Being a compulsive gambler can harm your health and relationships, and leave you in serious debt.

The UK has one of the safest and best-regulated gambling markets, home to many online casinos. The United Kingdom Gambling Commission is responsible for the evaluation and licencing of all operators. Online gambling has proved to be a legal and easy way to make money from home. Best online gambling sites contain enormous quantity of games for different tastes. This is a real chance of adding real.

If you have a problem with gambling and you'd like to stop, support and treatment is available.

Are you a problem gambler?

• Every online gambler deserves a safe and fair place to play. Our mission at Gambling.com is to create a safe online environment for players through free, impartial and independent reviews of the UK's best online gambling.
• UK Gambling Commission was created and empowered under the The Gambling Act of 2005 to regulate the UK gambling industry, with a particular focus on online gaming. It is often held up as a prime example of gambling.

Try this questionnaire:

• Do you bet more than you can afford to lose?
• Do you need to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling?
• Have you tried to win back money you have lost (chasing losses)?
• Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?
• Have you wondered whether you have a problem with gambling?
• Has your gambling caused you any health problems, including feelings of stress or anxiety?
• Have other people criticised your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem (regardless of whether or not you thought it was true)?
• Has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household?
• Have you ever felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?

Score 0 for each time you answer 'never'
Score 1 for each time you answer 'sometimes'
Score 2 for each time you answer 'most of the time'
Score 3 for each time you answer 'almost always'

If your total score is 8 or higher, you may be a problem gambler.

Help for problem gamblers

There's evidence that gambling can be successfully treated in the same way as other addictions. Cognitive behavioural therapy usually has the best results.

Treatment and support groups are available for people who want to stop gambling:

GamCareGamCare offers free information, support and counselling for problem gamblers in the UK.

It runs the National Gambling Helpline (0808 8020 133) and also offers face-to-face counselling.

The National Centre for Behavioural Addictions includes the National Problem Gambling Clinic, (including the Young Persons' Problem Gambling Clinic) and the National Centre for Gaming Disorders.

If you live in England or Wales, are aged 16 or over and have complex problems related to gambling, you can refer yourself to the National Problem Gambling Clinic. See if you meet the criteria for this service.

If you live in England or Wales, are aged 13 or over and have complex problems related to gaming, you can refer yourself to the National Centre for Gaming Disorders.

Gordon Moody Association The Gordon Moody Association offers residential courses for men and women who have problems with gambling – email help@gordonmoody.org.uk or call 01384 241292 to find out more.

It also runs the Gambling Therapy website, which offers online support to problem gamblers and their friends and family.

Gamblers Anonymous UKGamblers Anonymous UK runs local support groups that use the same 12-step approach to recovery from addiction as Alcoholics Anonymous. There are also GamAnon support groups for friends and family.

Self-help tips for problem gamblers

Do:

• pay important bills, such as your mortgage, on payday before you gamble
• spend more time with family and friends who do not gamble
• deal with your debts rather than ignoring them – visit the National Debtline for tips

Don't:

• view gambling as a way to make money – try to see it as entertainment instead
• bottle up your worries about your gambling – talk to someone
• take credit cards with you when you go gambling

For more self-help tips, see the Royal College of Psychiatrists website.

If you're affected by someone's gambling

If you're having problems because of another person's gambling, it's best to be honest with them about it. They need to know how their behaviour is affecting you.

Support is also available to people who are worried about someone else's gambling:

GamCare Gamcare offers support and information for partners, friends and family of people who gamble compulsively.

GamAnon
Local support groups for anyone affected by someone else's gambling problem – find your nearest group.

Real stories of recovery from gambling

Tell your own story and post messages of support in the GamCare recovery diaries forum.

Page last reviewed: 8 January 2021
Next review due: 8 January 2024

Welcome to the most trusted UK gambling resource online. We created this
website because we were tired of visiting gambling sites packed with flashing
ads and banners which offered nothing but rubbish and no real
value. We decided to create a list of the best UK gambling sites, but also
provide lots of useful, educational material on betting, casino games,
strategies, and the latest sports betting tips.

