The controls every licensed account gives you, and what each one really does

Operators licensed in Great Britain are required to give customers real, working control over their own play — not a warning page, but switches that take effect. The tools below appear in some form on every licensed casino site. Names and menu positions differ; the substance does not.

Deposit limits

A cap on how much you can pay in over a day, a week or a month. This is the foundation, because it works on money in rather than money staked, so it cannot be quietly undone by recycling winnings. Set one before your first deposit, while you are still deciding rather than reacting.

The asymmetry matters and is deliberate: lowering a limit takes effect straight away, while raising one is not instant. You will be asked to confirm after a cooling-off period rather than in the moment you want more money in play. If you find yourself requesting an increase, treat the request itself as information about how the session is going.

Loss and stake limits

Some sites let you cap net losses over a period, or cap the stake on a single spin or hand. A loss limit is blunt but effective for anyone whose problem is chasing: once the cap is reached, the decision has already been made for you. A stake cap is useful in the other direction, keeping the size of individual bets proportionate to a budget you set when you were not mid-session.

Session limits and reality checks

A session limit logs you out after a set period. A reality check interrupts play at an interval you choose — every fifteen, thirty or sixty minutes — and shows how long you have been playing and, usually, what you are up or down. Neither stops you doing anything, and both work anyway, because the most common way a budget goes is not one reckless decision but two hours passing unnoticed.

Time-outs

A short, deliberate break. Operators must offer time-outs of a day, a week, a month and up to six weeks, and during one you cannot log in to gamble. The account is not closed and your balance is not forfeited; you simply cannot play. A time-out cannot be lifted early by asking nicely, which is the entire point of it. Use one when you notice a bad pattern rather than after it has finished.

Self-exclusion at one operator

A longer commitment, a minimum of six months, during which the operator must close your access, stop sending you marketing and take reasonable steps to prevent you opening a new account with them. At the end of the period the exclusion does not simply lapse: you have to actively ask for access back, and there is a further waiting period before it can be granted. Self-exclusion at one site is the right tool when the problem is one site.

GAMSTOP: self-exclusion everywhere at once

Excluding yourself operator by operator is a losing race when there are hundreds of licensed sites. GAMSTOP is the free national scheme that fixes this. One registration — choosing six months, one year or five years — blocks you from every gambling website and app licensed in Great Britain. Every licensed operator is required to participate.

It takes a few minutes and needs the details operators hold about you, so use the same name, date of birth, address, email and mobile number. Registration cannot be cancelled once the minimum period has started, and that permanence is the feature rather than the drawback. GAMSTOP does not cover unlicensed offshore sites, which is one more reason to check a licence before you play — the whole basis of our line-up.

Blocks outside the gambling account

Two more layers sit beyond the operator. Most UK banks and app-based accounts offer a gambling block that refuses gambling transactions on your card, usually with a delay of a day or more before it can be switched off. Separately, credit cards cannot legally be used for gambling at British-licensed sites, so gambling on credit through a card is already blocked. Device and network-level filtering software can remove gambling content from a shared computer or a child’s phone.

Where to start, if you only do one thing

Set a monthly deposit limit you would be relaxed about losing entirely, and turn on a thirty-minute reality check. Those two together take under a minute and catch the two most common failure modes: spending more than intended, and playing longer than intended. If you have already passed that point, the free and confidential help on our responsible gambling page — including the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 — is independent of every operator in our line-up and of this site.

The controls above reflect the requirements British-licensed operators work to and the way those tools are normally presented. Exact menu names, intervals and options vary between sites, so check the settings in your own account.

Last reviewed 27 August 2026.