Responsible Gaming

1. Our commitment
2. What PickEngine does and does not do
3. Know the signs
4. A quick self-check
5. Betting safely
6. Tools you can use
7. Automated betting and connected accounts
8. How limits and exclusions are enforced
9. Protecting minors
10. For family and friends
11. How we market and how our staff are trained
12. Where to get help
13. State helplines and programs
14. Contact

1. Our commitment

PickEngine exists to make following sports more fun and more informed. It stops being fun the moment betting starts to hurt you, the people around you, your money or your health. We are not a sportsbook and we never take a wager, but we know our picks are used to place bets and that, for members who choose it, our software can place orders on an exchange they connect. So we hold ourselves to these standards:

• We never promise wins, never show fake winning streaks, and never call a pick a sure thing. Every confidence score is an opinion, not a guarantee, and every pick is graded in the open, losses included.
• We never encourage chasing losses, betting more to "catch up", betting to pay debts, or betting with money meant for rent, bills, food or family.
• We require members to be 18 or older, do not market to minors, and close accounts found to belong to minors.
• We give every member tools to slow down, limit spending, take a break or stop entirely, and we honour them without argument.
• We train our support team to recognise signs of harm and to point anyone who asks, or who seems to be struggling, to real help.
• We review this policy and our tools at least once a year and whenever a member or counsellor tells us something is not working.

2. What PickEngine does and does not do

• We do publish picks, confidence scores, statistics and news, and give you tools to record and build stacks of picks.
• We do, for members on an eligible plan who choose to connect an exchange account, run a bettor that places orders on that exchange within limits the member sets (Section 7).
• We do not accept deposits, hold your money, take wagers, pay winnings, extend credit, or offer any way to bet money with us.
• We do not have access to your sportsbook or exchange accounts unless you connect one, and even then only within the permissions you grant.
• We cannot set limits on, exclude you from, or see your activity at any sportsbook or exchange. Those operators run their own responsible-gaming programs, and so do most states (Section 13). Use them as well as ours.

3. Know the signs

Gambling disorder is a recognised medical condition. It can affect anyone, it usually gets worse without help, and it is treatable. Warning signs include:

• Betting more money or more often than you planned, or needing bigger bets to feel the same excitement.
• Chasing losses: betting again to win back what you lost.
• Thinking about betting constantly, or feeling restless or irritable when you try to cut back.
• Betting to escape stress, anxiety, loneliness or low mood, or betting when drunk or high.
• Hiding how much you bet, lying about it, or borrowing money, selling things or using credit to bet.
• Betting with money meant for essentials, or falling behind on bills because of it.
• Arguments, missed work or school, or strained relationships because of betting.
• Trying to stop and not managing to.

Two or more of these over the past year are a reason to talk to someone.

4. A quick self-check

Answer honestly about the last 12 months: never, sometimes, most of the time, or almost always.

1. Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?
2. Have you needed to bet with larger amounts to get the same feeling?
3. Have you gone back another day to try to win back money you lost?
4. Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to bet?
5. Have you felt you might have a problem with betting?
6. Has betting caused you health problems, including stress or anxiety?
7. Have people criticised your betting or told you that you have a problem, whether or not you agreed?
8. Has betting caused financial problems for you or your household?
9. Have you felt guilty about the way you bet or what happens when you bet?

If you answered anything other than "never" to several of these, please read on and consider calling 1-800-GAMBLER. This check is adapted from the Problem Gambling Severity Index; it is a prompt, not a diagnosis.

5. Betting safely

• Decide what you can afford to lose before you look at a game, and treat that as the cost of entertainment, like a ticket.
• Never bet money set aside for rent, bills, food, debts or family, and never borrow to bet.
• Set a time limit as well as a money limit, and take regular breaks.
• Don't bet when you are upset, tired, under the influence, or trying to fix a bad day.
• Don't chase. A loss is a loss; the next bet does not owe you anything.
• Remember that every pick, ours included, can lose, and that no system beats the odds every night.
• Keep betting in balance with the rest of your life: friends, family, work, sleep and exercise.
• If you use automated betting, set the limits first, start small, and check the results every day.

6. Tools you can use

Any member can use these by writing to support@pickengine.ai (subject "Responsible gaming") or in support chat. We confirm every request by email to the address on your account and act on it within one business day; a request to tighten a limit or to exclude is applied as soon as a member of staff reads it. We will never try to talk you out of a request.

These tools apply to PickEngine only. They cannot stop you betting with any sportsbook or exchange; use those operators' own limits and self-exclusion programs, and your state's program where one exists (Section 13).

