Non-GAMSTOP Casinos

You have found this page because you have previously signed-up to GAMSTOP but have decided that you do not need this restriction anymore and are looking to find gambling operators that will accept your play anyway. That’s OK. There are thousands of players in exactly the same situation as you.

You already know the gambling harm reasons that you should not try and circumvent an exclusion of this nature, but let us tell you the reasons you don’t know. It is almost certain that any operator who would accept your play will rip you off. Straight theft. These operators are criminals. They want your money. They do not want to pay winners. If you play with these operators, the only time you will get paid is if the operator is convinced you will lose back more than they have to pay you.

Let us tell you more about these operators below.

The UKGC’s ground-breaking Responsible Gambling initiative GAMSTOP has seen the regulator look to introduce a license wide self-exclusion option for all UK players. A player registers their details with GAMSTOP and whenever those details are used to register an account with a UK licensed online gambling operator the registration is prevented or the account is restricted.

Is the system bulletproof? No, but it is another great tool to help those vulnerable players that are looking to take back control of their gambling.

Sadly, addiction being what it is, GAMSTOP by itself will not be enough for some users and they will look to find non-GAMSTOP casinos, sportsbooks, bingo and poker sites that will still accept their play even though they have restricted themselves.

This has had an unexpected consequence. Some morally bankrupt websites have started to post pages explicitly to profit from GAMSTOP user who are looking to circumvent their restriction by channelling these players to some of the most dangerous unlicensed rogue casinos operators on the web. These sites are targeting search terms like 'non GAMSTOP Casinos' specifically to draw in players they know to have an explicitly stated vulnerability to compulsive gambling and channelling them to the casinos and sports books that will show the lowest possible duty of care and exploit their vulnerability ruthlessly. Any user searching for non-GAMSTOP Casinos is very clearly someone registered with GAMSTOP who is now trying to get back to gambling - in other words very likely an addict.

As GAMSTOP only works with UKGC licensed operators, unlicensed operators are completely unaffected when a player signs-up to GAMSTOP, meaning that the protection it offers is incomplete. There are other tools available to help with this though.

BetBlocker is an entirely free app, distributed by a UK registered charity, that once installed on your device (available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Fire OS) blocks the device from visiting over 15k gambling site. As BetBlocker does not rely on user data or cooperation with gambling operators, it can block any site regardless of which licenses they hold. That means that it can block all not GAMSTOP Casinos as well.

GAMSTOP and BetBlocker combine to offer an augmented restriction which ensures that UK licensed operators look to prevent your details being used to register an account or access gambling, while BetBlocker takes care of hundreds of non-GAMSTOP Casinos that would happily sabotage an addicts efforts to recover by restricting the user’s device from accessing the offending sites.

BetBlocker helps those users who experience issues with gambling regain control over their lives. Unlike other commercial tools available on the market the service is entirely free. For the most seriously addicted users money is already in short supply. Asking them to pay to get help is often asking for the one resource an addict does not have. Any price barrier is more than some people can afford and those that are more likely to be unable to afford the help are the same people that need the help the most. By keeping the service free everyone can access it and that there’s no fuss when a user wants to add it to a new device.

But BetBlocker is so much more than just a self-exclusion type tool. BetBlocker offers user the option to schedule when the restriction will switch on and off. So if you only need support during specific periods of vulnerability, you can plan ahead and set the block to come on at the times you need it. Gamble too much after a drink? Set the block to come on for Fridays and Saturdays. Want to make sure your bills are paid before you gamble? Set the block to come on each month for a week after payday. Want to make sure your attention is with your children over the holidays? Plan ahead and set a block for the hols. Whenever you need support, BetBlocker is there to help you.

If a UK player signs up to GAMSTOP, all UKGC licensed gambling operators will restrict their access to their service. It does not matter what type of gambling it is; casino, sportsbook, poker, bingo, lottery or any other type of gambling (even e-sports), licensed operators are required by the UKGC license to prevent you accessing their services.

The only gambling services that you will be able to access as a UK player who has registered with GAMSTOP is that offered by illegal, unlicensed operators. These operator prey on gambling addicts, offer no protections to them and will actively fleece players who do win.

We deal with hundreds of complaints every year from UK players who have signed-up to GAMSTOP who them slip-up and decide to play at one of these non-GAMSTOP operators. What are these complaint about? Either the operator has refused to take any action to protect the player (like ignoring self-exclusion requests), or they are refusing to pay a winning player.

You can play with these operators, but the truth is you would be better off taking the money out of the bank and setting fire to it. You have no chance of getting paid any significant win.

Every UK licensed gambling operator is required by the regulator to engage with the GAMSTOP program. There are no exceptions to this rule anymore.

