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Gambling Self-Exclusion: Where to Start

By Chris Beerman, MSW, LCSW, CADC. Gambling and alcohol therapist, Logan Square, Chicago. Reviewed October 27, 2026.

Self-exclusion is the strongest single barrier you can put between yourself and gambling, and in Illinois it's free. It's also more complicated than it should be. The Illinois Gaming Board's list covers casinos and sports wagering and nothing else; the Lottery runs its own program; the video gambling terminals in bars are covered by no list at all; Minnesota has no statewide program; and no state list reaches a prediction market or an offshore site. So the wall gets built one piece at a time, and the order matters.

I'm a gambling and alcohol therapist in Chicago's Logan Square, and I see clients in person and by secure video across Illinois and Minnesota. This page is the front door to everything I've written about blocking access: the self-exclusion programs, the gaps, the software and money tools that fill them, and what to do when the wall isn't holding.

Start with the first day

If you need to stop today, don't start with paperwork. The free 24-Hour Betting Shutdown Plan walks through the first day in order: the apps, the money, the accounts, and the evening.

Open the 24-Hour Betting Shutdown Plan

If you're not sure yet whether you need a wall at all, the free gambling test is nine questions, about two minutes, scored in your browser.

The reading path

Twelve guides, grouped by the wall you're building. Each one stands on its own.

Illinois

  1. How to Self-Exclude From Gambling in Illinois: Casinos, Sportsbooks, Lottery & More. The complete guide: the Gaming Board program, the Lottery's separate one, how to enroll, and what each covers.
  2. How to Stop Playing the Slot Machines in Illinois Bars: A Therapist's Guide to Video Gaming Terminals. The 50,000 machines no self-exclusion list reaches, and what works instead.
  3. Are Sweepstakes Casinos Gambling? What Illinois and Minnesota Players Should Know. Sites that say they aren't casinos, and the site-by-site exclusions they offer.

Minnesota

  1. Minnesota Has No Statewide Self-Exclusion. Here's How to Block Gambling Anyway. Every tribe's program, the racetracks, the Lottery, pull-tabs, and the order to do it in.
  2. Online Gambling Therapy in Minnesota: What Treatment Actually Looks Like. Including what the state will pay for, for you and for your family.

Apps, markets and sportsbooks

  1. How to Self-Exclude From Prediction Markets: Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood & More. No state list covers them. Platform by platform, and what to do before you start.
  2. How to Stop Sports Betting: A Therapist's Game Plan for Football Season. Access first, willpower second.

The money and the devices

  1. Gambling resources. Blocking software, bank and card blocks, and the other tools that reach what no program does.
  2. Gambling Debt: How to Recover Financially After Gambling Losses. The money, in the order to deal with it.

When the wall isn't holding

  1. I Gambled Again. What Do I Do Now? How to Stop a Gambling Relapse From Becoming a Spiral. The first hours and days after a slip.
  2. Can Therapy Help Gambling Addiction? What Evidence-Based Treatment Actually Looks Like. Blocks buy time. This is what changes the rest.
  3. The family conversation guide. You can't sign someone else up, but you can plan the conversation. For partners and parents, with help for partners and families.

Every Illinois and Minnesota post, newest first

The numbers behind it

Illinois has run a self-exclusion program since 2002, one of the first in the country. The numbers show how few people reach it.

595 people enrolled in the Illinois Gaming Board's self-exclusion program in 2025, the most in any year, and 16,115 have since 2002.

3.8 percent of Illinois adults, about 383,000 people, met the criteria for problem gambling in the state's 2021 assessment, with another 7.7 percent at risk.

Enrollment covers casinos and sports wagering only. Video gaming, the largest form of gambling in the state, is outside it.

The full picture, updated quarterly, is on Illinois gambling statistics; the protection gap index compares what the state takes in with what it spends on treatment.

If you'd rather talk than read

Blocks buy time. They don't change what gambling is doing for you, and they don't stop the urge. If you catch yourself hunting for the gap, a new app, a different casino, the bar down the road, that isn't proof nothing works. It's information about what treatment needs to address. The free 15-minute consultation is where that conversation starts.

Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation

What therapy looks like, what it costs and which insurance I take is on the gambling addiction therapy page. For how state-funded, private and residential care compare in Illinois, see gambling treatment in Illinois.

If you need help right now

Illinois gambling helpline: call 1-800-GAMBLER or text GAMB to 833234. Free and confidential, any hour.

Minnesota: call 1-800-333-HOPE (1-800-333-4673) or text HOPE to 53342.

National Problem Gambling Helpline: call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738).

If you're in a mental health crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988.

If you're in immediate danger, call 911.

Last reviewed October 27, 2026. Program rules change, so confirm with the casino or regulator before relying on any detail here. This page is general information, not legal or medical advice, and it doesn't create a therapist-client relationship.