GAMSTOP, explained honestly

GAMSTOP is the free national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling in the UK. Register once and you are blocked from opening or using accounts with every gambling website and app licensed in Great Britain, for the period you choose. It is run independently of the operators, and the operators are required by their licence to check it.

It is for people living in the UK — Great Britain and Northern Ireland — and GAMSTOP says it is used by over half a million people. Some sign up to stop for good; others use it to take a break.

You choose to block yourself and give GAMSTOP some personal details so it can confirm your identity. GAMSTOP adds you to its register. Whenever anyone tries to use an online gambling account with a British-licensed operator, that operator checks with GAMSTOP; if you are on the register, the operator blocks you from its services.

Registration takes minutes. GAMSTOP says the block can take up to 24 hours to become effective, so it is not instant everywhere the moment you press submit. Keeping your details up to date in your GAMSTOP account keeps the block as effective as possible.

Four minimum periods: six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal. Auto-renewal means that when the five years end, you are entered into another five-year minimum period without having to contact GAMSTOP.

The word “minimum” matters. Once registered, you cannot remove the exclusion during the minimum period — there is no early exit, which is the point of the tool. GAMSTOP’s own help centre notes that the shortest period is six months; if you want a shorter break, the tools are time-outs and deposit limits on individual accounts rather than GAMSTOP.

Nothing, automatically. Your exclusion stays in place after the end of the period you chose unless you choose to remove it by contacting GAMSTOP. That default is deliberate: lapsing silently would hand gambling access back to people who had forgotten they were excluded.

If you later want to block yourself again, you use your existing GAMSTOP account to add a new period — six months, one year, five years or five years with auto-renewal — without registering from scratch.

Since 31 March 2020 every online gambling operator licensed by the Gambling Commission has been required to participate in GAMSTOP; the Commission announced the requirement on 14 January 2020 and, days after the deadline, suspended the licences of two operators that had not fully integrated it. Participation is a condition of holding a British licence.

So a site advertising itself as “not on GamStop” is telling you, in plain terms, that it does not hold a British licence. It is offering gambling to people in Great Britain illegally, none of the UK protections apply — no dispute resolution, no rules on fairness of terms, no obligation to return your funds — and if you have self-excluded, it is precisely the kind of site the exclusion is meant to keep you away from. We do not list or link to them, whatever they are offering.

It covers online gambling with British-licensed operators only. Betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and arcades have their own multi-operator self-exclusion schemes, and the Gambling Commission’s self-exclusion page explains how to use those. Unlicensed offshore sites are not part of GAMSTOP, which is why the Commission and GAMSTOP both recommend combining it with blocking software and a bank gambling block.

Blocking software stops your devices reaching gambling sites at all; GamCare’s list includes Gamban and BetBlocker, some free and some paid. Most major UK banks can block gambling transactions on your cards from within their app. The three tools together — GAMSTOP, software, bank block — cover the gaps each one leaves.