Gambling help and support

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A helpline number is not a guarantee of hours. Two of these services publish no hours at all, and one is explicitly not a 24-hour line.

Who runs these services, and what they are not

Support services are independent of gambling operators

None of the services listed here is operated by a gambling company, and where we could not verify who runs one, this page says so. A licensed operator’s own “responsible gambling” page is a different thing: offering those tools is a condition of its licence, so it is a compliance duty owed to a regulator, staffed by the operator.

Self-exclusion is a control, not treatment

Registering with a national scheme blocks accounts at the operators bound to that register; it does nothing about why someone is gambling. Denmark shows the split plainly: Spillemyndigheden runs StopSpillet, a helpline, and ROFUS, a register. See self-exclusion.

A referral line is not treatment either

Some services here route you onward rather than treat you — ConnexOntario connects callers to community counselling programmes, and StopSpillet advises and points towards free treatment. Knowing which kind you are calling sets the right expectation of the call.

This site is not a support service

We cannot contact a service for you, intervene with an operator, or place anyone on a register, and we hold no record of anyone’s gambling. Everything here is a route to somebody else.

Great Britain

National Gambling Helpline — 0808 8020 133

The Gambling Commission states that the helpline is operated by GamCare, offers confidential advice, support and information, and is free 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by phone or live chat. GambleAware — whose get-help page is the destination the Commission links to — records the channels as phone, live chat and WhatsApp.

GambleAware: Get help now (opens official website) · Gambling Commission: organisations that can help, last updated 6 May 2026

Wales — All Wales Gambling Treatment Service and 24/7 Helpline, 0808 281 9265

Hosted by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Welsh Government describes it as being for anyone affected by gambling-related harms, including family members, and funded at £1.3 million a year from the UK-wide gambling levy. The health board states the helpline is free to call from a landline or mobile, even with no credit left.

Referrals into the treatment service go to [email protected] or 03000 859464. Those are referral routes, not a crisis line — to speak to someone now, use 0808 281 9265. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board on the launch

NHS treatment in England

The NHS states that its gambling clinics accept self-referral, or a GP can advise on local services, and that clinical teams include psychiatrists and psychologists. Its page names regional services covering the North, South, West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England and South West, alongside the National Centre for Behavioural Addictions.

The NHS Northern Gambling Service — the one clinic whose own page we could read — is run by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and covers the north of England from Cheshire to Cumbria in the west and South Yorkshire to Northumberland in the east, with clinics in Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. It offers evidence-based cognitive-behavioural therapy one to one and in groups, typically eight to twelve weekly sessions, online or face to face. Contact 0300 300 1490 or [email protected].

NHS: help for problems with gambling (opens official website) — last reviewed 8 December 2023 · NHS Northern Gambling Service — last updated 1 September 2025

Finding a local provider

GambleAware runs a service finder covering over 30 providers across Great Britain; its results page listed 35 on 18 September 2026, with each provider’s delivery mode and the nations it covers. Open GambleAware: support in your area, type your postcode into the field labelled “Postcode field” and search — filtering happens in your browser, so JavaScript must be enabled. Or open the full national list. We tested adding a postcode to that second address on 18 September 2026: it does not filter, so use the search field rather than the address bar.

Debt and money advice named by the regulator

The Commission’s directory also names debt services: StepChange on 0800 138 1111, National Debtline on 08088 084000, the Debt Support Trust on 0800 058 0226, the Debt Advice Foundation, and MoneyHelper, which it describes as an independent service set up by government to help people manage their money.

Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Malta

Denmark — StopSpillet, 70 22 28 25

The clearest case on this page: the helpline is run by Spillemyndigheden, the Danish Gambling Authority itself, which describes StopSpillet as its free and confidential helpline for gambling problems and gambling addiction. Chat is offered at StopSpillet.dk. It is not a 24-hour service — phone Monday to Thursday 09:00–21:00 and Friday 09:00–17:00, chat Monday to Thursday 17:00–21:00. Older material calls it LudomaniLinjen, its name before it moved from Danske Spil to the Gambling Authority after a December 2018 announcement.

Spillemyndigheden is explicit that treatment centres are independent institutions and do not come under the Gambling Authority. The providers it names include Center for Ludomani, Novavi SpilStop, AlfaRehab, Behandlingscenter Tjele, Ludomaniklinikken Mindwork, Klinik for Ludomani, Forskningsklinikken for Ludomani, and Allorfik in Greenland.

Spillemyndigheden: StopSpillet (English) (opens official website) · Spillemyndigheden on free treatment (Danish)

Sweden — Stödlinjen, 020-81 91 00

Stödlinjen is run by the Stockholm County health services organisation with support from the Public Health Agency of Sweden — a health-service helpline, not the regulator. It states that the service costs nothing, that you need not say who you are, and that its counsellors are under a duty of confidentiality. Support is offered directly in Swedish, English and Arabic, with more than a hundred further languages through interpreters, and chat through the website. Its opening hours were not printed on the page we read, so this page does not state them.

