Self-exclusion means asking gambling companies, in writing, to refuse you for a fixed period you can't cancel. Four main layers: Gamstop Online for sites and apps, Gamstop Betting Shops for the high street, your bank's gambling block for the card, and blocking software on your devices. Set all four. Each one leaks where the others don't.
Nobody calls it "self-exclusion" in their own head
Most people get here having typed something closer to "how do I stop myself betting on my phone". The industry word is self-exclusion, and it means you sign up to be refused. The company checks a list and turns you away.
Which is the design detail that matters. A block you can switch off in a bad ten minutes isn't a block. The University of Bristol's research team said it exactly that way when they reviewed bank card blockers: over a third of them "can (unhelpfully) be toggled on and off by customers at will, making them a light switch rather than a lock."
So ask one question of every layer below. How hard is it to undo?
The layers, side by side
| Layer | What it blocks | What it does not block | How to set it up | |---|---|---|---| | Gamstop Online | Signing up for or using online accounts with gambling companies licensed in Great Britain | Betting shops and venues, sites not licensed in Great Britain, crypto casinos, prediction markets | gamstop.co.uk, online, minutes. Choose 6 months to 5 years | | Bank gambling block | Card payments to merchants whose category code says gambling, declined in real time | E-wallet top-ups, cash withdrawals, operators using a non-gambling code, someone else's card | Your banking app, under card controls or account settings. Ask how long removal takes | | Gamstop Betting Shops | Land-based bookmakers you name in Great Britain, for 12 months | Casinos, bingo halls, arcades, anything online | Phone 0800 294 2060. Photographic ID and a recent photo of your face | | Blocking software | Gambling sites and apps on the device you install it on, including unlicensed ones | Any device you haven't installed it on, and physical venues | Install on phone and laptop separately. Paid in most of the UK | | Marketing blocks | Promotional texts, emails and app notifications from operators | Ads on social media or in a stadium | Unsubscribe from each operator, mute, report as spam | | Someone else holding the money | Whatever you can't reach without asking | Anything you keep access to, including a forgotten account | Agree it out loud with a family member. Move the card |
NICE, which writes NHS clinical guidance, puts most of this stack in one recommendation: "blocking software or tools to prevent online gambling / blocking marketing messages / self-exclusion systems for land-based gambling such as casinos, arcades and betting shops / systems that block gambling payments through the person's bank account / methods to limit access to money, for example, agreeing that a family member will take control of finances."
Layer one, Gamstop Online
Start here. It's the fastest and it covers the most.
Gamstop's own words: "when you register with Gamstop Online you'll be blocked from accessing gambling websites and apps licensed in Great Britain." You choose the length, "from 6 months up to 5 years", and then it holds: "once you've registered, you cannot cancel your registration during the exclusion period."
Take the five years if you're wavering. Register every detail you might sign up with, including old email addresses, old phone numbers and a maiden name. A block matched against details you never use isn't matched against anything.
**The gap.** Gamstop reaches companies licensed by the Gambling Commission. Offshore sites, crypto casinos and prediction markets sit outside it entirely, and they know it.
Layer two, your bank's gambling block
The mechanism explains every gap, so it's worth thirty seconds.
The Bristol team describes it plainly: "these blockers involve a bank checking, in real-time, a Merchant Category Code describing the type of business a customer is trying to pay with their debit or credit card." If the code says gambling and your block is on, the payment is declined.
Most UK banks now offer one, inside card controls or account settings, and it takes under a minute.
**Ask your bank one question:** how long does it take to lift the block once I ask? Some apply a cooling-off delay of hours or days. Some have none, so it's off the moment you tap. The periods vary by bank and they change, so get the answer from your own bank rather than a list on the internet. If yours has no delay, treat the block as helpful and lean harder on layers one and four.
**The gaps.**
- **E-wallets.** The Bristol report counts "over 170 ways to make online gambling transactions. E-wallets form a sizeable chunk of this." Money goes from your bank into the wallet, which looks like a normal transfer, then out of the wallet to the site. Your card block never sees the second half. Ask your wallet provider whether they offer a block of their own.
- **Wrong merchant codes.** Some operators put transactions through under a non-gambling code, so the payment isn't declined "because it does not 'look' like a gambling transaction". If a bet goes through while your block is on, report it to your bank. They pass it to Visa or Mastercard, and that's largely how these leaks get found.
- **Cash.** A card block does nothing about money already out of the machine.
- **The lottery counter.** Licensed operators have been banned from taking credit card payments since April 2020, but that ban carves out non-remote lotteries. As the Bristol report notes, "you will still be able to buy a National Lottery ticket or scratchcard in a supermarket with a credit card".
