The gambling recovery glossary

Recovery has a vocabulary problem. Half the words come from the casino floor, half come from twelve-step rooms that predate online sportsbooks by fifty years, and a lot of them quietly tell the person reading them that what happened to them was a character defect. Meanwhile the products have their own language — same-game parlay, hold, reload bonus, VIP host — that almost nobody outside the industry can define, including the people losing money to them.

This is our attempt at one reference for all of it: 125 terms across recovery language, the betting products themselves, the regulators and programs, and the stigma-preferred phrasings that research says actually change outcomes. Every term has a plain-English definition, the better phrasing where the common word causes harm, and a source. Where we could not find an authoritative source, we say so on the page instead of citing something that does not support the claim.

It is free to cite, free to quote, and free to reprint with attribution. If you are a newsroom, a state council, or a treatment provider and you want to lift the whole thing, take it.

What changed with the national helpline

If you print a help resource anywhere, this is the part to read. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is now 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738) — call, text, or chat, 24/7, free and confidential, routed to a network of 24 contact centers covering all 50 states and the territories. 1-800-522-4700 also still works. The older 1-800-GAMBLER number returned to the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, which launched it in 1983, after a New Jersey court ruling in September 2025; it still connects callers to help, and many state advertising rules still require operators to display it, but it is no longer the national helpline. Most published copy has not caught up yet.

The helpline is not a crisis line. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

How this glossary is organized

Recovery language — the words for what happens when someone stops, tries to stop, or starts again. Lapse and relapse are not the same thing. Cool-off, time-out and self-exclusion are not the same thing either, and the difference between them is the difference between an afternoon and five years.

Industry and product terms — the mechanics. You cannot self-exclude from a product you cannot name, and you cannot report on one either. This section defines the bets, the promotions, the limits and the margins, with no advice on how to use any of them.

Regulators, programs and instruments — who runs what, which screening questionnaire produced which number, and which state agency holds the self-exclusion list you actually need.

Stigma-preferred language — twenty-two pairs, modeled on the Recovery Research Institute's Addictionary, which does this job for substance use and is reprinted verbatim by federal and state agencies. Gambling had no equivalent. Each pair names the common term, explains what it does to the reader and to the person being described, and gives the phrasing to use instead.

For journalists

There is a one-page version of the language section built for newsrooms: ten do/don't pairs with the reasoning and the sources, plus a resource box you can paste. It covers the helpline change, the difference between handle and hold, why "banned himself" is factually wrong, and why the family are not enablers.

How we source this

Source preference, in order: regulators and the National Council on Problem Gambling, then SAMHSA and the American Psychiatric Association, then peer-reviewed literature, then recognized recovery-language references. We only cite deep links we have actually opened. Twenty-seven of the 125 entries are marked unsourced — almost all of them sports-betting jargon, which has no authoritative definitional body, only consistent usage. Six more are partially sourced and say exactly which part the source supports. We would rather show you the gaps than paper over them.

Who makes this and who pays for it

The glossary is produced by Betttr LLC, which makes Betttr, a recovery companion app for people quitting gambling. We take no money from gambling operators, affiliates, or marketing partners. We have an obvious interest in this subject being better understood, and you should read the definitions with that in mind — which is why every one of them carries its source.

Corrections go to support@betttr.net and are made on the page, with the date noted. If we get something wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say that we did.

The full list

Last updated 2026-09-20. Suggest a term or send a correction: support@betttr.net. To cite the whole glossary: Betttr. The Gambling Recovery Glossary. https://betttr.net/glossary/ (accessed 2026-09-20).