GAMSTOP Self-Exclusion Service: Full Guide for UK Players

As gambling’s downsides become more apparent, tools like GAMSTOP allow players to step back when needed. This guide explains everything about the GAMSTOP self-exclusion service – how it works, its effectiveness, its limitations, and why it’s an essential responsible gambling safeguard.

• What is GAMSTOP?
• How can you reach GAMSTOP?
• How GAMSTOP Works & Why it Helps You
• When Should You Opt For GAMSTOP?
• iGaming’s Future with GAMSTOP

What is GAMSTOP?

GAMSTOP is a free national self-exclusion service available for iGaming users. Its operator, the National Online Self-Exclusion Scheme Limited, or NOSES for short, is a non-profit organisation.

What does GAMSTOP mean?

1. It facilitates all users accessing gambling sites and apps an easy way to opt out from all such UK-based services at once.
2. Top online casinos UK provide internal self-exclusion features as one of many responsible gambling requirements imposed by the UKGC.
3. Opting out this way will only affect the site in question or all related brands, this being the best-case scenario.
4. The service proves to be a better option for responsible gambling, as self-excluding will be valid on all GAMSTOP casinos.

This market-wide approach is why UK players should consider using GAMSTOP for gambling safely.

Is GAMSTOP free?

Its operator provides the service free of charge for all online gamblers residing in the UK. Once you register, you are entitled to all stated features.

How to Register on GAMSTOP

You start by going to the GAMSTOP register page. There, you will provide an email address you currently use or have used in past registrations on gambling sites.

You should receive a verification email within 24 hours. Confirm your address by accessing the link. Preferably, all contact details during the GAMSTOP register process should be the ones you use or have previously used when signing up for online casinos.

You must provide further info:

1. Name
2. Date of birth
3. Mobile numbers
4. Email addresses previously used for registering

Similarly, during the GAMSTOP register process, you are asked to provide a physical address. For the sake of GAMSTOP gambling exclusion effectiveness, you should also provide postcodes previously used for registration on gambling sites.

British users must then decide on the minimum opt-out period.

The options for GAMSTOP gambling self-exclusion are six months, one year, or five years. Additional identity verification inquiries will follow.

The GAMSTOP verification process currently uses the services of TransUnion, one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies.

Once you completed inserting all relevant data, review it once more, and the GAMSTOP register procedure should be done.

Once the registration is complete, you cannot deactivate the GAMSTOP gambling self-exclusion until the end of your selected period.

How can you reach GAMSTOP?

While you can sign-up without directly interacting with the Customer Support team, these GAMSTOP contact details will become relevant once you are part of its program.

What Happens You’ve Registered with GAMSTOP?

Although the agency attempts to opt you out as soon as possible from all GAMSTOP casinos, the process can take up to 24 hours. The time can vary depending on some operators’ systems.

During your self-exclusion, the agency shall prevent you from accessing sites under the UK Gambling Commission’s tutelage.

During the GAMSTOP self-exclusion, gambling is restricted

The organisation will restrict your activity based on the provided data. In this sense, it will only block accounts made with the data provided. As long as this information is current and complete, the measures will be effective.

If you still have accessible funds attached to one of your gambling accounts, the operators administrating them will have to return them. Unfortunately, there is no set return period, as operators process withdrawals differently.

The GAMSTOP gambling self-exclusion is a useful tool for combating detrimental behaviours, but each British applicant respects and attends to the service’s limitations.

The chosen period has passed

If you wish to cancel the self-exclusion, you must reach the agency via the provided GAMSTOP UK contact number and state your wish.

The cancellation is subject to a 24-hour cool-off period.

If you do not contact the organisation, the GAMSTOP self-exclusion will continue for seven more years, after which the service will be deactivated it.

GAMSTOP will keep British signees’ information during their chosen exclusion period, the seven years until deactivation and seven more archive years. During this time, it may inform operators about your previously held self-exclusion.

How GAMSTOP Works & Why it Helps You

GAMSTOP is an essential tool in today’s iGaming market. Its industry-wide recognition further cemented its status.

Previously, GAMSTOP was only one among the several accredited agencies that offered aid to British gamblers in need. Thus, it was advised for a good online casino to register with the company and abide by their decisions.

The process stands as a responsible gambling measure

All GAMSTOP casinos would require barring both current and newly joining accounts that utilise the data registered in their database. As of the 31^st of March 2020, GAMSTOP became mandatory for UKGC accredited casinos.

What “a non-GAMSTOP” Casino?

We cannot vouch for your safety if you access them. The GAMSTOP gambling limitations are for the gambler’s benefit in the UK. However, not participating in this scheme may highlight some underlying questionable practices on the site’s side.

We, too, only provide offers and data regarding legitimate GAMSTOP UK casinos. Of course, the agency solely addresses responsible gaming on these platforms. As for additional considerations, such as financial safety or general fair practices, our reviews break down and illustrate all details for sites in the UK.

All legitimate gambling sites in the UK must be GAMSTOP casinos

This has become a legally binding requirement and not just proof of each service’s customer care.

