Three steps, in this order. Block your access to gambling, because otherwise next month's wages follow last month's. Ring StepChange free on 0800 138 1111, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Then pay priority debts first, which means rent, mortgage, council tax, energy and court fines come before any credit card or buy now pay later app, however loudly it is writing to you.
Do not take another loan today
The instinct is to make the number go away fast. That is how a gambling debt becomes a consolidation loan, and then, some months later, a consolidation loan plus a gambling debt.
Nothing on this page needs to be done tonight except one thing, and it is free. Everything else is better done on the phone with somebody whose job it is, after you have slept.
Step one, close the tap
Debt advice while you are still gambling is money poured into a bucket with a hole in it. Advisers know this and will not judge you for it, but the arithmetic is what it is.
The two fastest layers take about ten minutes together. Register with Gamstop Online, which blocks gambling websites and apps licensed in Great Britain and which "once you've registered, you cannot cancel your registration during the exclusion period". Then switch on the gambling block in your banking app.
NICE's guidance for clinicians lists both of those alongside "methods to limit access to money, for example, agreeing that a family member will take control of finances". If somebody in your life can hold the card for a month while you sort this out, ask them. [The full stack, and the gap each layer leaves, is here](/guides/gambling/gamstop-bank-blocks-and-blocking-apps).
Step two, free advice, and only free advice
**StepChange** is a debt charity. Its advice is free and impartial: 0800 138 1111, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm.
Ring them before you ring anybody who advertises. A large share of what appears when you search for debt help is a commercial product, and some of it charges you for arrangements you can get for nothing. Free advice is not a lesser version of the paid kind. It is the same kind, without the fee.
Before you ring, spend forty minutes writing down every balance you owe, including money owed to people rather than companies, and the total that has to leave your account each month. Advisers can work far faster with a real list, and the exercise is worth doing for its own sake, because almost nobody's real number matches the number they have been carrying around.
Tell them it is gambling debt. They deal with this constantly and it changes the advice they give you, usually in your favour.
Step three, pay the quiet debts before the loud ones
This is the most useful thing on this page and it is the thing almost nobody does.
Citizens Advice explains that ["priority debts" are debts that can cause you particularly serious problems if you don't do anything about them](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/dealing-with-your-debts/work-out-which-debts-to-deal-with-first/), and that you need to work out which of your debts are priority debts and deal with them first.
| Deal with these first | Deal with these after | |---|---| | Rent arrears | Credit cards | | Mortgage or secured loan arrears | Catalogue debts | | Council tax arrears | Unsecured loans, including payday loans | | Gas or electricity bills | Unpaid water bills | | Court fines | Benefit overpayments, other than tax credits | | Unpaid income tax, National Insurance or VAT | Parking penalties | | Overpaid tax credits | Money owed to family or friends | | Hire purchase or conditional sale on goods you need | |
Notice what is missing from the left-hand column. Credit cards, overdrafts, payday loans and buy now pay later plans are all non-priority, and they are precisely the ones generating the emails, the texts and the letters in red.
So the debt shouting at you is usually not the debt to pay. Council tax arrears sit silent and carry far heavier consequences than the app sending you three notifications a day. Pay the quiet ones. Deal with the loud ones through the adviser.
Breathing Space, described accurately
If you live in England or Wales, GOV.UK says ["you can get temporary protection from your creditors while you get debt advice and make a plan"](https://www.gov.uk/options-for-paying-off-your-debts/breathing-space). It gives "temporary protection for up to 60 days".
Three things people get wrong about it.
It is **England and Wales only**. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate arrangements, which an adviser will know.
**You cannot apply yourself.** GOV.UK is explicit: "To apply for the 'Breathing Space' scheme, you need to talk to a debt adviser. They will submit an application on your behalf if it's the right thing to do." That is another reason step two comes before anything clever.
**It is not a write-off.** Enforcement pauses, creditors cannot contact you about the included debts and cannot add interest or charges, and GOV.UK still states plainly that "you'll still need to make your debt repayments."
Money borrowed from people
The debts that keep people awake are usually not the ones with an interest rate.
Two things help. First, put them on the written list with everybody else, at the real amount, because the ones you leave off are the ones that detonate later. Second, tell the person the truth about where the money went, once, in full, rather than in instalments. [That conversation has its own piece of work](/guides/gambling/telling-someone-about-the-money), and it goes considerably better with the figures written down first.
You may also be wondering whether a partner is liable for what you owe. That is a question for an adviser rather than for a web page, and StepChange will answer it on the phone for nothing.
If the total is what is frightening you
A large number is not a sentence. It is a number that somebody who does this professionally will convert into a monthly figure and a length of time, usually within one phone call.
What is genuinely urgent is not the total. It is the priority arrears, if there are any, and getting the gambling blocked so the total stops growing.
NICE tells clinicians that gambling harms "can be a dominant risk factor for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, even in the absence of other risk factors", and that the risk may be highest immediately after a gambling episode. If the debt is taking you somewhere dark, Samaritans is **116 123**, free, any hour, and **999** in immediate danger. The National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, and money is one of the main things people ring it about.
Some people find it easier to keep the blocks, the danger hours and the person who knows in one place, which is what [Renovyn's Shield](/shield) is for. Friction, plus somebody in the loop. It is not treatment and it is not debt advice. The debt advice is the free phone number.
Common questions
**Should I take out a loan to pay off gambling debt?** Not before you have spoken to a free adviser, and not while gambling is still possible. Consolidating a debt while the access is still open is the most common way a gambling debt gets rebuilt on top of itself. Ring StepChange on 0800 138 1111 first.
**Which debt do I pay first?** Priority debts, which Citizens Advice defines as the ones that can cause you particularly serious problems if you ignore them: rent, mortgage, council tax, energy, court fines, tax. Credit cards, overdrafts and buy now pay later are non-priority, whatever their letters imply.
**Can I get gambling debts written off?** Breathing Space does not write anything off, it pauses interest, charges and enforcement for up to 60 days in England and Wales while you get advice. There are other formal options and which of them fits depends on your circumstances, which is exactly the conversation a free adviser is for.
**Do I have to tell the gambling company anything?** You do not need their permission to self-exclude, and Gamstop covers the licensed online operators in one registration. If shops are part of it, the high street scheme is separate and telephone based on 0800 294 2060.
Sources
- [Citizens Advice, Work out which debts to deal with first](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/dealing-with-your-debts/work-out-which-debts-to-deal-with-first/). The definition of priority debts, and which debts are priority and which are not.
- [GOV.UK, Breathing Space (Debt Respite Scheme)](https://www.gov.uk/options-for-paying-off-your-debts/breathing-space). England and Wales only, up to 60 days, applied for through a debt adviser, and that repayments are still owed.
- [StepChange Debt Charity](https://www.stepchange.org/). Free and impartial debt advice.
- [NICE NG248, Harmful gambling recommendations](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng248/chapter/recommendations). Blocking gambling payments and limiting access to money, and gambling harms as a dominant risk factor for suicidal ideation.