Layer three, betting shops
Different scheme, different process, and it's the one people skip.
Gamstop Betting Shops, formerly MOSES, is "a free service for users who want to control their gambling by choosing to self-exclude from multiple land-based bookmakers in Great Britain". You can't do it online. "The service is telephone based. To use the service call 0800 294 2060."
They'll ask for photographic ID and a current photo of your face, and for the areas where you live, work and spend time so the right shops get your details. "You will be excluded for a fixed term period of 12 months."
**The gap.** Bookmakers only. Casinos, bingo halls and arcades run separate self-exclusion arrangements, and you approach those operators or venues directly. Ring the venue and say "I want to self-exclude". They deal with this every week.
Layer four, software on your devices
Software catches what licensing can't, including the offshore sites Gamstop has no authority over.
Gamban is the best known UK option. It used to be free here through a national scheme, and that arrangement has ended for England and Scotland, so assume you'll pay.
Install it on every device you've ever gambled on. The laptop, the tablet, the old handset in the drawer, the work machine. The forgotten one gets used at 1am.
Do them in this order
- Gamstop Online, tonight, five years.
- Your bank's gambling block, tonight, then ask about the removal delay.
- Blocking software on the phone and the laptop.
- Gamstop Betting Shops by phone tomorrow, if shops are part of it.
- Any casino, bingo hall or arcade you use, direct with the venue.
- Marketing off, and someone else holding the card.
You won't finish this tonight and you don't need to. The first two take ten minutes together.
If it helps to keep the blocks and the people who know about them in the same place, that's what [Renovyn's Shield](/shield) is built for. Friction, plus someone in the loop. It doesn't treat anything.
What none of it can do
A wall you believe is solid is more dangerous than one you know has a hole.
Nothing here stops you borrowing a friend's phone, walking into a shop that never got your details, or gambling with cash. The blocks buy you the ten minutes between the urge and the bet. [What you do with those ten minutes](/guides/gambling/getting-through-the-urge-to-bet) is the actual work.
If the money has gone, start with [gambling debt](/guides/gambling/gambling-debt-what-to-do-first), then [the conversation with the person who needs to know](/guides/gambling/telling-someone-about-the-money). Not sure any of this applies to you yet? [Read this one first](/guides/gambling/is-my-gambling-a-problem).
The National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, anywhere in Great Britain. Samaritans is 116 123 if tonight is worse than that.
Common questions
**What does self-excluded mean?** You have formally asked gambling companies to refuse your custom for a set period, and they check a list to enforce it. You can't reverse it partway through, which is what separates it from deleting the app. Gamstop runs from 6 months to 5 years and the betting shop scheme runs for a fixed 12 months.
**Does Gamstop block betting shops?** No. Gamstop Online covers websites and apps licensed in Great Britain. The high street is a separate telephone scheme, Gamstop Betting Shops on 0800 294 2060, and it covers bookmakers rather than casinos, bingo halls or arcades.
**Can I gamble through PayPal if my bank block is on?** Often, yes, and it's the biggest hole in a card block. Bank blockers read the merchant category code on a payment, and a transfer into an e-wallet doesn't carry a gambling code. Ask your e-wallet provider whether they offer a gambling block.
**My bank block came off straight away. Is that normal?** It varies. Some banks build in a cooling-off delay before a block lifts and some let you switch it off instantly, which the Bristol researchers criticised as a light switch rather than a lock. Ask your bank what their delay is, and if there isn't one, lean harder on Gamstop and on device software.
Sources
- [Gamstop, About](https://www.gamstop.co.uk/about). What Gamstop Online blocks, the 6 month to 5 year range, and that registration cannot be cancelled during the period.
- [Gamstop Betting Shops, how the scheme works](https://self-exclusion.co.uk/how-the-scheme-works). The free land-based bookmaker scheme, the 0800 294 2060 telephone process, ID requirements and the 12 month fixed term.
- [University of Bristol PFRC, A Blueprint for Bank Card Gambling Blockers (2020)](https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/geography/pfrc/A%20Blueprint%20for%20Bank%20Card%20Gambling%20Blockers%20-%20Report.pdf). How merchant category code blocking works, the light switch finding, the 170 payment routes and e-wallet gap, non-gambling merchant codes, and the lottery carve-out from the credit card ban.
- [NICE NG248, Harmful gambling recommendations](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng248/chapter/recommendations). The recommended stack of blocking software, marketing blocks, land-based self-exclusion, bank payment blocks and limiting access to money.
