The Gambling Commission remit ends at the border of UKGC-licensed operators. Offshore sites offering remote gambling to UK customers without a licence commit an offence under the Gambling Act 2005.
UK Gambling Commission · · · gamblingcommission.gov.uk
What this site covers
Six chapters, each opening the topic and linking to the full page.
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Chapter 01
GamStop explained
GamStop is the national self-exclusion register for remote gambling in Great Britain, run as a not-for-profit and integrated into the licensing conditions that every UK Gambling Commission licensee has to meet. When somebody signs up, their identity is checked against the details the operators already hold, and a technical block is applied across the whole licensed estate.
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Chapter 02
The legal position
The short answer, and the one many carers arrive with in a state of quiet panic, is that it is not a criminal offence for a UK adult to place a bet at an offshore gambling site. The Gambling Act 2005 as amended is unusual in that it sets the criminal responsibility on the supply side of the transaction rather than the demand side.
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Chapter 03
The risks explained
The absence of UK Gambling Commission oversight at an offshore site sounds abstract until it lands in the household. On a good day it means nothing changes; the play goes on, the deposits move, the account looks like any other account.
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Chapter 04
Payments and checks
The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, as amended by the 2019, 2022 and later statutory instruments, sit under the fourth, fifth and sixth EU AML directives and remain in force in the UK after the transition period. The regulations require banks, e-money firms, crypto-asset businesses, and gambling operators licensed by the UKGC to identify their customers, verify the source of funds where the risk warrants, and file a Suspicious Activity Report with the National Crime Agency when a transaction fits a defined pattern.
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Chapter 05
Coming off GamStop
This page exists because families arrive at the end of a GamStop period without a clear sense of what the ending is meant to look like, and without a clear sense of what the household can do to hold the moment steady. It is written to give a carer a plain description of the official process, the safeguards that sit within it, and the very small number of decisions that fall to the person on the block.
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Chapter 06
Getting support
The National Gambling Helpline is answered by GamCare on 0808 8020 133, and it is free from UK landlines and mobile phones, twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. The advisors are trained in motivational interviewing and in listening well, and a significant share of every shift is family calls.