GAMSTOP is a free, UK-wide self-exclusion scheme that lets you block yourself from every online gambling site licensed by the UK Gambling Commission in one go. You register once at gamstop.co.uk, choose how long you want to be excluded for — 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 5 years with auto-renewal — and your details are shared with every GB-licensed operator, who must then refuse you a new account or shut down an existing one for that period.
What Is GAMSTOP?
GAMSTOP is the UK's national online self-exclusion scheme. It's a free tool that lets anyone block themselves from setting up new accounts — or using existing ones — with every online gambling business licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) in Great Britain. That covers online casinos, sports betting sites, bingo sites and poker rooms in one registration, rather than having to contact each operator individually.
Since 31 March 2020, participation in GAMSTOP has been a mandatory condition of holding a UK Gambling Commission online licence. Every GB-licensed operator must check new and existing customers against GAMSTOP's database and refuse or close an account for anyone with an active exclusion. That requirement has since been extended to cover gambling businesses that take bets by phone or email too, not just websites and apps.
GAMSTOP itself launched in April 2018, initially set up at the request of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Gambling Commission. It's run as a not-for-profit by a board of directors, the majority of whom are independent of the gambling industry — not by a casino operator or affiliate. That independence matters for a tool people are trusting with sensitive personal data and a genuinely irreversible commitment.
How to Register: Step by Step
Signing up takes a few minutes and doesn't cost anything. The process runs entirely through GAMSTOP's own site:
- Register your details. Go to gamstop.co.uk and enter your name, date of birth, address and contact details.
- Verify your identity. This step confirms the exclusion is correctly matched to you, so it can't be applied to, or bypassed by, someone else.
- Choose your exclusion period. Pick 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 5 years with auto-renewal — see the next section for what each one means.
- The block activates. GAMSTOP shares your details with every GB-licensed operator, and your exclusion becomes effective within up to 24 hours.
Exclusion Period Options
You choose your exclusion length as part of registration, and it's the one decision worth pausing on — it can't be shortened once it's set (more on that below):
- 6 months — the shortest available period, useful as an initial cooling-off block.
- 1 year — a full twelve months away from every GB-licensed site.
- 5 years — the longest fixed-length option; it ends automatically once the period is up.
- 5 years with auto-renewal — the same 5-year block, except once it ends you're automatically re-entered into another 5-year minimum period without needing to do anything, unless you actively choose not to renew when contacted.
How Long Until It Takes Effect
Registration itself only takes a few minutes, but the block isn't instant. GAMSTOP states it can take up to 24 hours for your exclusion to reach every participating operator and become fully effective. If you're mid-registration and thinking about immediate options, most individual casino sites also let you set your own account-level exclusion or deposit limits straight away while the GAMSTOP block propagates — worth doing in parallel if you want a same-day effect.
Can You Cancel or Shorten It Early?
No. Once you've chosen an exclusion period and it's active, it cannot be reversed, shortened or cancelled before that period ends — this is by design, so the tool can't be undone in a moment of urge. If you choose 5 years, you're committed to the full 5 years; the same applies to 6 months and 1 year. The only period that can extend further than what you picked is the auto-renewal option, and even that only adds time, not less.
That's worth factoring into which option you pick at sign-up. There's no way to "test" GAMSTOP with a short period and extend it later if 6 months turns out not to be enough — you'd need to register again once it lapses. If you're unsure, choosing a longer period is the safer default, since the downside of excluding for longer than you strictly needed is smaller than the downside of a short exclusion ending before you're ready.
What GAMSTOP Doesn't Cover
GAMSTOP is genuinely useful, but it isn't a complete block on all gambling, and it's worth being clear-eyed about its limits rather than treating it as a catch-all:
- Unlicensed and offshore operators. GAMSTOP only covers businesses holding a UK Gambling Commission licence. Sites operating under a licence from another jurisdiction and accepting UK customers outside UKGC oversight aren't part of the scheme and have no obligation to check against it.
- Land-based venues. GAMSTOP is an online-only scheme. It doesn't exclude you from betting shops, arcades or physical casinos — those run separate self-exclusion arrangements at a venue or multi-venue level.
- Existing behaviour outside gambling accounts. GAMSTOP blocks new and existing accounts with participating operators; it isn't device-level blocking software, though GAMSTOP itself points users toward complementary tools like blocking software and specialist support organisations for broader coverage.
None of this makes GAMSTOP less worth using — it's still the single most effective step available for blocking the online GB-licensed market, which is where the vast majority of UK gambling activity happens. It's just not, on its own, a guarantee against every route back into gambling.
Getting Further Support
GAMSTOP is a practical tool, not a treatment programme, and it works best alongside real support if gambling is causing you harm. If you want to talk to someone, both BeGambleAware and GamCare offer free, confidential advice and support for anyone affected by gambling, whether that's you or someone you know — both are linked in our site footer alongside GAMSTOP and GAMSTOP itself signposts to them too.
If you're weighing up whether to register, our responsible gambling policy covers the wider set of tools available — deposit limits, reality checks, time-outs and self-exclusion — and where to find help if you need it. Taking the step to self-exclude, at whatever length feels right, isn't a small decision, and it's one you can only make for yourself; the resources above are there whenever you're ready to use them.