Last reviewed
Free help in the UK
None of the four organisations below is connected to this site, and none of these links earns us anything. They are the ones worth knowing about.
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GamCare
Runs the National Gambling Helpline, free and confidential, with live chat and structured one-to-one support.
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GAMSTOP
Free national self-exclusion covering every gambling site licensed for Great Britain. Registration takes minutes.
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GambleAware
Advice, a self-assessment tool and a directory of local treatment services across England, Scotland and Wales.
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UK Gambling Commission
The regulator: check a licence on the public register and read what operators are required to do for players.
What GAMSTOP actually does
You register once, with your name, date of birth, address and the email addresses and mobile numbers you use for gambling accounts. Every operator licensed for Great Britain is required to check the scheme, so the exclusion applies across all of them rather than site by site.
You choose the length: six months, one year or five years. It cannot be shortened or cancelled once it starts — that immovability is the point of it. When the period ends the exclusion does not lift automatically either; you have to contact GAMSTOP and there is a cooling-off period before any account reopens. Worth knowing before you pick a duration.
Controls built into every licensed account
These are not favours an operator grants. A Great Britain licence requires them, and they sit inside the account area of every site compared here.
| Tool | Effect |
|---|---|
| Deposit limit | A ceiling per day, week or month. Lowering it applies straight away; raising it must wait out a cooling-off period, so a decision made at midnight cannot be undone at ten past. |
| Time-out | A short break, typically from a day to six weeks, during which the account cannot be used. Useful long before anything feels like a crisis. |
| Reality check | An interruption at an interval you choose, telling you how long the session has run. Set it to something you would find slightly annoying. |
| Self-exclusion | Closes the account for a minimum of six months at that operator, with marketing stopped. GAMSTOP does the same job across every licensed site at once. |
| Marketing opt-out | Stops promotional email, SMS and push notifications without closing anything. |
Two things worth being blunt about
The house edge is designed in and cannot be beaten by system, pattern or timing. And chasing a loss is the single most reliable way to turn a bad evening into a worse one — the next round has no memory of the last.
Blocking software and bank controls
Self-exclusion covers licensed sites, but two other layers are worth stacking on top. Gambling blocking software such as Gamban, BetBlocker and similar tools restricts access on your own devices. Separately, most UK banks now offer a gambling block that can be switched on in the app; some apply a delay of a day or more before it can be lifted, which is precisely the friction that helps.
If someone else is affected
Gambling harm rarely stays with one person. GamCare supports family members and friends as well as people gambling themselves, and GambleAware's directory includes services for affected others. You do not need the person concerned to agree before you get advice for yourself.
For how we think about this while comparing sites, see staying in control, which covers the practical habits rather than the services.