers its PGSI test to non-account customers through a dedicated button, so you do not need to be a registered bettor to check yourself¹. The Hong Kong Jockey Club's BBGS is a simple 3-question page you can read and answer without signing in².

Where you take a test through an account, the privacy picture is different. Singapore Pools states that information customers provide is protected under the Personal Data Protection Act and kept "strictly private and confidential," released only for eligibility verification checks with the National Council on Problem Gambling and law enforcement authorities if required²⁵. So an account-based test is confidential, but not fully anonymous in the way a standalone quiz is.

If privacy is your main worry, our page on whether gambling help is confidential covers records, privacy and exclusion lists in detail, and free online support lists chat, email and app options that do not require a face-to-face visit.

Where self-tests fit among responsible gambling tools

A self-test is usually the first rung on a ladder of tools, not a standalone fix. Operators and regulators in Asia bundle it with several other measures.

At Singapore Pools, the self-assessment sits inside a broader responsible gambling program that includes letting account users set their own deposit limits and betting limits, or apply for a voluntary exclusion order, and printing the "Play Responsibly" message and a helpline on betting slips and ticket backs²⁶. The Gambling Regulatory Authority in Singapore lists patron education and help services among its harm minimization measures²⁷, and Singapore Pools operates under mandatory social safeguards and a comprehensive Responsible Gambling Programme as licensing conditions¹¹.

In Macau, the Responsible Gambling Kiosk bundles the gambling disorder assessment together with self-exclusion applications, family counseling, a 24-hour helpline and interactive games in one physical location⁶. In Japan, the KEIRIN self-check tool sits next to a consultation service⁵, and the Public Sports Gambling Addiction Counseling Center pairs its self-check with phone and email counseling⁴. In South Korea, self-diagnosis is grouped with self-exclusion in Sportstoto's responsible gaming code⁷, and KLACC's self-diagnosis test is part of a wider counseling center service⁹.

The pattern is deliberate: a test tells you whether to act, and the other tools are the actions.

For the last two rows, Gamban explains app-based blocking, gambling helplines lists free phone lines, and peer support groups covers Gamblers Anonymous and similar meetings. If your first language is not English, gambling help in your language lists services in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and more, and help for expats and visitors explains what support you can use if you are not a citizen or resident.

If a self-test has given you a result you did not expect, the honest answer is that the test has done its job. The next move is yours, and it does not have to be dramatic: one phone call, one chat message or one exclusion application is a complete first step.