The Future of non Gamstop Casinos in the UK

What is Gamstop?

It’s an organisation that was set up as part of the UK’s policy of encouraging responsible gambling and helping UK-based players who find it hard to control their gambling.

That could relate to customers who gamble too much money on a monthly basis, spend too much time gambling or have allowed gambling to affect such things as their work performance, family life or relationships.

There are many ways for casino customers to control their gambling including setting limits on time and money spent gambling, choosing to self-exclude from particular products (e.g., Casino but not Sportsbook) and in some more extreme cases, attending meetings and counselling to deal with the problem.

But one of the more popular and effective methods is for customers to opt to self-exclude for a certain amount of time. Usually six months, a year, or even five years.

Gamstop Casinos and non Gamstop Casinos

Customers who self-exclude via the Gamstop website are effectively asking Gamstop to not allow them to log on to any Gamstop casinos, or even receive promotional communications that may tempt them to start gambling again for the period they specify.

All casinos holding the UK Gambling Commission licence and who are therefore licenced in the UK are part of Gamstop and its network; they have to be. In other words, all UK-licenced casinos are Gamstop casinos.

Prior to January 2020, it wasn’t mandatory for a casino possessing a UK licence to be part of GAMCARE, although most of them were voluntarily part of it anyway. 

As Neil McArthur, CEO of the Gambling Commission said at the time: 

“Although the vast majority of operators are already participating in Gamstop this will make the coverage comprehensive.

We welcome the fact that Gamstop have got to this stage in their development and encourage them to continue to improve their offer, particularly in relation to preventing those who have self-excluded being targeted by direct marketing.

It is important that self-exclusion schemes are as effective as possible and they will be most effective when used in combination with other blocking tools such as gambling blocking software and payment card blocking.”

Here’s more on how GAMCARE became compulsory for casinos holding the UK licence.

However, overseas operators certainly aren’t part of Gamstop, even if they wanted to be.

All these casinos are known as non Gamstop casinos because they’re not part of the Gamstop network.

Self-excluding won’t prevent a customer from being able to join a non Gamstop casino or carry on playing there if they already have an account with them.

So that’s the present. But what about the future?

Can a Gamstop Casino stop being a Gamstop casino in the future?

A casino holding a UK licence is obliged to be part of Gamstop and can’t leave Gamstop without forfeiting their UK licence in the process.

This (leaving Gamstop) would only be the case if they decided to give up their UK Gambling Commission licence and opted to hold one of the other eight valid licences.

So, if they did give up their UK licence, applied (and got) say the Curacao one, then theoretically they would stop being a GAMSTOP Casino. 

Can a non Gamstop UK Casino become a Gamstop casino in the future?

Yes, and this scenario is far more likely than the one above.

Casinos that hold a UK Gambling Commission licence and are currently non Gamstop casinos, could decide to voluntarily join GAMSTOP if they wish to at any stage.

This could be to show their genuine support for Responsible Gambling, or to attract positive press.

That said, this also isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.

The ‘good Press’ from joining Gamstop is countered by the fact that casinos joining Gamstop will miss out on precious business as a result of self-excluded players not playing at their casino anymore.

Can non-UK Gamstop Casinos join Gamstop?

As things stand, no. Gamstop are a UK initiative set up to help UK-based players deal with gambling problems and only casinos holding the UK Gambling Commission licence can be part of Gamstop.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario in the future where that would change.

Not only could the UK Gambling Commission not insist that overseas operators join Gamstop, but these overseas operators are highly unlikely to voluntarily request to do so.

So, whatever happens to UK-based Operators going forward, there will always be online casinos accepting UK customers who won’t be part of GAMSTOP.

What’s the future of Gamstop?

The signs are that Gamstop will carry on being a major player as part of the UK’s commitment to responsible gambling, working alongside other responsible gambling organisations like GAMCARE  but also the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and of course, the UK Gambling Commission.

Existing members of Gamstop will continue to be part of it, unless they forfeit their UK Gambling Licence, while casinos applying for the UK Licence for the first time will also join Gamstop.

Even though self-exclusion from all GAMCARE casinos through one channel and players avoiding receiving marketing materials from casinos are the two core parts of what Gamstop does, they’re not the only things they’re working on.

Over the next few years, another area to be addressed is how casinos themselves, social media,  credit card suppliers and banks use technology in a good way to help control the amounts and frequency with which customers deposit and play money at online casinos.

Other areas are a tightening of rules around gambling advertising, new rules in relation to age verification and treating play-for-free games in a similar way to real money casino games when it comes to who can play them, how and when.

After all, the concept of playing casino games and possibility of addiction are similar for freeplay games as they are for real money ones.

Even though it’s mostly down to the UK Gambling Commission to take the initiative on these steps, Gamstop’s support and lobbying is a big part of it. All that said, there will inevitably always be a list of non Gamstop casinos available to UK players who will carry on being independent to these rules and regulations, while willing to accept UK players.