If it has stopped being entertainment
Gambling is a way of spending money on an evening out. It is not a way of making money, and it never becomes one. If the sums have started to matter, the numbers below are free, confidential and open now.
Help in the UK
- GamCare The National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133. Free, confidential, open around the clock, with live chat and WhatsApp as well as the phone. This is the one we would ring first. gamcare.org.uk
- Gamblers Anonymous UK 0330 094 0322. Meetings in person and online, run by people who have been where you are. gamblersanonymous.org.uk
- Gambling Therapy Online support and moderated forums, with help in several languages. It is run by Gordon Moody, not by GamCare, which is a distinction plenty of websites get wrong. gamblingtherapy.org
- GamBan and GamStop Blocking software and the national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling in Great Britain. Neither costs you anything.
One note on a name you may be looking for. GambleAware closed as an organisation on 31 March 2026. The statutory levy, in force since 6 April 2025, replaced the old voluntary funding, and from 1 April 2026 the programme in England is run by NHS England. The old web addresses still resolve for now, but we are not going to send you to an organisation that has wound up. Start with GamCare.
If you are in immediate distress, that is a different kind of emergency and a different number. In the UK, Samaritans are on 116 123, free, at any hour.
Signs worth taking seriously
- Gambling with money that was meant for something else, then borrowing to cover the gap.
- Chasing a loss because the next one will put it right. It will not; that is the arithmetic of the thing, not bad luck.
- Lying about how much or how often, particularly to people who would not mind if you told them the truth.
- Needing bigger stakes to feel anything at all.
- Playing to stop feeling something rather than to enjoy an evening.
None of these is a character flaw and none of them is unusual. They are, however, the point at which a phone call is a great deal cheaper than another Saturday.
What the tools do
The industry runs several of these as a matter of law rather than of kindness, and it is worth knowing they exist because they work. Self-exclusion bars you from a venue or a scheme for a fixed period and is not something you can talk your way out of halfway through, which is the point. Deposit and loss limits cap what you can put in before you sit down rather than after. Cooling-off periods lock the door for a short while. Time and reality checks interrupt a session that has gone quiet and long. We describe these as facts about the industry; we are not advertising anybody's product.
The registers behind the door
Two of the houses in this chronicle run checks that catch people who have asked to be caught, and they are the reason the ID rules look fussy.
- Germany, OASIS. A nationwide self-exclusion register run by the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt under the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag of 2021, holding roughly 367,000 active blocks. The casino is obliged to query it before it lets you in, which is why Baden-Baden wants an original passport or ID card and will not take a photograph on your phone.
- Belgium, EPIS. The Gaming Commission's excluded-players system, running since 2004. Surname, first name and date of birth are recorded at the door at Spa, every time, without exception.
Ages, by country, because they are not the same
"Europe is eighteen" is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that will get you turned away at a door you travelled to reach. The age is set where the house is.
| Where | Minimum age | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 18 | All forms of play. Casinò di Venezia, both venues. |
| Germany, Hesse | 18 | Spielbank Wiesbaden. |
| Germany, Baden-Württemberg | 21 | Casino Baden-Baden. This state and Bavaria are the exceptions; most German states are 18. Do not generalise either way. |
| Belgium | 21 | Casino de Spa. Since 1 September 2024 this is the whole sector: the law of 18 February 2024 lifted arcades, betting and bingo from 18 to 21, under a casino rule that had been 21 since 2018. |
| Portugal | 18 | Casino Estoril. Decreto-Lei 422/89. ID is required and registered. |
Help where the houses are
- BelgiumDe DrugLijn, 078 15 10 20, druglijn.be. Belgian resource, Belgian hours.
- GermanyThe federal helpline is 0800 1 37 27 00, check-dein-spiel.de. It is run by the BIÖG, the body formerly known as the BZgA.
- France and MonacoJoueurs Info Service, 09 74 75 13 13, joueurs-info-service.fr.
- Italy and PortugalBoth countries run national services. We are not printing the numbers here, because the ones in wide circulation did not verify when we tried them and a helpline number that rings out is worse than no number at all. If you are in either country, your national health service will route you correctly, and the GamCare helpline above will talk to anyone, wherever they are calling from.
Checked 17 July 2026. This area changes faster than any other on the site: organisations merge, close and hand over programmes. If a number here has stopped working, please tell us at [email protected] and we will correct it the same day.