Responsible Gambling
If gambling has stopped being something you enjoy, help is free, confidential and available now.
The numbers below are staffed by people trained for this. You do not need to have hit a crisis point to call one, and you do not have to give your name.
We are a poker and casino affiliate. We earn commission when someone signs up to an operator through us, which is precisely why this page exists and why nothing on it is selling you anything.
We are not a support service and we are not qualified to be one. If you need help, use the services on this page rather than contacting us.
Not listed above? Verified helplines, self-exclusion schemes and regulators for eighteen countries are further down this page.
When Gambling Stops Being Entertainment
Most people who gamble do it for fun, spend what they meant to spend, and stop when they meant to stop. Harm does not usually announce itself. It arrives slowly, and the person it is happening to is often the last to name it.
There is no single point where enjoyment becomes a problem. What there is instead is a set of patterns, and most people who end up in trouble recognise several of them looking back.
- You play to win back what you lost. Chasing is the single most common pattern, and it is the one that turns a bad session into a bad month.
- You spend more than you decided to, repeatedly. Not once, but as the normal outcome rather than the exception.
- You keep it to yourself. Playing down what you lost, or not mentioning it at all, usually starts before anything else goes wrong.
- You gamble with money that was meant for something else. Rent, bills, savings, or money borrowed from anyone including a card or a loan.
- It is on your mind when you are not playing. Planning the next session, replaying the last one, or thinking about it at work or at night.
- Stopping makes you restless or irritable. Particularly if you have tried to cut back and found it harder than expected.
- It is costing you something other than money. Sleep, work, or the people around you.
None of these on its own means you have a problem. Several of them together, over months rather than a bad week, is worth taking seriously.
If you want something more structured, several health bodies run proper screening questions and are qualified to interpret the answers. We are not. GamCare runs a free and anonymous self-assessment with no account needed. In Germany, Check dein Spiel is run by the federal public health institute, and in Denmark the gambling authority runs a nine question test through StopSpillet.
If You Are Worried About Someone Else
A lot of the people reading a page like this are not the ones gambling. They are a partner, a parent, an adult child or a friend, and they have noticed something is wrong without being sure what.
You are unlikely to see the gambling. What you see is what it costs.
- Money that does not add up. Withdrawals or transfers with no explanation, borrowing that starts small, bills going unpaid while income has not changed, or valuables quietly gone.
- Secrecy around a phone or laptop. Screens turned away, apps closed quickly, or a defensiveness about devices that was not there before.
- Mood that tracks something you cannot see. Elation and irritability arriving without an obvious cause, often on the same day.
- Time that is not accounted for. Late nights, missed plans, or long stretches alone with a phone.
- Explanations that keep changing. A story about money that shifts each time you ask, or a new reason each month.
- Withdrawal from people. Pulling back from friends, family or things they used to care about.
Trust what you have noticed rather than waiting for proof. People hide this well, and by the time it is undeniable it is usually further along.
Bringing it up is hard and there is no perfect way to do it. What tends to help is picking a calm moment rather than the aftermath of a row, describing what you have seen rather than what you have concluded, and asking rather than accusing. What tends not to help is threatening, paying off a debt to make it disappear, or making promises about what happens next that you cannot keep.
You do not have to work this out alone. The helplines at the top of this page support family and friends as well as players, and many run services specifically for people in your position. You can call before you say anything, and you do not need the person to know you rang.
Where to Get Help
The services on this page are run by people trained for this, and most are funded by government or by a levy on the gambling industry rather than by operators.
You do not have to be in crisis to use them. Most people who call are not at rock bottom. They are somewhere earlier than that, which is the better time to ring.
- Free. No charge to call, and in most countries no charge for the treatment they refer you to.
- Confidential. They do not report you to anyone, and you do not have to give your name.
- Independent. They are not run by gambling operators and have nothing to sell.
- Open to family too. Several of these services support partners and relatives as well as players.
