Safer gambling: help, tools and the GamStop facts
Resources verified: 2 July 2026
A fair share of this site's readers were customers of a bookmaker fined for treating them unfairly. If your relationship with gambling is bruised, this page comes first — everything else here can wait.
Free help, available right now
- National Gambling Helpline — 0808 8020 133. Run by GamCare, free from any UK phone and staffed round the clock, every day of the year. Live chat is available on their site if calling feels like too much.
- BeGambleAware.org — confidential advice, a self-assessment tool and directions to local support.
- NHS gambling treatment clinics — specialist services across England accepting self-referrals as well as GP referrals.
What GamStop does — and does not — cover
GamStop is Great Britain's free national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling. One registration blocks your access to every operator holding a Gambling Commission licence for the British market — and only those operators. FafaBet took part while its licence 57385 was active; that protection ended when the brand did.
The four casinos featured on our landing page hold Curaçao licences, which puts them entirely beyond GamStop's reach. We print that because you should know it before clicking anything — it is a gap in the scheme's coverage, nothing to celebrate. If you joined GamStop because gambling was doing you damage, the reason you joined has not expired — and playing at sites the scheme cannot touch dismantles a barrier you built for yourself deliberately. Please treat that seriously.
Blocks that work everywhere
- Bank-level gambling blocks. Most major UK banks and app-based banks can freeze gambling transactions on your card, with a built-in delay before the block will come off.
- Device blocking software. Gamban and BetBlocker shut gambling sites and apps out of your devices — phones and computers alike — wherever the operator is licensed. Through the TalkBanStop partnership with GamCare, Gamban is available free.
- Operator-level limits. Deposit caps, loss limits, session reminders and time-outs — set them at signup, when resolve is easiest, not after a bad night.
Signs worth taking seriously
Chasing losses to "get straight". Hiding stakes or screens from the people around you. Playing with money earmarked for rent, bills or debts. Borrowing to play. Feeling irritable when you try to stop. Recognise even one and that alone justifies ringing the number at the top of this page — these patterns never improve by themselves.
Under 18?
This website holds nothing for you, and no licensed operator anywhere would knowingly sign you up. If gambling already has a grip, GamCare's young people's service can help, confidentially and without judgement.