Our Position
This site is for adults aged 18 or over only. Gambling is entertainment with a built-in expected loss: over time the house keeps a share of everything staked, so it is never a way to make money and never a way to recover a debt. We publish comparisons of gambling sites, which is why this page is part of the service and not a formality. If gambling has stopped feeling like a choice, the next section is the one to read.
If You Need Help Right Now
Support is free, confidential and independent of this site. You do not need to have decided anything before you call, or to describe yourself as an addict to be taken seriously. One call is enough to start.
- National Gambling Helpline, operated by GamCare — 0808 8020 133, free, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with live chat and WhatsApp on the same number at gamcare.org.uk;
- GAMSTOP — gamstop.co.uk, the free national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling licensed in Great Britain;
- NHS National Gambling Clinic — 020 7381 7722, a free NHS service for adults in London and the South East and for young people aged 13 to 18 across England.
Signs That Gambling Is Becoming a Problem
These are the behaviours people recognise in themselves before anything else goes wrong:
- you are betting more than you used to in order to feel the same thing;
- you go back in to win back what you have lost, on the same day or the same night;
- you have borrowed money, sold something or used money set aside for a bill to keep playing;
- you hide how much you play, or lie about it, when someone asks;
- you have missed work, sleep or a commitment because of a session;
- you play mainly when you feel low, anxious or bored, and it works until it does not;
- you set a limit for yourself and then carry on past it;
- you have spent beyond what you set aside and topped up from somewhere else;
- you feel irritable or restless on the days you do not play;
- someone close to you has asked you to stop.
Recognising several of these is a reason to talk to someone, not a diagnosis. The helpline on 0808 8020 133 will help you work out what it means.
Tools You Can Use to Stay in Control
Five tools do most of the work, and all five are set before a session rather than during one. A limit you choose while calm is worth more than any decision you make while losing.
There is an honest caveat that matters on this site in particular. These tools are a licensing requirement for operators licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Offshore crypto operators often provide fewer of them, and sometimes offer them without real enforcement. Check which of the five an operator actually provides before you deposit anything, and treat their absence as a reason to choose a different site.
| Tool | What it does | Where to set it | Typically available offshore? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit limit | Caps what you can pay in per day, week or month | Account settings, or by asking support in writing | Sometimes, and often without a cooling-off before an increase |
| Loss limit | Stops play once net losses reach a figure you set | Account settings where offered | Rarely |
| Session time limit | Ends the session after a set number of minutes | Account settings, or a timer on your phone | Rarely |
| Reality check | Interrupts play with a reminder of time and money spent | Account settings where offered | Rarely |
| Time-out or cooling-off | Locks the account for a fixed short period, from 24 hours upwards | Account settings, or by asking support | Sometimes, on request to support |
If an operator offers none of them, set the limit at the payment level instead: a bank gambling block plus a fixed amount in a separate wallet. Do that now, not at the end of the next session.
GamStop: What It Covers and What It Does Not
GamStop is the free national online self-exclusion scheme for Great Britain. You register once at gamstop.co.uk, it takes about five minutes, and you choose a minimum period of 6 months, 1 year or 5 years. Every operator licensed by the UK Gambling Commission is then required to close your accounts and refuse new registrations for that period. The exclusion cannot be shortened or cancelled once it starts, it does not lift by itself when the period ends, and reactivation requires you to contact GamStop and pass a 24-hour cooling-off.
Now the part this site is obliged to state plainly. GamStop covers UK Gambling Commission licensees only. The offshore crypto operators compared elsewhere on this site are not licensed by the Commission and are not part of the scheme, so a person who has self-excluded through GamStop will not be blocked from them. That is not a feature and not a workaround.
The consequence is direct: if you have used GamStop, you should not use those sites, and self-exclusion on its own will not stop you. Add blocking software and a bank gambling block today, because both work across offshore sites where GamStop cannot reach.
