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Quit gambling.
Make it stick.

Betting apps and gambling sites blocked on your iPhone. Ending it takes days, not a tap, and someone you trust can hold the key.

Download on the App Store

Free for 7 days when Apple offers the trial to your account.

Holding someone’s key? Start here

The Fold’em Today screen: Gambling free, 53 days, 14 hours and 08 minutes, three people walking a path toward a sign that reads 90 days, four faces under How are you today, the money kept so far, and the tabs Today, Lock, People and Settings.

Put the next bet out of reach.

It is late, the app is one tap away, and every argument you already won with yourself is up for debate again. Fold’em takes that moment off the table. What you get back is the night, the morning after it, and the money that was already gone in your head.

Held shut on every side you would push.

You set each of these up on your own iPhone, and the app shows at a glance which ones are on. SOS needs no setting. It is on the block screen, on a widget and in the app.

  • Gambling apps

    The sportsbook and casino apps you pick stop opening, and Apple’s own Screen Time holds the block. Turn on Games, and new apps the App Store files under Games are covered too.

  • Gambling sites

    Betting sites stop loading in every browser on the phone, including the browsers inside other apps. It is not a VPN.

  • A keyholder

    One person you name. Every request to end protection is theirs to decide.

  • Deletion delay

    While it is on, deleting Fold’em waits 72 hours.

  • Lockdown

    For the hours you already know are hard. A run you start can close every app except Phone and the ones you keep, and stop new installs.

  • SOS

    Guides for before, during and after an urge, Talk to someone for your people and a gambling helpline, and Lockdown.

When the barrier holds, it works.

What happens when the only thing holding a ban in place is the person who asked for it?

The share of people meeting the criteria for pathological gambling fell from 61 to 95 percent before exclusion to 13 to 26 percent after it (Kotter et al. 2019).

24 hours

The minimum wait Britain’s gambling regulator requires before a gambler may raise their own spending limit, and only then if they confirm it a second time.

Gambling Commission, RTS 12D
8% to 59%

The share of people who broke their own ban, across nineteen studies of land based self exclusion.

Kotter et al. 2019, Journal of Gambling Studies
50%

Of the self excluded gamblers in Missouri who tried to walk back into a casino they had banned themselves from, half got in. The authors put the benefit down to enrolling rather than to enforcement.

Nelson et al. 2010, Journal of Gambling Studies
The Lock tab in Fold’em on an iPhone: icons for Apps, Sites, Games and Deletion delay with Games off, then Lockdown is off, with the line Regular protection is always on, and Start lockdown now. The Fold’em Gambling apps sheet over Lock: On, Gambling apps are blocked on this iPhone, with Blocked apps 12 and Add apps.

You do not have to be the one who says no.

Screen Time, a website filter, a delay: each one runs on a permission you own and can take back at three in the morning. A person does not. You name someone to hold your key, and up to three more to stand with you.

It can run both ways. Three people can each hold one of the others’ keys, so nobody is the patient and nobody is the warden.

Enough to help you. Nothing to judge you with.

The people standing with you see when to reach out, and nothing that would make them a second problem to manage.

They see

  • Whether protection is on
  • Your gambling free run
  • Asked for support
  • The nudges between you

They never see

  • Which apps or sites
  • Money kept
  • Your check ins

Four of the eleven things they see. Everything your keyholder sees, in full.

You can always end it. Just never in the moment.

Protection runs until you end it. If someone holds your key, ending it is a request they decide. Saying no takes them one tap from anywhere. Saying yes takes rather more.

If nobody holds your key, the same road is open to you alone and the wait is longer.

What changes when it holds.

  • The apps stop opening.
  • The sites stop loading.
  • Three in the morning stops being a decision.
  • The people who love you get to help.
  • The days start counting, and they keep counting.

No browser left to try. No app you did not choose.

Where you would gambleOn this iPhone
A betting app you pickedBlocked Gambling apps
A new casino or slots app the App Store files under GamesBlocked If you turn on the Games category
A betting site in SafariBlocked Gambling sites
A betting site in Chrome, Firefox or EdgeBlocked Gambling sites
A betting site opened inside another appBlocked Gambling sites
Installing a new betting appBlocked During a Lockdown that blocks app downloads
A second phone, a laptop, a shop, cashNot blocked Nothing reaches these

And two things it does not do

  • It holds one iPhone

    Another device is another decision. If that is the gap, the circle is the part that travels: the person holding your key does not stop existing when you pick up a laptop.

  • You can switch it off

    Every layer is a setting on a phone you own, and no app on iOS can take that away. Switch one off and the phone stops confirming that protection is on.

One button, and the people you already named.

SOS opens from every tab, from a widget and from the block screen, and nothing on it has to be decided right now. Ask for support tells everyone who stands with you at once.

If you need someone now

Free, and not run by Fold’em.

Gam-Anon is a community for people supporting someone who gambles.

The Fold’em SOS screen on a black canvas: Before the next bet, four short guides, Talk to someone, and a Lockdown button at the top.
SOS. A dark screen, on purpose.

Six questions to ask before you install.

What does it cost?

Free for 7 days when Apple offers the trial to your account. After that it is a subscription billed by Apple, and you cancel it in your Apple ID settings like any other. The plans are written out here.

Can I just delete it?

While the deletion delay is on, deleting Fold’em waits 72 hours. Switching Screen Time off lifts the delay, and no app can stop that. Without the delay you can delete it like any app; the phone then stops confirming.

What if I have nobody to ask?

You can run it without a keyholder. Every layer still holds; ending protection just takes longer and nobody has to say yes. You can name someone later.

Does it see what I browse?

It sees the names your phone looks up, never the pages you open or anything you send, and it keeps no history of them. It refuses the lookups for gambling sites and does not carry your traffic.

What if I slip?

You mark it, the count starts again, and nothing lectures you.

How do I stop it later?

You ask, in the app. If someone holds your key, they decide, and a yes starts a 48 hour wait. Without a keyholder, the request waits seven days and nobody decides. Either way, when the wait ends you confirm, and everything comes off at once. Nothing here is designed to trap you; it is designed to make the decision slow enough to be yours.

Choose who holds the key.

Five minutes on your own phone. The hard part is choosing the person.

Get Fold’em for iPhone

Free for 7 days when Apple offers the trial to your account. Cancel any time in your Apple ID settings. What it costs.