What happens when you call
You will not be judged, lectured or told to stop. Nobody will contact your operator, your bank or your family, and nothing you say goes on a record anywhere.
The person answering will ask what has been going on and how it is affecting you. From there they can talk it through, point you at local treatment, refer you to counselling, or simply listen. What happens next is your decision, not theirs.
Beyond the helpline
A phone call is a start rather than a plan. Most countries have free counselling for gambling harm, usually through the health service or a funded charity, and the helpline can refer you.
Gamblers Anonymous runs free peer meetings in most countries, in person and online, with no fees and no membership. Some people find a room full of others who have been through it more useful than anything else on this page. Their international directory lists meetings by country.
Gam-Anon exists for the family rather than the player, and runs alongside GA meetings in many places.
The Tools, and What Each One Does
Every licensed operator gives you controls over your own account. Most players never open them, which is a shame, because they are the cheapest way to keep gambling inside the size you meant it to be.
A limit set while you are calm works. A limit set while you are losing usually does not. Set them when you open the account, not when you need them.
| Tool | What it does | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit limit | Caps what you can pay in over a day, week or month | The most useful single control. Lowering it usually takes effect at once, raising it normally involves a waiting period |
| Loss limit | Caps what you can lose in a period, counting wins against losses | Closer to what you actually care about than a deposit limit, but fewer operators offer it |
| Wager limit | Caps total stakes regardless of outcome | Useful if you play high volume at low stakes, where deposits stay flat but turnover does not |
| Session limit | Logs you out after a set time | Blunt, but it interrupts the long sessions where most of the damage happens |
| Reality check | A reminder on screen at intervals you choose, showing time played | Easy to dismiss without reading. Set it to an interval short enough to notice |
| Time out | Closes your account for a short fixed period, usually 24 hours to 6 weeks | Ends automatically when the period runs out, with no request needed. Good for a cooling-off period rather than a decision |
Where to find them
At most operators these sit under account settings, responsible gaming or a similar heading, and licensed sites are obliged to make them available. If you cannot find them, support has to tell you where they are.
If an operator makes limits hard to find, slow to apply or easy to raise, that tells you something about the operator.
What limits do not do
A limit binds one account at one operator. It does nothing about the next site, and opening a fresh account elsewhere is the most common way a limit gets undone.
If that is the pattern you recognise, limits are not the tool you need. The next two sections cover the ones that work across operators rather than within one.
Self-Exclusion, and Where It Stops
Self-exclusion closes your accounts and keeps them closed. It is stronger than a limit because you cannot undo it on a bad night, and in most countries it now works across every operator at once rather than one at a time.
Where a national scheme exists, you register once and every operator bound by it has to block you. You do not need an account with them first, and it costs nothing.
- It covers every bound operator at once. One registration, not one form per site.
- You choose the length. Most schemes offer six months upward, several offer indefinite, and a few now offer short cooling-off periods measured in days.
- You cannot cancel it early. That is the feature, not a flaw. Most schemes require a written request and a waiting period even after the term ends.
- It stops the marketing too. Bound operators have to remove you from mailing lists as well as block the account.
- Someone else can sometimes request it. Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal allow a third party to apply on behalf of a person at risk.
What it does not cover
A national scheme binds the operators licensed in that country. It does not bind anyone else.
That gap is not small. A player who registers with GamStop is blocked from every online operator licensed in Great Britain, and from nobody else. The same is true of Spelpaus in Sweden, CRUKS in the Netherlands and every other scheme on this page.
Most crypto casinos and most offshore operators hold licences elsewhere, commonly Curaçao or Anjouan, and are outside those schemes. That includes a large share of the operators we cover on this site.
So if you self-exclude nationally and expect the door to be shut everywhere, it will not be. What closes the rest of it is device-level blocking, which is the next section.
It is still worth doing
None of that makes self-exclusion pointless, and the numbers say otherwise. Germany’s OASIS register holds around 307,000 active exclusions, and roughly 96% of them were requested by the player rather than imposed by anyone else. More than 56,000 new applications were processed in 2024 alone.
