Limiting oneself is crucial for both life and gambling. As you are aware, pushing oneself too far can be risky; its a slippery slope. To begin with, the first thing that will enable you to play correctly is your inherent self-awareness. Recall that the purpose of a game should be enjoyment, not guilt trips. A tight budget and frequent breaks are two more effective strategies for maintaining the right balance between leisure and responsibility.
We have to do things with moderation no matter the way they appears so interesting and amazing to you, the fantasy we get in gambling should be dealth and handle with care so that it does not get over on us that we begin to misbehave on how we gamble and loose concentration, if we are gambling, just as you've said, we need to have the interest of our own life put in consideration and then the gambling we are doing to follow suite, gambling is not to harm or leave us vulnerable to making disadvantages, but we allow those things manifest due to our own careless attitude towards gambling responsibly.