Blocking Software and Bank Controls
These matter more than operator-level self-exclusion for anyone dealing with offshore sites, because they act at the device and the payment level rather than at the operator’s discretion:
- Gamban blocks gambling sites and apps across up to 15 devices and is deliberately hard to remove; it normally costs £2.49 a month or £24.99 a year, and is available free through GamCare’s TalkBanStop partnership with GAMSTOP and Gamban;
- BetBlocker is a free charity-run blocker for computers, phones and tablets, with no account required;
- a bank gambling block switches off card payments to gambling merchants from your banking app, and most banks apply a cooling-off of 48 or 72 hours before it can be lifted;
- router-level and family-device filtering blocks gambling domains for every device on the home network.
One honest limitation: a bank block stops a card payment, but it does not stop a transfer from a self-custody wallet, because no bank sits in that transaction. Install one of the two blockers above before you close this page.
Why Crypto Gambling Carries Extra Risk
The mechanics of crypto remove several of the brakes that exist in card gambling. Each of these is worth understanding before you deposit:
- a crypto transfer cannot be reversed, cancelled or charged back once it is confirmed, unlike a card payment where a bank can sometimes intervene;
- a bank gambling block does not reach a transfer from a self-custody wallet, so the strongest payment control available in the UK simply does not apply;
- deposits confirm in seconds and work at four in the morning, which removes the natural friction of a bank cut-off that used to end a losing session;
- a balance held in a volatile asset makes a real loss hard to see, because the number in coin can fall while the number in pounds falls further;
- signing up without identity checks means there is no operator-side record that might trigger an intervention, and it also means a self-exclusion you registered elsewhere cannot be matched to the account;
- without a UK Gambling Commission licence there is no approved dispute-resolution scheme behind the operator and no British regulator to escalate a refused withdrawal to.
The practical answer is to work in pounds, not in coin. Convert and write down the sterling value of every deposit, and set the limit in pounds before you start.
Where to Get Help in the UK
Every organisation below is independent of this site, and every one of them is free at the point of use. Support is available for family members too, and the person gambling does not have to make contact first or even agree to it.
| Organisation | What it offers | How to contact | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| GamCare / National Gambling Helpline | 24/7 advice, brief intervention and referral into treatment; counselling for the gambler and for family members | 0808 8020 133, live chat or WhatsApp, gamcare.org.uk | Yes |
| National Gambling Support Network | Network of treatment providers across England, Scotland and Wales, reached through the helpline | 0808 8020 133 | Yes |
| NHS National Gambling Clinic | NHS assessment and psychological treatment; young people aged 13 to 18 in England, adults in London and the South East | 020 7381 7722, [email protected] | Yes |
| Gordon Moody | Residential and intensive treatment, online recovery groups and aftercare | gordonmoody.org.uk | Yes, for the charity’s core programmes |
| Gamblers Anonymous | Peer support groups using a twelve-step approach, in person and online | gamblersanonymous.org.uk | Yes |
| StepChange and National Debtline | Free, confidential debt advice, including gambling debt | StepChange 0800 138 1111; National Debtline 0808 808 4000 | Yes |
Debt advice belongs here because financial pressure is usually what makes stopping feel impossible. If money is the reason you cannot stop, call one of the debt lines above today.
Supporting Someone Else
What tends to help is steady and unglamorous: say what you have noticed without an accusation, ask what they want to happen next, and offer to sit with them while they call the helpline. What backfires is paying off the debt, policing every transaction, and issuing an ultimatum you will not keep. Clearing a gambling debt removes the consequence without removing the behaviour.
Protect the shared finances rather than the person’s pride: separate the joint account, remove any authority to borrow in your name. GamCare supports affected family members directly on 0808 8020 133, and you can call for yourself regardless of what the person gambling decides. Do that before you lend anyone money.
Protecting People Under 18
Gambling under the age of 18 is illegal in the United Kingdom, and this site is intended for adults only. Practical steps for a parent: install device-level filtering or one of the blockers named above on every device a child uses, keep card details out of saved payment methods, and review app permissions and purchase settings on shared phones and tablets. There is a crypto-specific point worth knowing: a wallet app on a shared device is a route around the age checks that card controls would otherwise catch, so treat wallet credentials and recovery phrases as you would a bank card. Check the shared devices in your home this week.