Set a budget first
Decide what you can afford to lose before you buy, and treat it as the price of supporting the cause — not an investment.
Home·Responsible Gambling
Play responsibly
Buying a ticket should feel like supporting your community. If it starts to feel like anything else, the help below is free, confidential and available at any hour.
01
What this is
A fundraiser — not an income.
Catch the Ace is a licensed charitable raffle run by volunteers of the Rotary Club of New Tecumseth. It exists to raise money for local healthcare and community projects. Half of every ticket goes straight to that work.
It is a form of gambling. Most people who buy a ticket will not win anything, and that is the normal outcome, not bad luck. Treat the $5.00 as a donation with a chance attached, and you will never be disappointed by it.
02
Warning signs
Signs worth taking seriously
None of these on its own means you have a problem. Several of them together, or one of them getting worse, is a good reason to talk to someone.
- 01 Playing more, or more often, than you planned to.
- 02 Spending money you need for rent, bills, food or family.
- 03 Borrowing money, or selling something, to keep playing.
- 04 Hiding how much you spend from the people close to you.
- 05 Trying to win back what you have lost.
- 06 Feeling restless or irritable when you cannot play.
- 07 Playing to escape stress, loneliness or low mood.
03
Practical steps
Six things that actually help
Never chase a loss
Buying more tickets after a disappointing week does not improve your odds. Each draw is independent of the last.
Not when you are low
Avoid playing when you are upset, stressed or have been drinking. That is when limits slip.
Take breaks
Skipping a week costs you nothing. If skipping feels difficult, that is worth paying attention to.
Keep it social
Play as part of supporting the community, alongside other things you enjoy — not instead of them.
Ask early
Help works better before a crisis. Talking to ConnexOntario costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
04
Where to get help
Free, confidential, any hour
You do not need a diagnosis, a referral or a reason. These services will also talk to family members and friends who are worried about someone else.
ConnexOntario
Ontario’s health services information line. Free and confidential, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can also connect you to local treatment services.
Prefer not to call? Text CONNEX to 247247, or use the web chat at connexontario.ca.
Responsible Gambling Council
Canadian non-profit with self-assessment tools and plain-language guides for players and families. Their self-assessment takes a few minutes and is anonymous.
Gamblers Anonymous
Peer support groups, in person and online. ConnexOntario can point you to the nearest meeting.
AGCO
The regulator for gaming in Ontario, including this raffle. Complaints about how a licensed raffle is run can be directed here.
05
Your settings
Turning things off
Emails
Stop draw reminders
Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. It takes one click and we action it immediately. Receipts for tickets you have already bought still arrive.
Self-exclusion
Ask us to block you
Write to support@newtecatchtheace.ca and we will decline orders we can identify as yours, and remove you from every raffle email, for six months, one year, or permanently — you choose. We confirm it in writing. The block is held against the name and email address in our records, so it cannot catch an order placed under different details.
Cookies
Turn off tracking
Analytics and marketing cookies are off unless you allow them. Change your choice at any time with .
06
For parents
Talking to young people
Young people meet gambling long before they are legally allowed to take part — in games, in apps, in loot boxes and in the way a jackpot gets talked about at home. The most useful thing you can do is name it plainly: this is a game of chance, the odds are against everybody, and nobody plans their finances around it.
Be careful about buying a ticket “for” a child, or letting them pick the envelope. It reads as harmless, and it is exactly the moment gambling starts to feel like an ordinary family activity rather than an adults-only one.
On shared devices, use the parental controls built into your operating system or browser to block gambling sites. Most home routers can filter them for every device at once.
