Need help now
- National Gambling Helpline
- 0808 8020 133 — free, 24 hours, every day
- In Wales
- 0808 2819 265 — NHS Wales gambling helpline
- Prefer not to talk?
- Live chat and WhatsApp at gamcare.org.uk
The National Gambling Helpline is run by GamCare and is free from UK landlines and mobiles. You don't need a diagnosis, a plan, or a rock-bottom story to call it — plenty of people ring simply because something feels off and they want to talk it through with someone who isn't going to judge them.
The gap nobody mentions
This is the most important thing on this page, and it catches people out constantly.
GAMSTOP does not cover National Lottery draw games. If you register with GAMSTOP — the free national self-exclusion scheme — you will be blocked from every online gambling site and app licensed in Great Britain, and from National Lottery Instant Win Games. You will not be blocked from buying Lotto, EuroMillions, Thunderball or Set For Life tickets.
If draw games are the problem, GAMSTOP alone will not stop you. You need The National Lottery's own self-exclusion tools as well, covered below. It's worth doing both.
Signs worth taking seriously
Problem gambling rarely announces itself. It's usually a slow drift, and the warning signs are ordinary enough to explain away:
- Spending more than you meant to, more often than you meant to.
- Chasing losses — playing to win back what you've already lost.
- Buying tickets with money set aside for something else.
- Hiding how much you play, or lying about it when asked.
- Feeling anxious, irritable or low when you can't play.
- Thinking about the next draw when you should be thinking about something else.
- Borrowing money, or selling things, to keep playing.
If a few of those landed, that isn't a verdict — but it is worth a conversation. The helpline number is at the top of this page.
Blocking yourself from gambling
GAMSTOP — free, online gambling
One registration blocks you from every online gambling site and app operated by companies licensed in Great Britain. Every GB-licensed online operator is legally required to integrate with it. It's free, takes up to 12 hours to take effect, and you choose a minimum period of 6 months, 1 year or 5 years — which you cannot cancel once it starts. That's rather the point of it.
Register at gamstop.co.uk. Remember it doesn't cover draw games, land-based gambling, or sites not licensed in Great Britain.
National Lottery self-exclusion — draw games included
Set this through the spend and play settings in your National Lottery account, or by contacting their Customer Care team. Changes take effect immediately. The options are:
- Short break — 1 day to 5 months, all online games.
- Long break — 6 months to 5 years, all online games.
- Lifetime exclusion — permanent and irreversible.
- Instant Win Game pause — all games, or specific ones, for a set period.
They also offer deposit, spend and play limits, reality-check pop-ups and a self-assessment tool. Details at responsible-play.national-lottery.co.uk, or call Customer Care on 0333 234 44 33.
Blocking software
BetBlocker is a free charity-run app that blocks tens of thousands of gambling sites across your devices. Gamban does much the same and is well regarded, but it is now a paid subscription — £4.99 a month or £29.99 a year — everywhere except Wales, where it remains free.
If you've read elsewhere that Gamban is free through TalkBanStop, that scheme ended on 31 March 2026 and a lot of websites haven't caught up. Existing licences run to the end of their term. BetBlocker is the free option now.
Betting shops, casinos, bingo and arcades
Land-based venues run separate schemes: betting shops via self-exclusion.co.uk (0800 294 2060), casinos via SENSE, bingo via the Bingo Association, and arcades via BACTA.
Treatment and support
NHS services
The NHS runs around fifteen gambling clinics in England, and you can refer yourself — you don't have to go through a GP first, though you can. Start at the NHS gambling support pages.
The National Gambling Clinic takes 13–17 year olds anywhere in England, and adults living in Greater London — 020 7381 7722.
GamCare
Beyond the helpline, GamCare provides free treatment and counselling, an online forum, and group support — for people who gamble, and for the people around them.
Gamblers Anonymous
Free peer-support meetings, most days of the week, at around 250 locations. No appointment, no cost, no professionals — just people who have been there. gamblersanonymous.org.uk, 0330 094 0322. In Scotland: ga-scotland.org. There is a sister fellowship, GamAnon, for family members.
If it's someone else
Gambling harm rarely stops with the person doing it. Partners, parents and children often carry the financial and emotional weight of it, and every service listed above supports affected others too. You can ring the helpline about someone else's gambling, and you don't need their permission or knowledge to do it.
Keeping it fun
For most people a weekly line is harmless entertainment, and keeping it that way is mostly a matter of a few unglamorous habits:
- Decide what you'll spend before you play, and treat it as the cost of the entertainment — like a cinema ticket, not an investment.
- Never chase a loss. The next draw doesn't know about the last one.
- Don't play with money meant for bills, rent or food.
- Set deposit and spend limits in your account before you need them.
- Take breaks. If you'd struggle to skip a week, that's information worth having.
- Remember the maths: these games return roughly half of what they take in, and no system changes that.
Age limit
You must be 18 or over to play The National Lottery — to buy, gift, receive or play its games, and to claim prizes. The minimum age rose from 16 to 18 in law on 1 October 2021. Lucky Dip is intended for over-18s.
About this page
Lucky Dip is a free number generator, not a gambling operator — you can't place a bet or buy a ticket here, and nothing on this site takes your money. I've written this page because it would be a bit rich to build something around lottery numbers and say nothing about the harm gambling can do.
Details were checked on 26 July 2026, but organisations change. If you find something out of date, please tell me and I'll correct it quickly — this is the one page on the site where being wrong actually matters.