7. Automated betting and connected accounts

Members on an eligible plan may connect an exchange account so that our bettor places orders for them within limits they set. Automation can make betting feel distant and effortless, which is exactly when it needs the most care. Our rules:

• You must set a starting amount, a goal and an end date, a maximum single bet, a maximum per game and a drawdown stop before the bettor places anything, and the Service shows you the pace those choices require before you confirm. A risk setting that looks "extreme" is labelled as such.
• The bettor stops opening new positions when a stop you set is reached, when your goal is reached, or when the master switch or your account switch is off. It never raises its own risk to catch up when behind.
• Every order is logged and shown to you with its time, price and reason, so nothing happens that you cannot see.
• A cooling-off period or self-exclusion with us switches your bettor off for its duration. Open positions remain yours to manage with the operator.
• You can switch the bettor off in the Service at any time, and you can end our access entirely by revoking the key at the operator.
• Automation does not remove risk. You can lose some or all of the money in a connected account. The limits are instructions, not guarantees; a market can move past a stop before it can be acted on. Check your account every day and never put more in it than you can afford to lose.

8. How limits and exclusions are enforced

• Limits and exclusions are recorded on your account and enforced by the Service itself, not only by staff: a signed-in session on an excluded account is ended, sign-in is refused for the period, and the bettor is switched off.
• Exclusions are matched against name, date of birth, email, phone and payment details so that a new account cannot be opened to get around them. Any such account is closed, its credits, rewards and commissions forfeited, and any fees paid on it may be retained, as our Terms provide.
• A request from a family member or other person about a member's gambling is taken seriously. We cannot act on someone else's say-so alone, but we will contact the member, point them to help, and may suspend an account where we reasonably believe use is harmful.
• We keep a record of every request, when it was received, when it was applied and by whom, and we audit those records.
• We will share information about an exclusion with an operator or regulator where the law requires it or where you ask us to.

9. Protecting minors

You must be 18 or older to use PickEngine. We check the date of birth given at sign-up, may ask for proof of age at any time, and close any account we learn belongs to a minor, deleting its information. If you believe a minor is using PickEngine, tell us at support@pickengine.ai and we will act immediately. Parents and guardians can help by keeping their own sign-in details, devices and payment cards out of reach, by using device-level parental controls, and with filtering software such as Net Nanny, Qustodio or Bark that can block betting and picks sites and apps.

10. For family and friends

Someone else's betting can hurt you too. You are not alone, and you did not cause it. The helplines below take calls from family members and friends, not only from the person betting. Gam-Anon (gam-anon.org) runs groups for people affected by someone else's gambling. Protect your own finances first: separate accounts, locked credit, and a plan agreed with a counsellor are common first steps. If a member of your household uses PickEngine and you are worried, write to us; we will listen and tell you what we can and cannot do.

11. How we market and how our staff are trained

• Our advertising will not suggest that betting solves money problems, is a way to earn a living, or is more likely to win with us; will not target people under 21 or anyone who has excluded; and will not use anyone under 25 in its imagery.
• Promotions state their conditions plainly, never require a member to bet more to collect a reward, and are not sent to anyone who has opted out or excluded.
• Support staff receive training on the signs of gambling harm, on how to apply the tools above, and on how to refer someone to help, when they join and every year after.
• Anyone who contacts us about their own gambling is offered the tools above and the helpline numbers in every reply, without judgement.

12. Where to get help

13. State helplines and programs

1-800-GAMBLER works everywhere. Many states also publish their own numbers and run voluntary self-exclusion lists that cover every licensed operator in the state at once:

• Arizona: 1-800-NEXT-STEP (1-800-639-8783)
• Colorado: 1-800-522-4700
• Connecticut: 1-888-789-7777 · ccpg.org
• Illinois: 1-800-GAMBLER · areyoureallywinning.com
• Indiana: 1-800-9-WITH-IT (1-800-994-8448)
• Iowa: 1-800-BETS-OFF (1-800-238-7633)
• Kansas: 1-800-522-4700
• Kentucky: 1-800-GAMBLER
• Louisiana: 1-877-770-STOP (1-877-770-7867)
• Maryland: 1-800-GAMBLER · mdgamblinghelp.org
• Massachusetts: 1-800-327-5050 · gamblinghelplinema.org
• Michigan: 1-800-270-7117
• Nevada: 1-800-522-4700
• New Jersey: 1-800-GAMBLER · 800gambler.org
• New York: 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or text HOPENY (467369)
• North Carolina: 1-877-718-5543
• Ohio: 1-800-589-9966 · beforeyoubet.org
• Pennsylvania: 1-800-GAMBLER · pacouncil.com
• Tennessee: 1-800-889-9789
• Virginia: 1-888-532-3500
• West Virginia: 1-800-GAMBLER

14. Contact

Write to support@pickengine.ai with the subject "Responsible gaming" and a person will answer. If you are a counsellor, regulator or researcher who wants to talk to us about our approach, we would like to hear from you.

PickEngine provides picks and information only and does not accept wagers. Betting with any operator is subject to that operator's rules and the law where you are. 18+ only.