Block gambling apps, and the games that run all night

Online gambling used to need a venue, an opening hour and a trip. It now needs a thumb. The account is already logged in, the card is already saved, the deposit clears in seconds, and the app sends a notification when your team is playing. Every barrier that used to sit between the urge and the bet has been removed on purpose.

That is why quitting on willpower alone tends to fail in the same place every time. Not at the decision to stop, which people make sincerely, but at 11pm on the sofa when the app is two taps away and no one is watching. The same shape holds for mobile games built on timers, streaks and loot: the pull is not the game, it is the fact that the game is always within reach and never ends.

An intervention that only works while you are motivated is not an intervention. It has to sit at the reach, and it has to still be there when motivation is gone.

Straight, because this matters more here than anywhere else on this site. A blocker is not treatment and it does not cure a gambling problem. What it does is add distance and time between the urge and the bet, which is the gap where an urge either passes or does not.

What it cannot do: stop you gambling on a laptop, at a venue, through a friend's phone, or through an account you can reopen. It cannot know your balance. It cannot make a decision for you at 11pm. Any product that tells you it is impossible to get around is selling you the wrong story, and the version of that story people believe tends to end with the app deleted at the worst possible moment.

So the honest claim is narrow. Handover makes the betting app hard to reach, makes the way back in cost something, and makes the attempt visible to you afterwards. Everything that fixes the underlying problem sits in section five.

iOS gives every app the same tools here, so the difference between blockers is what they do at the moment you try to get back in. In Handover the setup is four steps.

Pick the apps. Betting, casino, sportsbook, trading apps if they are part of the same habit, and the browsers if you use them to reach the sites. Apple's picker means the choice never leaves your phone.

Choose Hard. A Hard rule means the app does not open at all in its window. For gambling this is the right shape, rather than a budget of minutes.

Set the window to the hours you actually bet. For most people that is the evening, the weekend, and race days. All day, every day, is allowed and is what a lot of people choose here.

Hand it over. From then on the rule is enforced through Apple's Screen Time, so it holds with Handover closed, after a restart, and when the phone is offline.

The way back in is the part that decides whether it works. Break Glass takes fifteen minutes and ends the clean streak you have been building. That is deliberately slow: an urge that has to survive fifteen minutes and a visible cost frequently does not.

Ready to block the betting apps on your phone? The download is free, the first week is everything, and Hard rules stay free after that.

Download the gambling app blocker for iPhone

Mobile games are the same machine with the payout changed. Daily streaks, energy timers, season passes and loot boxes are all built to make stopping feel like losing something, and the loot box is close enough to a slot machine that several countries regulate it as one. Gaming disorder is in the World Health Organization's ICD-11, which is the point at which "just a game" stopped being the whole answer.

The fix is usually not a total block, because most people do want to play. It is a stopping point that exists without them. Two rule shapes cover it.

Budget. A total number of minutes a day, shared across every game you add. When the minutes are gone the shield goes up until tomorrow. You see the minutes falling while you play, which is itself enough to change how long a session runs.

Sessions. A cap on each sitting rather than the day. Forty minutes, then the shield, which suits the games designed so that one more round is always available.

For a child's phone the same rules apply, with the difference that you set them and they cannot quietly turn them off.

These are the apps that come up over and over. Every one of them is blocked the same way: put it in a Hard rule so it does not open at all, and add the browsers so the mobile site closes with it. There is nothing to configure per app.

1. Block bet365 on iPhone. the biggest of them all, and the one most people name when they say they cannot stop
2. Block DraftKings on iPhone. sportsbook and daily fantasy in one app, with a push notification for every game
3. Block FanDuel on iPhone. same shape, and the same reason people ask for it to be gone at 11pm
4. Block BetMGM on iPhone. casino sits one tab away from the sportsbook, which is where evenings go
5. Block Caesars Sportsbook on iPhone. promotions land as notifications, timed to the fixture list
6. Block ESPN Bet on iPhone. a betting slip inside a sports app you had a reason to keep
7. Block Sportsbet on iPhone. the Australian default, and relentless about same game multis
8. Block TAB on iPhone. racing on a schedule that never really ends
9. Block Ladbrokes on iPhone. one account across sport, racing and casino
10. Block Neds on iPhone. built for the phone, and for the bet you make in the last minute
11. Block Betfair on iPhone. the exchange, where in-play makes stopping harder than starting
12. Block William Hill on iPhone. the high street brand that now lives in your pocket
13. Block Paddy Power on iPhone. the notifications are the product
14. Block Sky Bet on iPhone. tied to the football, so the reminders arrive with the fixtures
15. Block Betway on iPhone. sportsbook and casino, one balance
16. Block Unibet on iPhone. live betting across Europe, and a casino behind it
17. Block bwin on iPhone. same again, in more countries than most
18. Block 888sport on iPhone. and the 888 casino app beside it
19. Block PokerStars on iPhone. the sessions run long by design
20. Block Stake on iPhone. crypto casino, no closing time

One rule covers every app on this list. Download the betting app blocker, pick them all, and hand it over.