Spelinspektionen, the Swedish regulator, corroborates that players and relatives alike can contact Stödlinjen anonymously and free of charge. Its own page, published 15 November 2024, points to Spelpaus.se, Stödlinjen, Spelberoende.se and Spelberoendegruppen.com, plus municipal and regional healthcare.

Stödlinjen (Swedish) (opens official website) · Spelinspektionen on gambling problems (Swedish)

Netherlands — through the regulator’s referral

The Kansspelautoriteit’s safe-play section directs anyone worried about their own or someone else’s gambling to OpenOverGokken. This is the regulator’s current referral, superseding older references to Loket Kansspel, which the same authority described in 2022 as offering information, advice and, where needed, referral to care locally.

We could not reach the OpenOverGokken site itself — it failed on a certificate-chain error on every host tried — so its number, hours, cost and operator are unverified and are not stated here. The reliable route is the regulator’s own page, which carries the referral. Kansspelautoriteit: safe play (Dutch)

Malta — helpline 1777, with a caveat

The Malta Gaming Authority’s safer-gambling page names four organisations: the Responsible Gaming Foundation, SEDQA (the addiction service of the state social welfare agency), Caritas Malta and Oasi. It printed no phone numbers for any of them. The foundation publishes the freephone national gambling helpline 1777, states that confidentiality is guaranteed and callers may remain anonymous, and also references Appoġġ on 179.

The caveat is material. The foundation’s own site describes a “transitional operational change to the Malta Gaming Authority” and publishes nothing newer than 2024, and no operating hours appear anywhere we could find. We can confirm that the MGA names it and that it publishes 1777; we cannot confirm how the line is staffed today.

Malta Gaming Authority: safer gambling (opens official website) · Responsible Gaming Foundation

Ontario

ConnexOntario — 1-866-531-2600

ConnexOntario describes itself as a free, confidential information and referral service funded by the Government of Ontario and Ontario Health. Contact routes are phone on 1-866-531-2600, texting “connex” to 247247, live chat and email, available 24/7 and 365 days a year, with a French-language option. It is a referral service rather than a treatment provider: it offers supportive listening, information and referrals, and connects callers to community counselling programmes, so a caller is routed onward rather than treated on the call. The service is for Ontario. ConnexOntario: problem gambling support services

What the provincial regulator lists

iGaming Ontario, an agency of the Government of Ontario, names on its find-help page: the 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline on 988; BetGuard; ConnexOntario; the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) on 416-535-8501 option 2; Credit Canada on 1-800-267-2272; and the blocking tools BetBlocker and Gamban. It describes CAMH as offering specialised services for Ontarians whose gambling has led to difficulties in their life — that is the regulator’s description of a third party, so confirm intake details, including cost and format, with CAMH itself. BetGuard is a free way to opt out of regulated online gambling in Ontario: a control, not support. iGaming Ontario: find help

Peer support, and routes for families

The two organisations below work across borders. Neither is a regulator and neither is a treatment provider — they are fellowships and peer services, not a substitute for a health service or a helpline.

Gamblers Anonymous

Gamblers Anonymous Great Britain describes itself as a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope. Its listed contact number is 0330 094 0322 and it covers England, Wales and Ulster; separate bodies exist for Scotland and for Ireland. Meetings require no appointment. The site did not state whether meetings are free, so this page does not say that they are. Gamblers Anonymous Great Britain

Gambling Therapy

A global service offered by Gordon Moody, a charity registered in England and Wales, number 1124751 — a charity, not a statutory body anywhere. It offers multilingual support forums in more than 34 languages, self-assessment, guidance on blocking software and on relapse, and advice for people affected by someone else’s gambling, described as free practical advice and emotional support. Contact is [email protected]. Its homepage did not show one-to-one counselling, group meetings or staffed hours, so no claim is made here about response times. Gambling Therapy

If you are the family member or friend

Several routes above are open to you, not only to the person gambling: the Welsh Government describes the All Wales service as being for anyone affected by gambling-related harms, including family members, and Spelinspektionen states that relatives as well as players can contact Stödlinjen anonymously and free of charge. Gam-Anon UK & Ireland is a separate fellowship for family and friends.

What we could not verify

Primary sources

Each link below goes to the issuing authority’s own website. Where a page could not be retrieved by our automated checks, that is stated rather than hidden.

• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (NHS Wales) A new gambling treatment service and 24/7 helpline is going live for people across Wales
  Published 31 March 2026: the source for the Wales helpline number and its 24/7 availability. It also gives referral routes, which are not crisis numbers and should not be presented as such.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust National Gambling Clinic — Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
  HTTP 403 to automated retrieval, re-confirmed. Because the clinic's own page could not be read, its official name is unsettled across the sources that can be read: the Gambling Commission calls it the National Problem Gambling Clinic and GambleAware's finder calls it the NHS National Gambling Clinic. Age range, geographic eligibility and referral route are unverified.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · bot-blocked
• ConnexOntario Problem Gambling Support Services in Ontario — ConnexOntario
  Free, confidential, 24/7, funded by the Government of Ontario and Ontario Health — and explicitly an information and referral line, not a counselling provider. Use the confirmed wording of what a caller gets (supportive listening, information and referrals before being connected to a community programme); a more specific phrase used in earlier notes could not be reproduced on re-fetch.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Department for Culture, Media and Sport (GOV.UK) Statutory gambling levy — GOV.UK publication
  Published 18 December 2025, updated 26 March 2026. Sets out how levy funding is split between treatment, prevention and research. It says nothing about GambleAware, so it cannot be cited for that charity's status or closure.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware GambleAware homepage — gambling harm support
  Live, with no closure banner, and still the Gambling Commission's link target, despite the charity's own statement that its work has transitioned to new commissioners. Brand continuity is not organisational continuity — but do not tell readers the site is gone.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware GambleAware statement on the new statutory gambling harms system and the future of the charity
  The charity describing itself, not a regulator describing it. It gives no closure date and no end date for the National Gambling Support Network it says it designed and funded. Trade-press assertions of a specific closure date are not evidence and are not used.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware Get help now — GambleAware
  The page carries a deliberate two-nation split, not a contradiction: an England-and-Scotland section and a Wales section, each with its own number, its own provider and a mirror-image residents-only sentence. It does not say who currently funds or commissions the helpline — do not assert a funder.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware Service finder results — all GambleAware support providers
  Appending a postcode does not filter this page. Fetched bare and with two different postcode query strings on the same day, it returned the identical unfiltered national list of 35 providers each time — independently reproduced in the verification pass. Link it only as a stable 'view all providers' page, never as a pre-filtered local result.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware Support in your area — GambleAware service finder
  The working entry point: type a postcode into the field labelled 'Postcode field' and search. JavaScript is required — the filtering happens in the browser, and there is no URL that arrives pre-filtered.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GambleAware The National Gambling Support Network — GambleAware
  Describes the network as spanning Great Britain and states that its services are available only to Great Britain residents — a wider framing than the England-and-Scotland restriction on the same charity's Get help now page. Residual tension between the two pages is worth stating on the site.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Gamblers Anonymous Great Britain Gamblers Anonymous Great Britain
  A fellowship, not a clinical or statutory service. Separate bodies exist for GA Scotland and GA Ireland, and Gam-Anon is the separate fellowship for family and friends. Meetings need no appointment; the site does not state a fee, so 'free' must not be quoted to it.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Gambling Commission Organisations that can help — Gambling Commission
  Recently updated but carries at least one description the levy transition has overtaken: it still calls the National Problem Gambling Clinic jointly commissioned by GambleAware and NHS England, and its name for the clinic differs from both the trust's and GambleAware's. Numbers are printed here as the Commission prints them, including non-standard spacing. Samaritans appears as a general crisis line, not a gambling service.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Gambling Commission Safer Gambling — Gambling Commission
  No last-updated date. Both helplines appear with their nation labels — England and Scotland, and Wales — which is the boundary spelled out, so the Commission cannot be said to list them without explanation. A destination label recorded in the original research could not be reproduced on re-fetch (the heading seen was 'Help and support'); do not publish that label as the Commission's wording.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• GamCare GamCare homepage — support for anyone affected by gambling harms
  HTTP 403 to automated retrieval, independently reproduced. Every GamCare fact used anywhere in this research is therefore second-hand, from the Gambling Commission, the NHS and GambleAware: helpline hours, channel availability, current commissioner and the Wales position could not be confirmed on GamCare's own authority.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · bot-blocked
• GamCare Talk to us now — GamCare helpline and live chat
  HTTP 403, the second GamCare path refused, which shows the blocking is site-wide rather than a dead page. The contact routes and their hours could not be read here.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · bot-blocked
• GAMSTOP Gamstop Online — national online self-exclusion scheme homepage
  The scheme's own site, authoritative for its corporate identity but not the regulator: it is operated by The National Online Self Exclusion Scheme Limited, Registered No. 10504973. The site now leads with the brand 'Gamstop Online'.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Gordon Moody Gambling Therapy — online support for gambling harms worldwide