How are we able to provide such excellent content? That’s down to our team.
We have specialists in each and every area, including sports savants, betting
pros, casino enthusiasts, and semi-pro poker players. The difference between us
and our competitors is down to real-world experience. We’re not
a few university students who put together a football blog and added a few
banners on the page. We’ve used only the best online gambling sites for decades,
so it’s safe to say we know what we’re doing.

UK Gambling Sites by Region

The United Kingdom may be four countries operating as one political union, but many gambling sites ignore the differences between them. For example, if you ask an Englishman to name the top UK bookmakers, you’re likely to get different answers than if you ask a punter from Northern Ireland.

We understand these differences, and that’s why we’ve categorized these UK gambling sites by region. Our chief editor has hand-picked the best betting sites for English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish gamblers. These sites offer sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo. Go ahead and click your country to view the best gambling sites it has to offer.

As you’ll see, there’s no shortage of world-class bookmakers to choose from. That’s no surprise. UK punters spent approximately £14.4 billion on gambling online in 2018 alone. The best gambling operators in the world are in the online market because they want a piece of that pie!

Online Gambling Laws in the United Kingdom

One of the best things about the UK gambling industry is that it’s legal,
regulated and controlled. This leads to a cleaner, safer gambling industry which
generates billions in tax revenue.

While there is some variation in land-based UK gambling laws (for example,
casinos are illegal in Northern Ireland), online gambling is a different story.

Online gambling in the UK is regulated by the
Gambling Act
(2005). The regulator is the UK Gambling Commission. This is one of the
strictest regulators in the world, and if a bookie wants to offer legal
services to its players, it needs to have a UKGC license.

Any of the UK gambling sites with this license can be trusted. The UKGC
regularly tests games, fines operators, and constantly pressures gambling
operators to mitigate and eliminate problem gambling. They’ve publicly
humiliated some of the biggest gambling operators and have fined them tens of
millions on multiple occasions.

What does this mean for you as a player? That you have a legally regulated
gambling environment which puts players’ interests first. Once again, the UK
leads the way when it comes to how online gambling should be done. While other
national gambling industries may be crime-ridden and full of shady operators,
the United Kingdom has virtually eliminated all of that by legalizing, regulating, and
taxing all types of gambling online.

How to Choose a Gambling Website

Even if you’re a first-time gambler, you probably already know what you’re looking for. You may
want to bet on your favourite football team, or perhaps you want to play a
progressive jackpot slot. Either way, the best gambling sites will have what
you’re looking for. Keep in mind, most online gambling websites specialize in one or
two areas and offer everything else as a secondary service. Choose the site
which focuses on the type of gambling you most want to engage in.

You’d be surprised by
which UK betting sites treat players unfairly. Some of them are household names,
and unsuspecting new punters blindly trust them on brand power alone. We don’t
recommend taking anything at face value. Do your own research, starting with our
unbaised reviews, and find legit online gambling sites that pay on time.
They should also honour all bets, and shouldn’t slash your jackpots with
extortionate withdrawal fees.

Something you have to understand is that our
ratings are based on what’s right for all of our readers combined. The best
site, on the whole, might not be the best gambling site for you as an individual. For
example, a UK betting site might get five stars from us because it offers a huge
selection of betting markets across lots of sports, but it might have a weak
esports section. That’s no good to you if you’re primarily interested in betting
on esports, right? The best thing you can do is visit the sites for
yourself and take a look around.

While our team reviews and ranks the websites you see listed here, we consider player feedback,
too. We’ve delisted more than one UK gambling website because of a number of
player complaints. We do in-depth research, but we can’t catch every little
thing, so we’d really appreciate it if you took the time to let us know what you
think about the gambling websites you’ve tried. Don’t forget to contact us and tell us about
the positive experiences as well as the negative!

Top UK Bookmakers

While American sports have made inroads into UK culture in recent years, they
still don’t come close in a popularity contest against the good old-fashioned
classics like football, rugby, tennis, snooker, and darts. Naturally, the best
UK betting sites focus on these.

Free Gambling Uk

Responsible Gambling Uk

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