Responsible gambling
GAMSTOP Explained: How Long It Lasts, What Happens at the End, and What It Does Not Cover
Last updated: 2 August 2026 | Reviewed by: Tom Ashby — 11 years covering UK iGaming (about the team). Sourcing: Every factual claim below is taken from GAMSTOP’s own material or from the Gambling Commission, checked 2 August 2026. We have deliberately not used affiliate coverage of GAMSTOP as a source, because the most-linked pages on this topic are written by sites with a commercial interest in the scheme’s gaps.
If you are looking for a way around a live self-exclusion, this page will not help you, and that is deliberate. What it will do is explain the scheme accurately, including the parts that are genuinely in your control. Free, confidential support: GamCare on 0808 8020 133, 24/7, and BeGambleAware.
Quick answer
Four sentences that resolve most of what people search for:
- You choose a period from six months up to five years. GAMSTOP: “You can choose how long to exclude yourself from gambling, from 6 months up to 5 years.”
- It does not end when the period ends. GAMSTOP: “Your exclusion stays in place after the end of the period you’ve chosen unless you choose to remove it by contacting us.”
- You cannot cancel it during the period. GAMSTOP: “Once you’ve registered, you cannot cancel your registration during the exclusion period.”
- It covers Great Britain-licensed operators only. GAMSTOP: it “blocks you from signing up for or using online accounts with gambling companies licensed in Great Britain.” That single sentence is the whole explanation for the existence of the “non-GAMSTOP casino” category, and the reason we do not link to one.
The scheme in numbers, with dates
GAMSTOP publishes its own figures, which is worth using rather than paraphrasing the trade press. From its corporate update of 17 February 2026:
| Figure | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| People actively excluded | over 562,000 | as at end of 2025 |
| New registrations | 58,675 | second half of 2025 |
| Share choosing a five-year exclusion | 47% of registrants | 2025 |
| Rise in 16-24 year olds registering | 40% year on year | second half of 2025 |
| Share of new registrations aged 16-24 | 29% | second half of 2025 |
Source: GAMSTOP corporate blog, 17 February 2026. For market context, the Gambling Commission put the British gambling market at £16.8 billion in gross gambling yield for April 2024 to March 2025 (published November 2025), and found 47% of adults had gambled in the past four weeks in research covering January 2025 to January 2026, released 16 July 2026.
The five-year figure is the one worth pausing on. Nearly half of everyone who registers picks the longest option available. That is not the behaviour of people testing a feature.
How registration actually works
- It is free. GAMSTOP is a not-for-profit scheme; nobody charges you to join it.
- You register once, centrally, rather than site by site. That is the difference between GAMSTOP and an operator-level self-exclusion, which only binds the one company.
- Keep your details current. GAMSTOP asks registrants to keep their details up to date, and the reason is mechanical: matching is done on the identifiers you supplied. A new address or email that the scheme does not know about is a gap in your own protection.
- You can extend from your account. Extending is self-service; removing is not.
What happens when the period expires
This is where the largest volume of confusion sits, and the answer is short: nothing happens automatically.
The exclusion continues after the period you chose has elapsed, and it ends only when you contact GAMSTOP and ask for it to be removed. There is no email that unlocks your accounts, no date on which sites quietly start accepting you again. If you want the exclusion to continue, the correct action is to take no action at all.
If you do decide to end it, treat the mechanics as a feature rather than an obstacle. The step of having to actively ask is the point: it puts a deliberate decision between the expiry date and the first deposit.
What GAMSTOP does not cover, stated plainly
Operators licensed outside Great Britain are not in the scheme. They are not evading it — they are outside its jurisdiction, because the scheme is a condition of a Gambling Commission licence and nothing else. This is why a search for “casinos not on GAMSTOP” returns results at all.
Our editorial position on that category is straightforward and we would rather state it than let it be inferred: a site that does not query GAMSTOP cannot honour your self-exclusion, cannot be escalated to a UK Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, and is not bound by the Commission’s affordability and marketing rules. We have declined to build a page targeting “casinos not on GAMSTOP” despite it being one of the highest-volume casino queries in the UK — a median of 5,400 searches per month in our own measurement of UK keyword data on 1 August 2026. Our index does contain non-UKGC brands, because coverage and recommendation are different things; every one of them is labelled as outside the scheme, on its own page and in every table on this site, with an explicit instruction not to deposit there if you are registered with GAMSTOP.
Three further gaps that are less well known:
- It does not cover land-based venues. Betting shops, arcades and casinos run separate multi-operator schemes.
- It does not block adverts by itself. Licensees must remove self-excluded customers from marketing databases, but material already in circulation — and anything from outside the licensed market — is not covered. Software blockers such as Gamban and BetBlocker sit alongside GAMSTOP for that, not instead of it.
- It does not close your bank’s gambling channel. Most UK banks offer their own gambling block, which is a separate switch and a useful second layer.
Which operators are inside the scheme
GAMSTOP integration has been mandatory for UK Gambling Commission remote licensees since 31 March 2020. That makes the regulator the fastest way to tell whether a brand is inside the scheme: if it holds a GB remote licence, it is; if it does not, it is not.