Those are not people going through the motions. Self-exclusion works the way most harm reduction works, by putting friction between an impulse and an account, and it does not have to close every door to be worth closing the ones it can.
Use it, then close the rest of the gap with a blocker.
Blocking Software
Blocking software runs on your own devices and stops them reaching gambling sites at all. Because it works from your side rather than the operator’s, the licence does not matter. Crypto casinos, offshore sites and anything a national scheme cannot touch are all covered the same way.
This is the piece most people miss. Self-exclusion closes the accounts a regulator can reach, and a blocker closes the rest.
| Tool | Cost | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| BetBlocker | Free | Run by a charity, funded independently. Blocks more than 356,000 sites and 1,500 apps, installs on unlimited devices, collects no personal data. Periods from 24 hours upward |
| Gamban | From £2.49 a month, or £24.99 a year | One licence covers all your devices across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. Free in the UK through the GamCare helpline, which is worth asking about before paying |
How to use one properly
Install it on every device you own, not just the one you play on. A blocker on a laptop and not a phone achieves very little.
Set it up while you are not in the middle of anything. The point of a blocker is that the version of you who installs it is making the decision for the version who comes looking later.
If you can uninstall it in thirty seconds, it is not doing much. Most of these are hard to remove on purpose. Some people give the removal password to someone they trust, which is worth considering if you have tried before and gone back.
Your bank may be able to help
Card-level gambling blocks are widely available from UK and Irish banks, and from a growing number elsewhere. They are usually free, switchable in the app, and come with a cooling-off period before they can be turned off again. It is worth asking your own bank whether they offer one.
That closes a different door from the blockers above. A card block stops the payment even if you reach the site.
Help by Country
Every entry below was checked against the regulator, the health authority or the service’s own site in August 2026. Where something could not be confirmed, it is not listed.
Check the hours. Only a handful of these lines run around the clock, and a page that implies otherwise is no use to someone at two in the morning.
| Country | Helpline | Self-exclusion | Regulator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1800 858 858 Free, 24/7 | BetStop, national register, 3 months to lifetime | ACMA |
| Brazil | No gambling-specific national line | Centralised platform via Gov.br since December 2025, 1 to 12 months or indefinite | Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas |
| Canada | ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600 Free, 24/7, Ontario. Other provinces run their own services | Provincial and not interoperable. Ontario launched BetGuard in May 2026 | Provincial. AGCO in Ontario |
| Czechia | 777 477 877, 24/7 800 350 000, free, Mon to Fri 10:00 to 18:00 | RVO, national register, minimum one year | Ministry of Finance |
| Denmark | StopSpillet 70 22 28 25 Free, Mon to Thu 09:00 to 21:00, Fri 09:00 to 17:00 | ROFUS, national register, 24 hours to permanent | Spillemyndigheden |
| Finland | Peluuri 0800 100 101 Free, Mon to Fri 12:00 to 18:00. Finnish, Swedish and English | Operator level only. A national scheme is expected with licensing in 2027 | National Police Board |
| Germany | 0800 137 27 00 Free, Mon to Thu 10:00 to 22:00, Fri to Sun 10:00 to 18:00 | OASIS, national register. Third parties can also apply | GGL |
| Ireland | No national statutory line yet. Gamblers Anonymous Ireland and Problem Gambling Ireland | National register legislated but not yet live | Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland |
| Italy | 800 558822 Free, Mon to Fri 10:00 to 16:00 | RUA, national register, 30 to 90 days or indefinite | ADM |
| Netherlands | OpenOverGokken 0800 24 000 22 Free, 24/7 by phone | CRUKS, national register, minimum six months | Kansspelautoriteit |
| New Zealand | 0800 654 655, or text 8006 Free, 24/7. Māori 0800 654 656, Pasifika 0800 654 657 | Venue-level exclusion. A national online register is planned | Department of Internal Affairs |
| Norway | Hjelpelinjen 800 800 40 Free. Advisers also speak English | Operator level, minimum one year | Lotteritilsynet |