How common are non-GAMSTOP casinos?

There may still be some, although they cannot hold a UK Gambling Commission license.

Can You Cancel GAMSTOP Self-Exclusions?

Once you register with the service, there is no way to reverse your decision or change the minimum period selected. More so, it is part of your agreement to respect the chosen time and not attempt to sidestep the agency’s efforts.

There is no way to reverse GAMSTOP gambling measures. Additionally, it is ill-advised to undermine the service’s efforts, as these are only part of combatting gambling addiction for UK users. Measures go well beyond this, and the approach needs to be holistic, but we provide such details in our guide.

Of course, you could provide inaccurate or incomplete information or try accessing questionable non-GAMSTOP casinos. Any potential losses or a worsening of addictive behaviours will not be the organisation’s liability and only for the users to bear.

When Should You Opt For GAMSTOP?

Whenever you begin to think that you are spending considerable amounts on online casinos and that your gambling is compulsive and out of your control, you should contact GAMSTOP immediately.

How to figure out if you are in such a situation?

The most comprehensive studies underpin financial problems, feelings of losing control and relational problems with significant others as the main characteristics for gamblers opting for self-exclusion.

Do not trust any myths regarding such behaviours. The iGaming market is very different from its land-based counterpart, and possible issues contrast accordingly.

Currently, 59% of GAMSTOP users are younger than 34 years. This rate points to the aggravating growth of problem gambling among younger audiences that may not be well-informed and equipped to tackle the issue.

For a long time, it was the case that the enrolment process, lack of market-wide exclusion, little service support, or inadequate information posed hindrances in attending to compulsive gambling.

Nowadays, nonetheless, the GAMSTOP register process is simpler than what you would encounter when signing up for an online casino. Additionally, GAMSTOP gambling measures take effect on all British and UKGC-regulated casinos.

There is no reason to tend to your addiction if you start recognising its symptoms.

All types of self-excluders previously held negative opinions regarding professional addiction care. However, such attitudes should not stop you from addressing a real and potentially damaging issue.

How Many British Players Self-Exclude?

This has seen record numbers for GAMSTOP gambling self-exclusion registrants, with their current number exceeding 200000 sign-ups in only the first two months:

• January saw a 14% increase, with over 7000 new registrations.
• February surpassed previous amounts with a 21% year-on-year increase, equating to 6500 sign-ups.

The 22^nd of February saw the new GAMSTOP register activity peak, with 326 people joining within 24 hours.

GAMSTOP gambling exclusion-related customers differ based on gender:

Although smaller, the number of female gamblers opting for self-exclusion recently surpassed 55000.

To give some perspective on these numbers, we will provide some general gambling statistics:

Despite forming a small fraction, problem gamblers pay a heavy price.

Here is why:

1. The Gambling Industry’s worth grew to £14.5 billion in 2020, from 2019’s £14.3 billion.
2. In the case of gamblers in general, the highest income percentile spends around £4.20, while the lowest spends £1.50 per week.
3. The yearly cost of gambling addiction for 2020 was somewhere between £260 million and £1.2 billion, a considerable fraction of the industry’s total worth.
4. The weekly cost would fall somewhere between £4.98 million and £23 million. The estimated number of problem gamblers is 203.6 thousand Brits.

Thus, each problem gambler would waste, on average, between £24.45 and £113 weekly, far exceeding the national mean.

How effective is self-exclusion via GAMSTOP?

The numbers are on the side of GAMSTOP, as it does prove effective in keeping British problem gamblers off online casinos. As of January 2021, out of a total of 177038 registrants, 48328 have attempted to gamble and were effectively blocked by GAMSTOP. Granted, this would only amount to 27.3% of the British user base.

However, you must include all the users that did not attempt to breach the GAMSTOP gambling related self-exclusion measures.

More so, we see a descending trend in percentages of UK users with gambling addiction. This trend can only continue thusly, given the standardisation of GAMSTOP as the go-to service for self-exclusion.

iGaming’s Future with GAMSTOP

As of the 5^th of March 2020, GAMSTOP joined forces with two other national organisations, GamCare and Gamban. Their partnership is meant to provide the cohesive and all-encompassing TalkBanStop campaign offering support and services for gambling-related issues.

This really is the ideal outcome, as it is the best way to combat addiction among British players.

Thanks to the TalkBanStop initiative, UK users can:

• Contact GamCare’s 24/7 support hotline or the National Gambling Helpline, which also uses GamCare’s assistance and treatment services.
• Access Gamban’s gambling-blocking software free of charge.
• Utilise GAMSTOP’s self-exclusion tool across all UKGC regulated platforms.

Additionally, the campaign means to inform and popularise responsible gambling among the British population.

Several banks, all owned by the Lloyds Banking Group, joined the campaign

• Halifax
• Lloyds
• Bank of Scotland

All permit their customers to do black transactions with gambling operators.

GAMSTOP is part of an extensive campaign meant to guarantee the safety of British problem gamblers.

In conjunction with similar organisations, the agency assures that online gambling sticks to what it always was meant to be: safe entertainment.