Help Lines for a Hard Rock Night

Questions on gambling, mental health or addiction can go to ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600. Calls cost nothing and stay confidential, and someone answers 24/7, so the number works on a station platform or at home.

Calling is not the only way in. If you would rather write, text CONNEX to 247247; a chat is also waiting at connexontario.ca. Worried about someone else rather than yourself? That counts too, and the same service will talk it through with you.

If things feel urgent, or you are thinking about suicide, call or text 988. That is the Suicide Crisis Helpline, and it takes calls and texts 24/7. The line works the same at the resort, at a shuttle stop or back at home.

My PlayBreak, OLG's self-exclusion program, covers the casinos of Ontario. You choose a length: 3 or 6 months, or 1 to 5 years. Hard Rock Ottawa is covered along with every other casino in the province, and a break that has begun cannot be stopped before it runs out.

There are three ways to enrol. Call 1-800-387-0098 for the OLG Support Centre, talk with staff at a casino, or drop in at a PlaySmart Centre. Since a break cannot be cut short, the length is the part worth thinking over.

OLG's responsible-gambling site is PlaySmart (playsmart.ca), and its Virtual PlaySmart Centre picks up at 1-833-888-2306 from 11 am until 7 pm, 7 days a week. Because those hours fall in the daytime, it fits a call before the train, not after the last shuttle. Overnight, ConnexOntario is the line still open.

Each casino game carries a built-in house edge, so in the long run players taken together come out behind. That holds anywhere, not only on Albion Road, so set a spending limit before you leave home.

Pick your run back as well. The last run from the resort to Leitrim Station leaves at 12:00 midnight, and the 10 PM hour has none. After midnight the runs go to Uplands Station at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 AM. Knowing that time in advance keeps the night inside its plan.