The full answer
It is built so that the version of you who wants to bet cannot undo the version of you who set it up, which is why asking to end protection takes a wait of days rather than a setting, and, if you name one, a yes from the person holding your key. It asks for an iPhone you control, a commitment set before anything starts, a subscription, and ideally one person to hold the key. It is one layer, and the others, the helpline for your country, a gambling block from your bank and the operators' own schemes, are yours to stack.
What it asks of you
An iPhone running iOS 26.5 or later, and the phone has to be one you control, because the whole block is raised by permissions iOS gives to the person holding it. There is no Android build, no desktop client and no browser extension.
A commitment made before anything is blocked. There is no length to choose and no end date to set: protection starts at the slide at the end of setup and runs until it is ended. The choice is made before that slide, and it does not come undone afterwards because you would like it to.
A paid subscription. There is no free tier and no way past the paywall; the seven day free trial is a verified entitlement rather than a way around one. Nothing you can buy ends protection, and paying more opens nothing sooner. Cancelling does end it, but not until at least 72 hours after the time you paid for runs out.
Ideally one person. Naming a keyholder is optional, and going without a keyholder is a real choice the app offers by name, but the two roads differ in a way worth knowing before you pick: with a keyholder the wait is 48 hours from the moment they agree, and without a keyholder it is 7 days from the request.
What it takes out of your hands, on purpose
The thing Fold’em removes is the ability to change your mind quickly. Once protection has started, there is no switch in the app that ends it, and no support request shortens the wait. Ending protection is decided on a server, and the phone applies what it is told. Three smaller releases run on the phone's own clock, the Games layer's 72 hour wait, the end of a Lockdown run and, with no keyholder, ending a run sooner after a 3 hour wait, and none of them ends your protection.
That is the whole trade, and it is the reason to think before starting rather than after. If what you want is a blocker you can turn off on a bad evening, this is the wrong app, and it is designed to be.
What it does not watch
Fold’em never learns which apps you picked, only how many. Nobody in your circle sees a site, an app, an amount of money or anything you typed, except a note you add when you ask your keyholder to end a Lockdown sooner; the money figure the app shows you is worked out on the phone from a number you set yourself and never leaves it. Your keyholder sees a first name, a status word, a day count, and the handful of events on the list of what they see.
What it looks like once it is running
Day to day, Today is the one screen running protection needs. It leads with your gambling free count, then you and the people in your circle walking a path toward your goal, drawn as your characters, then a daily check in and the money you kept. The layers that hold are on the Lock tab.
Today, once protection is running
It is one layer
One block can be gotten around; layers hold. Fold’em is the first, and the rest are yours to stack: the helpline for your country, a gambling block from your bank, and each operator's own self exclusion scheme.
What this does not do
Fold’em is a commitment device. It is not a treatment service, it is not a monitoring tool, nothing in it is medical advice, and it makes no claim about outcomes. It holds one phone: a second phone, a laptop, a betting shop and cash are outside it and no iOS app can reach them.
It also cannot stop someone with the phone's passcode, time and intent from taking the block apart. What it changes is that, if someone holds your key, doing so is not quiet: the phone stops confirming protection, and their card for you shows it. If what you need is someone to talk to today rather than protection, the helpline numbers are a better first call than any app.
Write to us and a person reads it. We answer within two working days, and we would rather hear the question twice than not at all.