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Someone you love is gambling. What you can do

Send it to them

Updated September 2026

Here is a paragraph you can copy and paste. It says what the app does, that they install it and set it up themselves, that you would be the one person who has to be asked before it ends early, and that nothing about their browsing, the apps or sites involved, or any amount of money would ever reach you. Nothing on this page is sent anywhere. There is no form, nothing is stored, and we do not see whether you send it.

A message you can paste

Edit it however you like. It is written to be read by somebody who will be suspicious of being sent an app.

If the button is not there, select the message above and copy it the usual way. It is a plain text box for exactly that reason.

Nothing here is sent anywhere

This page has no form and asks for nothing. Copying happens in your own browser: nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and no request goes out when you press the button. We do not know whether you sent the message, who to, or whether they opened it. No link here reports back to us.

Who installs it, said plainly

They do, on their own phone. The blocking runs on Apple's Screen Time controls, and an app can only use those on the device it is installed on, with permission granted by the person signed in there. Nothing you do on your phone reaches theirs. If they want a second person named, they send the invite and you accept it, which is set out at how to invite a keyholder.

What you would be told, if they named you

The full list of what a keyholder is shown lives in one place on this site rather than being paraphrased on every page that mentions it, and it is worth reading before you offer: what a keyholder can see. Everything on it is status, counts, dates and event kinds, and the standing picture arrives on a Wallet pass carrying one status word at a time.

The Wallet pass and every status word it can show At the top, the keyholder's Wallet pass: the Fold'em mark, one status word in the top corner, a night sky strip with a moon, and below it the first name and the day count. Under the pass, a legend of the sixteen status words the same card can carry: Setting up, Checking in, Not confirmed, Protection off, Subscription lapsed, Protection at risk, Term complete, Protection ended, Ended, Expired, Left, Handed over, Closed, Handover, Ending and Protected. The card cycles through them one at a time and never carries two; at rest it reads Protected. THE ONE THING THEY HOLD F Fold'em STATUS Setting up Checking in Not confirmed Protection off Subscription lapsed Term complete Protection ended Ended Expired Left Handed over Closed Handover Ending Protection at risk Protected KEYHOLDER OF Sam DAY 12 EVERY WORD IT CAN SAY one at a time Setting up Checking in Not confirmed Protection off Subscription lapsed Protection at risk Term complete Protection ended Ended Expired Left Handed over Closed Handover Ending Protected
The Wallet pass carries one status word at a time. These are the sixteen it can show; at rest it reads Protected.

Three events would reach you by email and neither of you could switch them off: protection going off, the phone not confirming for 24 hours, and a lapsed subscription. Beside them sits a request to end the term early, the one thing you answer. The fuller account covers all of it, including the one weakening of protection that sends no letter.

If you need someone now

Free, all hours, and not run by us.

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

Hjelpelinjen (Norway) 800 800 40, hjelpelinjen.no.

National Gambling Helpline (UK) 0808 8020 133, gamcare.org.uk.

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