The only casinos that will accept UK players that are not part of the GAMSTOP program are casinos that are unlicensed and accepting UK players illegally. You should expect the same levels of integrity from these operators as you would from a back ally drug dealer, or those people who scam the elderly out of their pensions. They are con merchants who are interested in nothing other than finding a way to get you to give them your money. By hook or by crook, it makes no difference to them.

The simple truth about casinos not on GAMSTOP is that they are specifically working to exploit gambling addiction. They work with affiliate partners that explicitly try to rank for search terms in Google like “casinos not on GAMSTOP”. They know that many vulnerable players, who struggle to control their gambling and implement restrictions like GAMSTOP will try to return to gambling after they have put a restriction in place. That is the nature of addiction. They know that these vulnerable players will turn to search engines like Google to find ways of getting round a restriction like GAMSTOP, and as such they look to facilitate them, preying on their vulnerability, by targeting search terms that gambling addicts are likely to use and advertising operators who will accept the play of known gambling addicts.

These operators are exploiting vulnerability and have no interest in helping players limit their access to gambling. You can try asking for a self-exclusion, but our experience – across hundreds of complaints against these types of operators – has been that where they do not simply ignore the request, they will offer the barest of protections possible and if you get any support at all you would have to make this request individually at every unlicensed operator.

There is however a quick and easy solution – BetBlocker. BetBlocker is a UK registered charity. It offers free blocking software – an app that can restrict your internet capable device from access over 15k gambling websites. As this app runs independently of all gambling operators, unlike GAMSTOP, it does not require gambling operators to cooperate with them. We can simply block their websites.

As such BetBlocker is a great free tool that can help you restrict your access to casinos not on GAMSTOP.

There is no such thing as the “best online casino not on GAMSTOP”. Any casino operator who will accept play from a player registered with GAMSTOP is a criminal enterprise that is actively trying to exploit gambling addiction.

We strongly advise no player to ever sign-up with any casino that accepts players that are signed-up to GAMSTOP.

GAMSTOP is the UK national self-exclusion register. Where a UK player registers with GAMSTOP the player’s details are put into a database that all UKGC licensed gambling operators have to check new registrations against. Any time a licensee detects a match between a new player’s registration details and the GAMSTOP register, the gambling operator has to then apply the self-exclusion to the player’s account.

Players can select a self-exclusion of between 6 months and 5 years. All UKGC licensed gambling operators are required to participate in the GAMSTOP scheme.

GAMSTOP is a broad solution. Instead of being excluded from each site or game individually, GAMSTOP allows you to self-exclude from many at once using a single platform. Remember, though, that these restrictions only apply to GAMSTOP-registered websites: there are still other non-UK casino who will illegally accept gambling addicts from the UK.

Non GAMSTOP casino sites are unsafe, criminal enterprises that are specifically focused on exploiting the vulnerabilities of gambling addicts. If you are considering playing again after registering with GAMSTOP, you should understand that even if you win at one of these Non GAMSTOP casinos, you are very unlikely to be paid. Our service receives dozens of complaints every month from UK players who have won at a Non GAMSTOP casino and now find themselves in a situation where the casino is refusing to pay, or simply ignoring them. Sadly there is next to nothing that we – or anyone else – can do to help players in this situation.

There are no advantages to playing at casinos not on GAMSTOP. In fact, playing at casinos not on GAMSTOP is a huge risk and you are very likely to end up being cheated out of your money and stolen from even where you win. Casinos not on GAMSTOP are targeting players they know to have gambling addictions issues and exploiting their vulnerability for profit. It should come as no surprise that businesses prepare to engage in this type of unethical practice have no qualms engaging in other illegal practices to scam players.

You should understand that the vast majority of casinos not on GAMSTOP are offering fake versions of popular games. The big casino software providers are very unlikely to work with gambling operators that would engage in this sort of practice. Not least because they would potentially risk their own licenses within the UK market to do so.

Non GAMSTOP casinos will offer some of the best known games from the likes of NetEnt, Novomatic and Playtech. So how can these casinos offer these games if these software providers would not work with them? The answer is simple. The games are fake.

That’s right, almost any casino advertising themselves as ‘not on GAMSTOP’ will be offering players non-genuine games. Games that take the artwork and design of a Novomatic, Playtech or NetEnt game and uses an engine of their own creation to operator the game. What difference does this make? Well aside from this being another criminal activity – using intellectual property and trademarks without permission – these fake copies of games are not subject to rigorous testing standards that the genuine articles are. There is nothing to stop the game developer from rigging the games not to pay out too much, or to reduce the chances of winning when a player raises their bets. You should NEVER trust any casino operator that is distributing fake games.

Casinos not on GAMSTOP are untrustworthy in every possible way. There are many unethical affiliate sites – very possibly owned by the same gambling operators that they advertise – lying to players and trying to describe these operators as a good choice. Do NOT listen to them. They are part of a large scale scam intended to trick gambling addicts into destroying their lives.

