Are you thinking about joining GamStop? As the United Kingdom’s self-exclusion program, this scheme has helped hundreds of thousands of punters recover from problem gambling. It’s revered by people throughout the country – and its success has led to copies in different parts of the world.

You’re always encouraged to join GamStop if you’re having issues when gambling, but there’s not a huge amount of information out there about the scheme in general. We know you’ll have plenty of questions before joining, so here are four things nobody tells you about the scheme that are well worth knowing about!

You can’t cancel it early

GamStop doesn’t do a fantastic job of advertising its cancellation policy. Thousands of players have joined the scheme in the past, only to realise it’s impossible to cancel GamStop until you’ve reached the minimum self-exclusion length.

For context, exclusions can be set at either of the following minimum limits:

  • 6 months
  • 1 year
  • 5 years

Let’s say you join the scheme and click the default duration of 6 months. You will not be allowed to cancel GamStop until those 6 months are up. It’s strongly suggested you think about this before committing to the scheme. You may decide to join it during a night of high emotions after losing a few bets. However, you could end up blocking yourself from all online gambling activities in the UK for 5 years!

If you don’t care about that and want to be blocked for this long, then that’s fine. It’s your decision; we’re just informing you of what happens when you sign on the dotted line. You can only cancel your membership after serving your exclusion.

The minimum exclusion period automatically extends

There’s a chance you might know about the GamStop cancellation rules – but did you know your self-exclusion renews automatically when the minimum duration ends? Going back to the previous example, this would mean your exclusion period extends after you’ve been on it for 6 months/1 year/5 years. It’s kind of like when you have a phone contract and you automatically keep getting billed monthly when it ends.

You have to physically contact GamStop to cancel your membership after serving your initial self-exclusion.

How long will your self-exclusion be extended if you fail to do this? You might believe it rolls monthly or extends based on your minimum exclusion length – but you’re wrong. Unbelievably, GamStop will automatically extend to 7 YEARS if you don’t cancel it properly. The same rules apply as before; you can’t cancel it when this exclusion is active until the period ends.

We see this is a big problem hardly anyone is aware of as you could sign up for 6 months and end up being on there for 7 years. If you’ve taken time out from gambling and used GamStop, make sure you cancel your membership when the minimum exclusion period ends. This gives you the freedom to access all UK online gambling websites yet again.

It only affects online gambling habits
Leading on from the previous comment, you should know GamStop is only relevant for online gambling. The scheme exists to block you from joining all the UK-registered casinos, betting sites and platforms providing online gambling activities.

It won’t stop you from going to a betting shop or casino and gambling there.

This is a big thing to consider if you have a serious gambling problem and want to use GamStop to stop you from betting. Be aware that it will only help with your online habits; if you’re guilty of gambling in person, you need to seek other ways of dealing with your problems. We highly recommend getting in touch with either of the following:

Both will offer multiple resources to teach you about responsible gambling while pointing you in the direction of professional help (should you need it). The big thing to note here is that GamStop is never going to be 100% effective at curbing your betting habits. You can’t rely on it and must seek other forms of help as well.

Some sites don’t remove the block when GamStop ends

GamStop should work like this:

  • You join the scheme and set your minimum self-exclusion
  • As your exclusion ends, you contact the company and remove yourself from its register
  • All gambling sites will then lift their block on you and let you join within 24 hours

However, things don’t always go to plan. Some sites won’t remove your block when GamStop ends. This is because it remains on your record for 7 years after you’ve deactivated your self-exclusion. If you’re confused, then you should be – it’s unnecessarily complicated!

The easiest way to explain it is that you don’t have an active self-exclusion once GamStop is cancelled, but some sites think you do because it’s on your record. So, they continue to block you and it means you’re stuck with only a handful of sites to choose from. It’s like being forced to watch the same short films over and over; you’ll get sick of them very quickly. If you’ve cancelled GamStop and noticed you’re still barred from multiple sites (after waiting 24 hours) then speak directly with the operators. They should be able to lift the ban after they manually check and see you’re no longer on the GamStop register.

Evidently, there’s a lot to know about GamStop and it’s not easy to find all of this information. We’ll close this article with a bonus point: GamStop won’t notify you when your minimum self-exclusion ends. You should make a note of it somewhere and schedule a notification so you don’t forget it or you’ll end up stuck on the scheme for 7 more years.