Applied to the operators we cover:
| Operator | Licence | Inside GAMSTOP | Min deposit | Stated payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Britsino ★ | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 6.0 h |
| Cosmobet | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 4.2 h |
| BetVictor | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 5.0 h |
| NetBet | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 5.6 h |
| Mr Green | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 8.4 h |
| Highbet | UKGC | Yes | £10 | 12.0 h |
| BoyleSports | UKGC | Yes | £10 | ~24 h |
| CasinoK | MGA | No | £20 | 6.8 h |
| Chanze | MGA | No | £20 (€) | 7.2 h |
★ = GambleDragon’s featured commercial partner. GambleDragon operator index, 2 August 2026. Verify any licence on the Commission’s public register.
Featured partner — Britsino
Britsino is the one operator here we earn commission from, so the basis for mentioning it needs stating. On this page’s criterion — being inside the scheme — it does not beat the other UKGC entries, because that criterion is binary and seven operators clear it identically. What it does hold is the adjacent behaviour we score in our methodology: identity verification triggered at a deposit threshold rather than deferred to the first withdrawal request, and deposit, loss and session limits settable at account opening rather than buried.
Where it does not lead: Mr Green has the most complete limit-setting dashboard we have assessed, with deposit, loss, session-time and wager limits settable independently plus a behaviour report over 7, 30 and 90 days. If responsible-gambling tooling is the deciding factor rather than the licence, that is the better product and we say so on our fastest withdrawal page too. Read the full Britsino review →
The operator’s own obligations
Beyond GAMSTOP, the Commission’s licence conditions require remote licensees to have self-exclusion procedures, to take all reasonable steps to refuse service to a self-excluded person, to close the account and return any funds held, and to remove the person’s details from marketing databases within two days of being notified (LCCP social responsibility code provision 3.5.3). Customers must be able to self-exclude both by contacting customer services and through an automated process.
The practical implication: if you self-exclude at operator level and the site keeps emailing you a fortnight later, that is a reportable breach, not an inconvenience. The Commission takes complaints about it.
One structural point that is easy to miss: those obligations attach to the licensee, not to the brand. A licensee running six trading names must apply your operator-level self-exclusion across all six. That is the single most useful consequence of multi-brand operation for a player, and we explain how to identify which brands share a licence in casino sister sites.
Frequently asked questions
How long does GAMSTOP last?
You choose a period of between six months and five years at registration. It does not expire on its own at the end of that period — GAMSTOP states that the exclusion stays in place afterwards unless you contact them to remove it. In practice a six-month registration lasts six months plus however long you leave it before asking for removal, which for many people is indefinitely.
How do I remove myself from GAMSTOP?
By contacting GAMSTOP directly after your chosen period has elapsed. You cannot cancel during the period — GAMSTOP is explicit that registration cannot be cancelled while the exclusion is running — and no operator, affiliate or third party can do it on your behalf. Anyone offering to lift a GAMSTOP registration for you is not able to do so.
Does GAMSTOP cover every gambling site?
No. It covers online gambling companies licensed in Great Britain. Operators licensed elsewhere are outside the scheme entirely, which is what the phrase “non-GAMSTOP casino” refers to. Land-based venues are covered by separate multi-operator schemes, not by GAMSTOP.
Is GAMSTOP free?
Yes. It is a free scheme and registration is described by GAMSTOP as free, quick and easy. If anything asks you to pay to register or to check your status, it is not GAMSTOP.
How many people are registered with GAMSTOP?
More than 562,000 people were actively excluded through the scheme at the end of 2025, with 58,675 registrations in the second half of that year alone (GAMSTOP corporate update, 17 February 2026). Forty-seven per cent of registrants chose the maximum five-year exclusion, and registrations among 16 to 24 year olds rose 40% year on year.
Will GAMSTOP stop gambling adverts reaching me?
Partly. UK licensees must remove a self-excluded customer from their marketing databases within two days of notification, so licensed operators should stop contacting you. Advertising from outside the licensed market is not covered, and neither is general web advertising. If you want adverts and access blocked at device level, a blocking application such as Gamban or BetBlocker sits alongside GAMSTOP rather than replacing it, and most UK banks offer a separate gambling transaction block.
What is the difference between GAMSTOP and self-excluding at one casino?
Scope. Self-excluding with one operator binds that company, which must close your accounts and return your funds. GAMSTOP applies your exclusion across every GB-licensed online operator at once, from a single registration. Doing both is not redundant: the operator-level exclusion is what forces account closure and refund of your balance.
Sources
- GAMSTOP: about the scheme — exclusion periods, what happens at the end of the period, scope of coverage. Retrieved 2 August 2026.
- GAMSTOP: corporate update, 17 February 2026 — registration figures for 2025 and the second half of 2025.
- Gambling Commission: LCCP social responsibility code provision 3.5.3, remote self-exclusion — operator obligations, account closure, marketing removal within two days.
- Gambling Commission: statistics and research — £16.8bn GGY for April 2024 to March 2025, published November 2025; 47% adult participation, released 16 July 2026.
- Gambling Commission: public register — the authoritative check of whether an operator holds a GB licence.
Responsible gambling notice: 18+. Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and never gamble money you cannot afford to lose. Free, confidential UK support: BeGambleAware.org · GamCare on 0808 8020 133, 24/7 · self-exclude from every UKGC-licensed site at GAMSTOP.
GambleDragon does not provide gambling services. Operators outside the GAMSTOP scheme are labelled as such wherever they appear on this site, and no page on this site recommends one to a self-excluded reader.