GamStop Reports 16% Rise in UK Self-Exclusion Sign-Ups in H1 2026

GamStop, the UK’s national online self-exclusion scheme, has reported a 16% year-on-year rise in new registrations during the first half of 2026, with more people opting to block themselves from licensed gambling sites amid growing use of the tool among younger consumers.

According to GamStop’s H1 2026 report, the sharpest growth came from users under 25, whose registrations rose 26% year-on-year, making this age group the largest single cohort of new sign-ups. Younger users tend to favour shorter breaks, with 38% choosing the minimum six-month exclusion, while across the full user base longer commitments remain more common: half of the scheme’s 614,738 registered users have opted for the maximum five-year exclusion period. Men continued to account for roughly seven in ten new registrations, a pattern GamStop says has held consistently since the scheme launched in 2018. May 2026 was the busiest month on record, with 12,236 new sign-ups, and GamStop has said it expects July figures to exceed that total, noting that increases in registrations typically follow major football tournaments.

GamStop CEO Fiona Palmer said the continued year-on-year growth shows that self-exclusion has again increased significantly year-on-year, showing that users are continuing to find it an invaluable and flexible tool to manage their gambling, particularly younger consumers. Matt Burgiss, GamStop’s Head of External Affairs, flagged the risk of elevated gambling activity around the World Cup, warning that there is a real risk that people have increased their gambling during the World Cup and once the tournament is over, they might find it more difficult to stop or turn to online casino games and other forms of gambling. He added that self-exclusion gives them the opportunity to take a break from gambling and prevent it from getting out of hand, from personal experience noting how easy it is to overlook when gambling becomes more frequent.

The H1 2026 figures follow a 40% year-on-year jump in sign-ups among 16-24 year-olds recorded in the second half of 2025, when that age group made up 29% of all new registrations, according to GamStop’s earlier report. GamStop, which operates as a free, independent service, has been a mandatory condition of every UK Gambling Commission online operating licence since 31 March 2020, requiring all licensed operators to check user details against its central database before permitting account creation or access.