Every tool in this space was built around the same flawed assumption: that the person using it will honour their own commitment when the moment comes. ShieldBet was built around a different assumption. It was built by someone who knows they won't.
There are four main tools available to someone in the UK who wants to stop gambling. Every single one of them can be bypassed by the user alone in seconds. That is not a gap in the market. It is the market's fundamental failure.
GamStop requires UK-licensed gambling operators to check a national register and deny access to anyone who has self-excluded. When it works, it is effective for mainstream operators.
The problem is the boundaries of its coverage. Offshore gambling sites, crypto casinos, mirror sites and any operator without a UK Gambling Commission licence are entirely invisible to GamStop. An estimated 15 to 20 percent of online gambling now happens on platforms GamStop cannot see at all.
Gamban routes all device traffic through a filtered VPN that checks every connection against a maintained blocklist. It provides broader coverage than GamStop and works across all browsers.
The significant drawbacks are battery drain, performance impact and blocklist limitations. Because every connection passes through the VPN, battery consumption increases substantially. And because it relies on a blocklist, any site not yet on the list passes through undetected.
Several UK banks including Monzo, Starling and Lloyds offer in-app toggles that block payments to gambling merchant category codes. When a payment to a recognised gambling operator is attempted, it is declined at the card level.
This is a useful layer but it has critical gaps. The block only applies to recognised gambling merchants. Crypto exchanges, bank transfers, PayPal and cash withdrawals all route around it entirely.
Various Chrome and Firefox extensions exist that block known gambling domains. They are free, simple to install and do provide a basic layer of protection for mainstream sites.
They share the same fundamental weakness as every blocklist-based approach. A new domain, a mirror site, a crypto casino or any platform not yet on the list passes through without detection.
Every tool listed above was designed with the assumption that the user will honour their commitment when the moment of temptation arrives. Problem gambling research consistently shows that this assumption is wrong. The neurological response to a gambling trigger bypasses rational decision-making. The solution is not to rely on willpower. It is to remove the possibility of acting on impulse alone. ShieldBet is the only tool designed around that reality.
| Feature | GamStop | Gamban | Bank block | ShieldBet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catches new and unknown sites | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Detects crypto casinos | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| AI-powered content analysis | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Requires two people to disable | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Impulse-breaking delay timer | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Partner notified of bypass attempts | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Heartbeat monitoring | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 24-hour cooling-off delay option | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Partner dashboard | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No battery-draining VPN | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free tier available | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full protection price | Free | £2.99/mo | Free | £4.99/mo |
ShieldBet analyses what a page does, not what domain it uses. This means it catches every new site, every mirror domain and every crypto casino that blocklist-based tools miss entirely. Detection never becomes outdated.
The only tool that makes disabling protection a social act rather than a solo one. You cannot act in secret. You cannot act alone. The person most at risk cannot undo the protection without involving someone who cares about them.
ShieldBet was designed by someone with lived experience of gambling harm and of bypassing every existing tool. That knowledge is in every design decision. The bypass routes are closed because the founder already found them.
Install the Chrome extension for free. The full protection features are £4.99 per month.