Every Gambling Commission licensee has to give you tools to control your play, and free confidential help exists in the UK whether or not you use them. This page covers both.
Tools available at every UK casino
These are licence requirements, not favours. If you cannot find them in your account settings within a minute or two, that itself is a warning sign about the operator.
- Deposit limits — daily, weekly or monthly caps. Reductions take effect immediately; increases must wait out a cooling-off period.
- Reality checks — a pop-up at an interval you choose, showing how long you have been playing and your net position.
- Time-outs — a short break of 24 hours up to six weeks. The account is locked and marketing must stop.
- Self-exclusion — a binding block of six months or more that the operator cannot lift early.
- Loss and session limits, where offered, and the ability to close the account permanently.
- Marketing opt-outs — you can withdraw consent to promotional email, SMS and push at any time.
GamStop: registering step by step
GamStop is the free national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling in Great Britain. One registration blocks you across every UKGC-licensed online operator — you do not have to exclude site by site.
- Go to gamstop.co.uk and start a registration. It is free and takes a few minutes.
- Enter your personal details exactly as they appear on your gambling accounts: full name, date of birth, current address, postcode, email addresses and mobile numbers.
- Add every email address and phone number you have ever used to register at a casino — matching is done on these details, and a missed one can leave an account reachable.
- Choose your exclusion period: six months, one year or five years.
- Confirm by email. The block goes live within 24 hours and applies to all licensed online operators.
- It cannot be cancelled early. At the end of the term it stays active until you actively choose to remove it, after a further cooling-off period.
Free, confidential support
None of these organisations will judge you, and none of them charge.
- GamCare — National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, free and open 24 hours a day, with live chat at gamcare.org.uk.
- BeGambleAware — information, self-assessment and referral to free treatment at begambleaware.org.
- NHS gambling services — the NHS runs specialist gambling harms clinics across England; details and referral routes are at nhs.uk.
- GamFam and Gordon Moody — support for family members affected by someone else's gambling, and residential treatment respectively.
- GAMSTOP — national online self-exclusion at gamstop.co.uk.
Signs of harm — a checklist
If several of these are true, it is worth talking to someone. They are the patterns the free helplines hear most often.
- Gambling with money set aside for bills, rent or food.
- Chasing losses — depositing again straight after a losing session to get even.
- Borrowing, selling things, or using credit to fund play.
- Hiding how much you gamble from people close to you, or lying about it.
- Playing for longer than intended, or being unable to stop when you planned to.
- Feeling anxious, irritable or low when you are not gambling.
- Reversing withdrawals to keep playing money you had decided to take out.
- Gambling to escape stress, boredom or low mood rather than for entertainment.
A note on our own coverage
We are an affiliate site and we are paid when readers open accounts. That is precisely why this page exists in full rather than as a footer link, why every Play button carries an 18+ and BeGambleAware line, and why we do not run content aimed at people excluded through GamStop.