| Poland | 801 889 880 Daily 17:00 to 22:00. Not free, charged at operator rate | No national register. Operator level only | Ministry of Finance |
| Portugal | Linha 1414 Free, weekdays 10:00 to 18:00 | SRIJ portal since April 2026, minimum three months. Third parties can also apply | SRIJ |
| Spain | FEJAR 900 533 025 Free, 24/7, every day | RGIAJ, national register, indefinite by default | DGOJ |
| Sweden | Stödlinjen 020-81 91 00 Free, weekdays 09:00 to 21:00 | Spelpaus, national register, 10 days to indefinite | Spelinspektionen |
| United Kingdom | GamCare 0808 8020 133 Free, 24/7 | GamStop, covers all GB-licensed online operators, 6 months to 5 years | Gambling Commission |
| United States | 1-800-522-4700 Free, 24/7. Also reachable on 1-800-MY-RESET | No national scheme. State and operator level only | State gaming commissions |
If your country is not here, the GamCare international directory lists services worldwide.
What We Do About It
A page like this is easy to publish and easy to ignore. These are the things we actually hold ourselves to.
- Age. You must be at least 18, or the legal gambling age where you live if that is higher. This is set out in our terms and it applies to every promotion we run.
- We drop operators over patterns, not single complaints. One disputed account is rarely the whole story. A pattern of the same complaint from different players is, and payment problems end coverage outright. Duelbits is on this site with a warning rather than a recommendation for exactly that reason.
- Ask to come off our list and you come off it. No retention email, no offer to stay, no reappearing three months later.
None of that makes us a support service, and it does not make us neutral. We earn money when people gamble. The only honest thing to do with that is say so plainly, disclose it wherever it is relevant, and tell you where the tools on this page stop working rather than leaving you to find out.
How we choose the operators we cover, and what we check before listing one, is set out on how we test poker rooms and casinos.
FAQs
How do I know if I have a gambling problem?
There is no single line where enjoyment becomes harm. The patterns most people recognise looking back are chasing losses, spending more than they decided to as the normal outcome rather than the exception, keeping it to themselves, and using money meant for something else. Several of these together, over months rather than one bad week, is worth taking seriously. Free self-assessment tools are run by GamCare and by several national health bodies, and they are qualified to interpret the answers.
Does self-exclusion stop me gambling everywhere?
No. A national scheme binds the operators licensed in that country and nobody else. GamStop covers online operators licensed in Great Britain, Spelpaus covers Swedish licensees, CRUKS covers Dutch ones, and so on. Most crypto casinos and offshore operators hold licences elsewhere and sit outside those schemes. To close that gap you need blocking software on your own devices, which works regardless of where an operator is licensed.
Is blocking software free?
BetBlocker is completely free and run by a charity. It blocks more than 356,000 gambling sites and 1,500 apps, installs on unlimited devices and collects no personal data. Gamban costs from 2.49 pounds a month and is free in the UK through the GamCare National Gambling Helpline.
What happens when I call a gambling helpline?
You do not have to give your name. You will not be judged or told to stop, and nobody contacts your operator, your bank or your family. The person answering will ask what has been going on and how it is affecting you, then talk through the options, which might mean local treatment, counselling, or simply listening. What happens next is your decision.
Can I self-exclude on behalf of someone else?
In some countries, yes. Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal all allow a third party to apply for an exclusion on behalf of a person at risk. Most other schemes require the player to register themselves. If you are worried about someone, the helplines listed on this page support family and friends as well as players, and you can call before saying anything to the person concerned.
Why does a gambling affiliate publish a page like this?
Because we earn commission when someone signs up to an operator through us, which is exactly the reason to be clear about the risk and about where the tools stop working. Nothing on this page is selling anything and there are no operator links on it.