007JL Gambling Blocker: Set Up Limits on Your Phone

A gambling blocker is a barrier you set up while you are calm, so it is already in place when the urge is not. This page covers what the main phone controls do and gives the setup steps from Apple’s, Google’s and Gamban’s own pages, with their menu names as printed. A blocker is one part of the plan; the rest is on the page about how to know your limits before you deposit.

What a gambling blocker does

A blocker works on access. It makes the games harder to reach, so a bad moment has to get past something before it becomes a bet. There are three kinds of tool on the phone you play from.

The six steps

1. Choose your layers.
2. Turn on Screen Time on iPhone.
3. Set Time Allowances and a Screen Time Schedule.
4. Set Content & Privacy Restrictions.
5. Register with Gamban and install it on your devices.
6. Set up layered self-exclusion.

Steps 2 to 4 are for an iPhone. Steps 5 and 6 are Gamban’s, and its page says it installs across all major device platforms. Do the layers in order: time controls first, then the blocker.

iPhone: Screen Time steps from Apple

Apple’s iPhone User Guide describes Screen Time as showing how much time you spend on your devices, with Time Allowances to balance time across entertainment, games and social media apps, schedules for when those apps are available, and content restrictions.

1. Go to the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Screen Time, then tap Screen Time Schedule, Time Allowances or Manage Screen Time, and tap Turn On App & Website Activity.
3. To set when apps are available, tap Screen Time Schedule. To cap a category, tap Time Allowances.
4. For content, go to Settings, tap Screen Time, tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then allow or block the settings shown under Content Restrictions.
5. For built-in features, tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then Other Features.

Apple’s page adds that the latest Screen Time features need iOS 27 or later on all your Apple devices. If you turn on Share Across Devices (Settings, Screen Time, Manage Screen Time), limits you set apply to your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apple’s pages describe categories and content labels, so use a dedicated blocker for gambling sites by name.

Android: Family Link for a child’s account

Google’s Family Link help describes controls for a child’s Google Account once supervision is added. Under Manage supervision and content settings you can set app and screen time limits and set content restrictions for Google Chrome, YouTube, Search and Play. For Chrome, the help lists Set Website restrictions, with the options to allow or block certain sites.

Use this on a family member’s under-age account. Family Link is Google’s tool for a child’s account, so the layer for your own Android phone is a dedicated blocker, below.

Gamban: a third-party blocker, from its own page

Gamban is a third-party product, and this site does not endorse it. Gamban’s page describes it as a tool for blocking gambling: a multi-layered approach to blocking tens of thousands of gambling websites and apps worldwide. It says one licence protects all of your devices and that it installs across all major device platforms. Its listed steps are below.

1. Register a Gamban account.
2. Install Gamban on your devices.
3. Set up layered self-exclusion: Gamban recommends several layers, and its software helps you set up the others.
4. Stay on your path: Gamban’s page says everyone in recovery has moments of doubt.

Gamban’s page also says its software can track how long you have stayed gamble-free and how much time and money you have saved. Read its own page for current pricing and platforms.

After the blocker: the other layers

A blocker does not touch the urge itself. Add the human layers. The page on near miss effect shows what pulls you back at the reels, and the page on sugal and when it stops being play explains where to turn. In the Philippines, PAGCOR runs a self-exclusion programme with periods of 6 months, 1 year or 5 years; its own page lists the requirements.