How to Submit a Site to be Restricted
We have a lot of different systems scanning in the background to find and restrict gambling sites as soon as they come online, but by and large finding new operators relies on a regulatory entity that has put reasonable time and effort into creating and maintaining a license list/blacklist. However there are thousands of operators online functioning with no license or a weak license that doesn’t maintain an easily accessed list of licensees. It is very challenging to stay ahead of this type of operator.
And that’s where our users come in. With thousands of people using BetBlocker UK at any given time, the fastest way for us to find new operators is when our users report finding a site that they have been able to access. We provide an in app tool to allow you to quickly send through any sites you find. BetBlocker UK is a community project and our restriction gets stronger with each extra person that participates.
To make sure that the site you want blocked gets blocked we have provided some guidance to help you make your submission in the most effective way.
#1 Clear your cache
Before submitting any site for inclusion please make sure you have cleared your browser cache. The VAST majority of the sites that we received requests to include are already included on our restricted list, but your device is accessing a saved version of the site on your device.
For Android devices you can find instructions on clearing your cache here.
For other devices simply do a Google search for your browser and 'clear cache' and you will find instructions on how to do this.
#2 Give us the URL
The most common mistake users make when they try to send a site through to be added to the restricted list is just typing in the name of the operator they want to block. This regularly fails for the following reasons:
- Spelling mistakes. Every day we receive block requests for operators where the names have been mis-spelled. This makes it very difficult for us to identify which site you are looking to have blocked.
- One operator, lots of regional variants. Bet365.com, Bet365.co.uk and Bet365.it are all the Bet365 company, but they are regional variants of the same operator. Each needs to be restricted separately. If you just send through the name of the operator, we won’t know which regional variant we’re missing.
Rather than typing in the name, copy the entire URL from the top of the browser page and paste it into the form:
#3 Know the difference between a domain and a sub-domain
One of the quirks of restricting websites is that while we do not need to restrict every page individually, we do need to restrict every sub-domain on a site. So for instance if bet365.com is the domain, then casino.bet365 would be a sub-domain as would mobile.bet365.com.
A sub-domain has the format something.domain.com.
This goes back to point #2: If you have been able to access a specific page copy and paste the url. It’s likely the domain will already be on our restricted list, but we may have missed a sub-domain.
#4 If it’s a well known operator, we almost certainly already include them on our restricted list
Effectively every single day we will receive a stack of requests to restrict operators that are already on our restricted list. William Hill, SkyBet, Bet365, Unibet, the list goes on. If it seems like we obviously would restrict an operator – i.e. they are a giant of the industry – it’s a fairly safe guess that we already do restrict that operator. You should go back to #1 and clear your cache. If you can still access the site in question after this, you need to contact support at admin@betblocker.org – it’s likely that there is a bigger problem.
#5 Include your email!!!
While we always give you the option of submitting requests anonymously if you don’t want us to have any contact information for you (we don’t retain emails anyway), if you do so we won’t be able to let you know if we have added the site to the restricted list or if there’s something wrong and we need more information. The bulk of the requests we receive cannot be actioned because there’s insufficient information provided or the site is already on the restricted list and there’s a different problem that needs to be investigated.
If you choose not to leave an email address, do take note that if we do add the site to the restricted list (which will usually happen within 24 hours), it will take 24 hour for mobile devices or up to 7 days for desktop devices to reflect at your end and you will need to clear your cache (see #1) and restart your phone.
#6 Restricted for one, restricted for all
When requesting a site for restriction do keep in mind that if we add a site to the restricted list, it is restricted for EVERYONE using BetBlocker UK. While we understand that you might want to take a break from Facebook, or there are certain ewallets, payment voucher services or crypto exchanges that you feel are facilitate problematic behaviours, other users will not feel the same, these services are not directly gambling services and they all have non-gambling uses. We cannot restrict them.