Another part of the approach that Non GAMSTOP casino take to trying to convince vulnerable players to register is to offer unreasonably attractive bonuses. These may be larger than legitimate operators will provide, or they may have lower wagering requirements. These gambling operators can afford to offer these very attractive terms because the operator will rarely, if ever, honour any substantial win.

Whether the operator simply refuses to pay, rigs the game to ensure that you cannot win or use unfair terms that licensed operators would not be allowed to include, the chances of you getting paid any substantive win are vanishingly small.

There are a few things you should be aware of if you choose to play at an online casino not on GAMSTOP. First and foremost, you would be as well setting fire to your cash. We’re not exaggerating. There’s no commercial advantage to us telling you this. We only work with licensed operators and if you're already registered with GAMSTOP you couldn't play with our partners even if we were cynical enough to market to you. We could be cashing in like the opportunistic and morally bankrupt affiliates that turn up in the search engines for terms like “Casinos not on GAMSTOP”.

Let us list the reasons that you should not use any casino marketing itself as Not on GAMSTOP:

No regulation: These operators are unlicensed, or very weakly licensed. There are no external bodies restricting what these operator can and cannot do, nor is there any higher authority that you can turn to if you experience problems.

Fake software: Almost without exception these operators are distributing fake versions of popular slot games from well-known providers like Novomatic, Playtech and NetEnt. The knockoff versions of the games ARE cheating players. There is no testing and nothing to stop these rogue operators rigging the game.

No response to complaints: These operators will almost never respond to player complaints submitted to services like the Alternative dispute resolution service we offer at CasinoReviews. When you get in trouble getting paid, you’re on your own. We can demonstrate this via hundreds of complaints that have gone unanswered from the gambling operators that fall into this category.

They don’t pay: Operators marketing that they are ‘not on GAMSTOP’ are criminal enterprises. They know they are breaking UK law. They know they are targeting people who have experienced gambling addiction. Even if you do win, they won’t pay. Small wins you might get, but anything substantial you will never receive.

Non GAMSTOP gambling is tax free. But so is all gambling in the UK. And more importantly, it’s only tax free if you actually get paid. Which is unlikely. So effectively you’ve been taxed 100% simply by depositing to one of these operators.

You are likely to experience greater difficulties with payments to and from Casinos without GAMSTOP than you will when playing with properly licensed casinos. Why? Because many agencies are specifically working to try and prevent unlicensed criminal operators from being able to illegally accept payments from UK players.

For obvious reasons, bank transfers, credit and debit cards are popular payment methods for players. However, these payment operators are all provided by highly regulated institutions and cooperate with the UK authorities to try and ensure that payments are not proceed to illegal non-GAMSTOP casinos. To get round this, non-GAMSTOP casinos will hire third party payment processors who miscode payments to and from the operator, representing to the bank or card provider that the payment is for something other than gambling. This is effectively money laundering and the financial institutions work very hard to identify transactions of this nature and ban the initiating company. The consequence of this is that the third party payment processors that these illegal operators use open and close with great regularity. That means that in the time between you depositing and wanting to withdraw, there is a very good chance that the payment options will have changed, resulting in significant inconvenience and delays for you.

E-wallets like PayPal, Neteller and Skrill are another popular payment method that you may experience difficulty accessing with non-GAMSTOP casinos. Like banks, ewallets work with the UKGC to try and prevent transactions being made to or from unlicensed gambling operators.

No. Under no circumstances would we suggest any player signs up with an unlicensed casino. They will cheat you. They will encourage you to gamble more than you can afford. They will not pay you. They will not discuss complaints with anyone. They may sell your information to other businesses in the sector. There is nothing safe about playing with an unlicensed casino. Don’t do it.

This is an impossible question to answer. At any given time there are scores of casinos that do not hold a UKGC license that are actively trying to market to players on the UK national self-exclusion register. These operators are constantly opening, closing, changing their name and reopening. This is a result of various legal authorities taking action to stop their activities. But every time they either encounter any serious block to their business or damage their reputation with their malpractice, they simply disappear and reopen under a new name. Rince and repeat.

Self-exclusions on GAMSTOP are selected by the person registering. You can choose 6 months, 1 year or 5 years. You should be aware that once your chosen exclusion period has concluded you will need to phone GAMSTOP to end the exclusion. If you do not call GAMSTOP, your exclusion will simply continue.

Sadly, most of the options available to block access to licensed gambling services are not available when dealing with nonGAMSTOP casino sites. The site is very unlikely to acknowledge or respect a player’s request to limit their access. National self-exclusion registers require the willing participation of the gambling site. Illegal gambling operators will not engage with national self-exclusion schemes. They intentionally mis-code gambling transactions (this is likely to qualify as money laundering) so that bank enforced blocks on gambling payments are not effective.