Download Handover and block bet365, Sportsbet, Ladbrokes and the rest

Not on the list is not a problem. The picker shows every app on the phone, so any sportsbook, casino, lottery, trading or loot box game can go into the same rule, including the one that launched last week. If games rather than money are the issue, the same rules cover Roblox, Candy Crush Saga, Monopoly Go, Clash of Clans, Coin Master, PUBG Mobile and the rest.

A blocker works on the phone. Self-exclusion works on the account, which is the stronger of the two, and they are better together. Most countries now run a national register that shuts every licensed operator at once, and nearly all of them are free.

National self-exclusion registers. GAMSTOP in the United Kingdom. BetStop in Australia. Spelpaus in Sweden. OASIS in Germany. ROFUS in Denmark. CRUKS in the Netherlands. In the United States and Canada it is run state by state and province by province, through the regulator or the operator directly. If your country is not listed, your gambling regulator's site is the place to look, and every licensed operator has to offer its own exclusion at minimum.

United Kingdom. The National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, is 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with live chat online.

United States. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), by phone or text, with chat online. It connects to local services in all fifty states.

Australia. The National Gambling Helpline is 1800 858 858, free, confidential, 24 hours a day, with online counselling through Gambling Help Online. BetStop covers every Australian licensed online and phone wagering service in one registration, from three months to life.

Everywhere else. GamCare keeps a directory of international support agencies, country by country, at gamcare.org.uk. Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings, in person and online, in most countries.

Two more that cost nothing and help more than a blocker does: tell one person, and remove the money. Card gambling blocks from your bank, a deposit limit, and an hour with a financial counsellor do more to end a run than any app on this page.

Can I block gambling apps without blocking everything else? Yes. Rules are per app. The betting apps can be blocked all day while the rest of the phone works normally.

Will it work if I delete Handover? No, and no blocker survives its own deletion. What Handover does is make deletion the only route out, rather than a two tap disable, and make the cost of that visible before you take it.

Does it block gambling websites in Safari? Add the browsers to the rule and the route through them closes with it. Website level filtering is a separate job and iOS has its own content restrictions for that.

Can someone else hold the settings? The rules live on your phone. If you want another person to hold the key, the honest answer today is that Screen Time's own passcode, set by someone you trust, is the stronger lock, and it works alongside this.

Where do I download it? Handover is a free download on the App Store, for iPhone and iPad. There is no account to create before you can block your first app.

Is there a free version? Yes. Budget and Hard rules stay free after the first week, up to five of them, which covers blocking every betting app you have.

Android? Not yet. Handover is iPhone and iPad today.

1. GamCare. National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, and the directory of international support agencies. gamcare.org.uk
2. National Council on Problem Gambling. National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET. ncpgambling.org/help-treatment
3. Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Gambling support services: National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858, Gambling Help Online, BetStop. dss.gov.au/gambling/gambling-support-services
4. Australian Communications and Media Authority. BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register. betstop.gov.au
5. mobilegamer.biz. Top grossing mobile games of 2026 so far, September 2026.
6. World Health Organization. Inclusion of gaming disorder in ICD-11, 2018.

Handover is a free download on the App Store, for iPhone and iPad. Blocking gambling apps needs a Hard rule, and Hard rules are part of the free plan: five of them, kept for good, with no subscription and no account required to start.

Install it, pick the betting apps, choose the hours, and hand it over. The block is enforced by Apple's Screen Time, so it holds when Handover is closed, after a restart, and when the phone has no signal. The way back in takes fifteen minutes and costs your streak, which is the entire point.

Free download, no account needed, works on iPhone and iPad.

Download Handover on the App Store

More on how the blocking works: the app blocker page covers every rule type, how to stop scrolling covers the habit side, screen addiction covers the research, and the Opal alternative page compares the paid blockers on price.