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“As we reach the halfway point of 2026, I would like to thank you for your continued support and commitment to reducing gambling harm. Working together across the prevention, treatment and support landscape remains essential to ensuring that people can access the help and protections they need quickly and easily.”

Throughout Q2, we continued to see strong engagement with our services, reflecting the ongoing demand for effective tools that support people to take control of their gambling. We are also seeing significant engagement from younger adults, underlining the importance of early intervention and a joined-up approach to preventing harm before it escalates.

A significant development this quarter has been the introduction of our new chat-based exclusion removal process. Designed to make the experience more accessible for consumers, it also provides an additional opportunity to signpost individuals to support and ensures appropriate safeguards remain in place.

I am also delighted to welcome Matt Burgiss to Gamstop as our new Head of External Affairs. Matt brings extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, project management and communications, and will play a key role in strengthening our relationships across the sector. As the landscape continues to evolve, effective collaboration across services, regulators, researchers and lived-experience communities is more important than ever.

Throughout this work, our focus remains unchanged: ensuring that the more than 700,000 people registered with our schemes remain at the heart of every decision we make and every improvement we deliver.

Fiona Palmer, CEO

Consumer Voices

Adam had a gambling addiction between the ages of 18 and 23. In 2020, he began his recovery with support from his family, GamCare, and Gamstop. He now documents his story online to help others in a similar situation.

I first tried gambling when I was 16 years old, betting on football with my dad Once I turned 18, that’s when I started to gamble more. I started gambling on football bets and horse racing, especially on major events like Cheltenham, but I quickly moved on to other kinds of online betting such as roulette and blackjack.

I knew things had gotten bad when I gambled away the inheritance left to me by my grandmother You’d have thought that would be enough to stop me, but that just encouraged me to chase my losses to try to make things right and win back the money that I’d lost. I was spending my whole salary in a matter of days and even took out payday loans to fund my gambling. Eventually, the bailiffs knocked on my door and I realised how much of a problem my gambling had become.

Having the bailiffs at the door was the trigger I needed to take the big step of opening up to my family. Luckily, they were incredibly supportive.

Rather than being angry at me, they were disappointed in themselves for not noticing the signs that I was struggling with gambling and wanted to help me with my recovery. I joined Gamstop in 2020, just as the UK was going into lockdown, as well as going to GamCare for advice and support. Talking about my gambling was the best thing I ever did.

I have been gambling-free now for 4 years. Since signing up to Gamstop, I have used social media to document my recovery experience. I have been bowled over by the positive response I have received, and it’s really helped to show me that I’m not alone, there are many others out there like me and it’s helped me to know that my story is helping others.

I also took some advice that was given to me early in my recovery – to look at replacement activity ideas. I took up running and to date, I have completed 10 half marathons and counting, as well as the Yorkshire Marathon.

“Talking about my gambling was the best thing I ever did, and it really helped me to see that I wasn’t alone.”

Return To Gambling ChatBot Focus

Return To Gambling (RTG) Chatbot Overview

Since Gamstop’s inception, individuals wishing to remove their self‑exclusion have needed to call our Contact Centre by phone. To improve consumer experience, strengthen service availability and provide a further option for consumers, we have introduced a new online method of removing a self‑exclusion in the form of the RTG Chatbot. The Chatbot can be accessed through a user’s account and, much like our phone service, users must answer a series of questions and watch a video in full before they can proceed with the removal. This ensures they receive signposting to active support services should they need them in the future and provides an opportunity to reflect on their decision before removing their self-exclusion. The Chatbot can only be used during the same hours our Contact Centre is open.

Collaboration With LEAP

The RTG Chatbot was developed with consistent feedback from the Gambling Commission’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP), whose feedback helped shape the structure and content of the online pathway. This engagement ensured that lived experience perspectives were reflected in the design while maintaining the established safeguards and standards of the removal process.

Improved Accessibility

The introduction of the RTG Chatbot improves service accessibility by providing users with an alternative way to remove their self‑exclusion. Alongside the existing phone‑based route, the online pathway offers a structured digital option for users who prefer to manage their self‑exclusion through their account or who may find phone communication difficult. By making the removal process available across both channels, the service supports different user needs while maintaining consistent safeguards and information throughout.

Click below to see the RTG Chatbot in action.

News Welcome Matt Burgiss

In Q2 we welcomed Matt Burgiss as Gamstop’s first Head of External Affairs. Matt brings extensive expertise across both prevention and support, alongside strong sector knowledge and lived experience. His understanding of how Gamstop fits within wider harm prevention pathways will support the continued development of our external engagement strategy and strengthen how we work with partners across the sector. Matt will be attending industry events throughout the year, and we encourage attendees to speak with him about external engagement or partnership activity He can be contacted via email at mburgiss@gamstop.co.uk.

Ethical Gambling Forum

During the last quarter, we attended the Ethical Gambling Forum 2026, a conference designed to facilitate collaboration and address ethical challenges across the industry Katie Reynolds Jones spoke at the event, highlighting insights from the Gamstop Group heatmap data.

Shiltons’ Silverlining Launch Event

We were pleased to attend the launch of Shiltons’ Silverlining at Wembley Stadium, a new charity created to provide hope and long term support to individuals and families affected by gambling harms. The charity offers free, lifelong memberships, recognising that many people experiencing gambling harm are seeking stability and reassurance as they work towards recovery. The event brought together partners and supporters from across the sector, with Katie Reynolds Jones attending on behalf of Gamstop, joined by Matt Burgiss

As the charity begins to develop and expand its services, we look forward to supporting its work and contributing to improved access to help for those who need it. We will continue to engage with partners across the sector to ensure individuals and families can benefit from the support Shiltons’ Silverlining intends to provide.

Q2 Statistics

Registrations in Q2 remained broadly consistent with the monthly levels we saw throughout 2025, with 1,644 new sign ups recorded this quarter. We also saw a shift in the gender split, with women increasing their share of registrations from 4% to 6%

The age profile was broadly stable, with 35–44 continuing to be the dominant group, alongside an increase in registrations from those aged 55 and over and a drop in the 25–34 age group Registrations by country also remained steady, with England accounting for the majority of sign ups, followed by Scotland and Wales.

Registrations by country

Gender Age

Monthly registrations

1,644

Q2 registrations

9,168

Total registrations

Q2 Statistics

Registrations in Q2 2026 were significantly higher than those recorded in Q2 2025, with May 2026 receiving the highest number of registrations of any month since Gamstop launched. Growth in the under‑25 demographic continued this quarter, accounting for 30% of all registrations.

Over recent years we have typically seen a drop in registrations moving into Q3, and this pattern is expected to continue as we progress through 2026.

Monthly registrations

Gender Age

Exclusion length

614,924

Active exclusions

35,027 Q2 registrations

Heatmap North West Focus

Nationally, around 1.14% of the UK adult population has ever registered with Gamstop Online, but the distribution of registrations varies across areas of England and the rest of the UK. With 1.40% of the population having registered with Gamstop Online, the North west of England registration rate is higher than average.