However, there are other options.

BetBlocker offers a free app that allows users to block their device from accessing gambling sites. Whether the operator is licensed or a black market gambling operator running illegally, BetBlocker CAN block them.

Opting for a nonGAMSTOP casino might seem like a good idea at first. It is anything but.

We understand, you put your GAMSTOP restriction in place in the heat of the moment and now feel like it was an over-reaction. But you cannot simply erase a GAMSTOP restriction which really limits your options. Sadly, it limits your options to criminal organisation set-up specifically to exploit people in your situation.

Non-GAMSTOP casinos represent the lowest form of scam artists in the gambling industry. They are breaking UK law by accepting UK players. They mis-code financial transactions to sneak payments past blocks that would otherwise prevent them. The actively target marketing towards those vulnerable players who struggle to control their gambling. They offer fake games, so that they can control the outcome of the wagers while fraudulently benefiting from the name and reputation of the big software providers. They are parasites, feeding on vulnerable players.

There is no legitimate comparison between the service that a UKGC licensed gambling site offers and the con job that you will find being offered by NonGAMSTOP Casinos.

Individually, these operators open and close-up shop with amazing regularity. They rarely last long as various authorities start to close down the infrastructures they use to process payments and they quickly rack-up a very negative reputation across any review site that cares in the slightest about players. So never expect a NonGAMSTOP Casino to last long and there is a very good chance that when they shut-up shop they’ll disappear with your balance.

More generally, with regard to the practice of illegal operators accepting UK players, there does not appear to be any reasonable chance of shutting these fraudsters down. Over the last two decades many countries have tried to ban gambling, or shut down certain operators, with no success. To date there have always been ways around any restrictions any government has managed to put in place.

It is not legal for any casino that does not hold a UKGC license to accept UK players. Any casino not on GAMSTOP does not hold a UKGC license. However, it is the business that is committing an illegal offense, not the player. To our knowledge, no UK player has encountered any legal difficulties because they were duped into playing with an unlicensed operator.

Yes, but you are not getting what you think you are.

You will find all of the biggest slot providers – NetEnt, Playtech, Novomatic – represented at casinos not registered with GAMSTOP. But often they are not the genuine game.

Many of the reputable slot game developers will not provide their games to unlicensed, or weakly licensed, casinos. The majority of operators who are accepting UK players without a UKGC license fall into this category. So how can they still have these games? The answer is that they don’t.

These operators buy in fake versions of these games. Games that have been developed – if the indications we’ve seen are right, within Russia – illegally, stealing the artwork and game design from the original producers. Even using the original developer’s logo. They want you to believe your playing the original game. The game that has been rigorously tested and approved by a host of regulators. Instead of a copy that has undergone no testing and could easily be developed to ensure that the casino wins.

What we describe above is not a rare exception. It is the common reality. The vast majority of the casinos we see canvasing for not on GAMSTOP UK traffic, are also offering identifiably fake games.

Do not trust these casinos. Do not believe that they will pay you. Do not even believe that the games you are playing are genuine. Nothing about these operators is legitimate.

GAMSTOP is to the gambling industry what seatbelts are to cars. An essential safety feature.

While many people can engage with gambling as entertainment and a fun pastime, for a significant number of other people gambling becomes something that they struggle to control. When gambling crosses to a compulsion the damage it can do to the life of the addict and those close to them can be catastrophic.

GAMSTOP may not be a bulletproof guarantee that that a person will not be able to access gambling for the duration of their selected restriction, but it is an excellent tool in the toolkit to create additional friction between a player and accessing gambling services. It also creates a responsibility for gambling businesses to act to prevent the player re-accessing their service.

The most significant weakness in the GAMSTOP service is it’s inability to block unlicensed operators. GAMSTOP requires willing participation by operators to deliver results. And this is why it is best to use GAMSTOP in conjunction with a blocking software like BetBlocker. The blocking software allows you to take control – deciding when and where you want your block to apply and blocking your device from accessing ALL gambling sites – while GAMSTOP prevents licensed operators accepting your play if you find a way to get round the blocking software.

No. Unlicensed sites that are not on GAMSTOP are not subject to the rigorous regulatory standards that licensed operators are and as such won’t offer the same array of gambling management tools that licensed operators will.

Many of these unlicensed operators offer fake games that are used to cheat players of their money.

Unlicensed operators will also often face issues with processing payments – banks and many ewallets will not process transactions for them if they know what the transactions are for. This means that you are likely to find fewer available payment options and may experience significant delays in receiving payments (where you get paid at all). This is the most common complaint we see from players.

No. Never. Ever.

Any casino you find by looking for ‘casinos not on GAMSTOP’ or similar search terms is set-up exclusively to exploit addiction and rip players off. These are scam casinos run by people who are criminals and fraudsters. Your money is NOT safe playing with these groups.