  Explicitly a charity (Gordon Moody, registered charity No. 1124751), not a regulator or statutory body in any jurisdiction, and must be labelled as such wherever it sits beside regulators. The homepage lists 39 language forums. It shows no one-to-one counselling, group meetings, app or staffed hours, so no 24/7 or live-chat claim can be made from it.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• iGaming Ontario Find Help — iGaming Ontario
  No last-updated date. Lists the crisis line, BetGuard, ConnexOntario, CAMH, Credit Canada and two blocking tools; PlaySmart and OLG are not named here, so do not assert them from this page. A quoted description of CAMH's service used in earlier notes did not appear on re-fetch — the page describes CAMH only as offering specialised services for Ontarians whose gambling has caused difficulties.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Kansspelautoriteit Veilig spelen — playing safely, from the Dutch gambling regulator
  Dutch-language page.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) Gokproblemen en dan? | Kansspelautoriteit
  HTTP 403 with and without a trailing slash, re-confirmed independently, while the parent Veilig spelen page loaded — per-path blocking. The Ksa's dedicated gambling-problems content is therefore unread here.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · bot-blocked
• Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) WK-campagne Loket Kansspel | Kansspelautoriteit (nieuwsbericht)
  A regulator news item from November 2022, kept only as dated evidence that the Dutch support service formerly called Loket Kansspel is the one now signposted under a new name. Neither Ksa page prints a phone number for the service, and the service's own site could not be reached (TLS chain error), so its hours, funding and contact details are unverified.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust NHS Northern Gambling Service
  Gives the clinic locations, therapy model, session count and referral email. It does not state an age range and does not explicitly confirm that self-referral is accepted — neither may be asserted.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Malta Gaming Authority National Gambling Helpline (1777) launched by Responsible Gaming Foundation
  Eleven years old. Its 24/7 description is a forward-looking statement from 2015 that no source checked has ever confirmed as delivered, and it must not be reported as current fact about the helpline's hours.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Malta Gaming Authority Safer Gambling — Malta Gaming Authority (Player Hub)
  Defines deposit, wagering, loss and time limits, hosts a nine-step self-assessment questionnaire as an anchor on the page, and carries the land-based self-barring description. Two cautions about the support organisations it names: the Responsible Gaming Foundation's own site carries notices of its absorption into the MGA, so it is not plainly arms-length from the regulator, and the MGA's outbound SEDQA link returned HTTP 403 and could not be checked. No last-updated date.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• NHS Help for problems with gambling — NHS
  Stale: the page shows 'Last reviewed: 8 December 2023' with the next review due 8 December 2026, so it predates the statutory-levy transition and must not be relied on for who funds treatment today. It names the regional NHS services but states no age range. Its GamStop wording is three discrete options — 6 months, 1 year or 5 years — not a range; the verification pass flagged the earlier '6 months to 5 years' rendering as a misquotation.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Responsible Gaming Foundation Responsible Gaming Foundation Malta
  Organisation in transition. The site still publishes the national helpline number and is still the route the MGA names, but it states that certain services will be unavailable because of the change, is not accepting donations, marks funding calls closed pending absorption into the MGA, and shows nothing newer than 2024. Operating hours are published nowhere on the site — do not claim the line is 24/7.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Spelinspektionen Spelproblem — hjälp vid spelberoende (Spelinspektionen)
  Swedish-language only. It refers readers to Stödlinjen and Spelpaus, and to the peer-support organisations spelberoende.se and spelberoendegruppen.com, which were not fetched and are therefore not linked here.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Spillemyndigheden National Helpline for Gambling Problems: StopSpillet
  The English description of the authority's own free and confidential helpline, which serves players, relatives and professionals. It lists live chat on Monday to Thursday only, while the helpline's own site also shows a Friday chat window; both were observed independently and the conflict is unresolved, so both should be shown. No last-updated date is shown.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Spillemyndigheden (Danish Gambling Authority) Gratis behandling af spilafhængighed (ludomani)
  Danish-language page. The regulator funds and routes to treatment providers but does not run them. Despite the page title, it does not itself say who pays, and it states no age or eligibility rules — do not fill those gaps.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Spillemyndigheden (Danish Gambling Authority) Hjælpelinje til spilafhængige skifter hænder (nyhed)
  Danish-language news item from December 2018, useful only to explain why older material still names the previous helpline operator. Eight years old at the date checked.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Stödlinjen Stödlinjen — Sweden's national support line for gambling problems
  Run by the Stockholm regional health service with support from the Public Health Agency of Sweden — not by the gambling regulator. Free and anonymous, for players and relatives, in Swedish, English and Arabic plus interpreter languages. Opening hours were not verified.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable
• Welsh Government Gambling helpline and specialist treatment service to be launched in Wales
  Published 25 February 2026. Announces the service and its funding but prints no helpline number and does not confirm 24/7 operation — those come from the health board's own page.
  Checked 18 September 2026 · reachable