Available in GB
Gambling is not a way to earn money or a solution to money problems. Treat any money you stake as money you may lose. If you are gambling to cover bills, repay debt or recover losses, stop and take a practical step to protect your money instead.
Signs gambling may be causing harm
Look for changes you can observe, rather than waiting for a particular label. These can include:
- spending more time or money gambling than you intended;
- increasing your stakes to try to win back losses;
- borrowing money, selling belongings or using money set aside for essentials to gamble;
- hiding gambling or lying about how much you have spent;
- repeatedly trying to stop or cut down, then returning to gambling;
- missing work, study, appointments or time with people close to you because of gambling;
- feeling restless or irritable when you try to stop;
- continuing to gamble despite it causing arguments, debt or other problems.
One sign is enough to take action. You do not have to wait until gambling affects every part of your life.
What to do now
If you are gambling at the moment, close the game and sign out. Do not deposit more money to recover a loss. Open your account’s responsible gambling or safer gambling settings and set a financial limit, or use self-exclusion to block access to the account. UK-licensed casinos must provide responsible gambling tools, including self-exclusion. Remote operators must prompt new customers to set a financial limit before their first deposit and provide accessible account-level limit controls.
If you cannot find these controls, contact the operator through its account or website support channel and ask how to set a limit or self-exclude. You can also use the operator’s internal complaints process if the tools are unavailable or do not work as described. UKGC licensees must offer that process and access to an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service, which is an independent route for certain unresolved complaints.
No verified external gambling-support organisation or contact details are available for this page. Do not rely on an unverified number or address. For help right now, use the operator’s account controls to stop access and deposits, and ask someone you trust to help you take the next practical step, such as blocking access to gambling funds.
Protections and checking an account
Operators must verify a customer’s age before allowing deposits into a gambling account. If you are unsure whether an operator is licensed, its gambling website or app should show licence details and link to public register information. Check those details before depositing.
Some protections are specific to online gambling in Britain. Autoplay is banned for online slots, and each online slot spin must last at least 2.5 seconds. Remote gambling operators cannot accept credit-card payments for gambling, including credit-card funding routed through a money service business. They also cannot accept wallet payments where the wallet allows credit-card funds to be used for gambling.
For online slots, the total amount an individual may stake in a game cycle is capped at £2 if they are under 25 and £5 if they are 25 or older. A game cycle is the period from the start of one game to the point when the next can begin; at least 2.5 seconds must elapse before that next cycle can start.
These rules and tools do not make gambling a reliable source of income or remove the risk of losing money. If you are spending money you need for living costs, stop gambling and use the account controls to prevent further deposits.