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Gambling urges pass, and the wait is built for that

The wait hands the decision back to the version of you who is not inside the urge.

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Updated October 2026

If one is happening right now

Nothing on this page needs reading in the next ten minutes. The numbers at the foot are free, they run at any hour, they are not run by us, and you do not need a plan before you call one.

If Fold’em is on the phone, SOS is the screen for this. It opens from the foot of every tab, from the widget pad and from the block screen. It holds guides for before, during and after an urge, Talk to someone for your people and a gambling helpline, and Lockdown. If someone holds your key and their number is saved, Talk to someone lists them first, and if anyone stands with you, Ask for support tells every one of them at once. Nothing on it can loosen your protection, which is deliberate, because a crisis screen that could loosen something would be the worst possible place to put a control. Lockdown only tightens: confirmed with a hold, it can close every app except Phone and the ones you keep, for 24 hours by default or for the run you set. I’m ready to leave closes SOS.

There is a home screen widget whose whole face is one tap to that screen. It never shows a day count or anybody's name, and it comes with the word SOS on it or as the mark alone, because what sits on your home screen is a decision about who else sees it.

What a wait is actually for

An urge passes. That is not encouragement, it is the working assumption the whole design rests on, and it is the only reason a delay is worth anything: if the wanting were constant, a wait would only postpone the same decision. Because it is an episode, a wait moves one decision out of the worst hour and into an ordinary one.

So the friction here is deliberately in ending protection rather than in the using. Nothing asks you to argue with a screen at midnight. What happens instead is that the fast route stops existing, and the slow one is available whenever you want it.

Asking to end protection, when you have a keyholder You ask to end protection. Your keyholder has seven days to answer: their page can say no, or show the code you scan in person. Two arms leave that decision and end the request: a no, and seven days of silence. The third arm is a yes, given in person, which starts a wait of 48 hours. At the end of that wait the request is ready, every shield still applied, and you can end protection. A ready request stays available for seven days and then closes, with your protection carrying on. ASKING TO END PROTECTION You ask to end it Mom decides 7 days to answer Say no SHE AGREES IN PERSON 48 h 48 hoursfrom her yes It closes she says no, or 7 days of silence It is ready and you can end protection Available for 7 days then it closes, and protection carries on Asking to end protection, when you have a keyholder You ask to end protection. Your keyholder has seven days to answer: their page can say no, or show the code you scan in person. Two arms leave that decision and end the request: a no, and seven days of silence. The third arm is a yes, given in person, which starts a wait of 48 hours. At the end of that wait the request is ready, every shield still applied, and you can end protection. A ready request stays available for seven days and then closes, with your protection carrying on. ASKING TO END PROTECTION You ask to end it Mom decides 7 days to answer Say no SHE AGREES IN PERSON 48 h 48 hoursfrom her yes It closes she says no, or 7 days of silence The request is ready and you can end protection Available for 7 days then it closes, and protection carries on
With a keyholder, asking to end protection runs: you ask, they have seven days to answer, and a no or seven days of silence closes the request. An agreement given in person starts a 48 hour wait, and then the request is ready and you can end protection. A ready request stays available for seven days, and if you never use it, it closes and your protection carries on.

The waits, and what each one counts from

You ask inside the app, and the request goes to the server rather than to a switch on the phone. Nothing about the block changes while any of this runs.

With a keyholder who agrees: 48 hours, counted from the moment they said yes. Agreeing is only ever done in person: their app shows an approval code and you scan it with yours while you stand together. No web page and no email can agree for them.

  • With a keyholder who says no: nothing. You are told, with no reason attached, and the request closes there. A denial is a denial, and there is no field for a reason in either direction. You can ask again 48 hours later, and that opens a fresh request rather than reviving the one they closed.
  • With a keyholder who says nothing: seven days, and then the request closes. Silence is not a slow yes. If a request sits unanswered for seven days it closes, your protection carries on exactly as it was, and a keyholder who never answers has left protection on without lifting a finger.

Without a keyholder: seven days, counted from the moment the request is written down. Nobody decides it, because there is nobody to decide it. The wait is the whole of the friction, it runs on the server, and every app and site you sealed stays sealed for its entire length.

One more, for completeness rather than as a suggestion. If your subscription ends, protection stays on for 72 hours, then ends unless the subscription is restored. It is the one way out that is not a request, and if someone stands with you, their card for you shows Protection at risk. The request to end protection in full.

Nothing opens by itself

At the end of a wait that runs its course, the server marks a release as available and stops there. Your phone keeps every shield applied and shows you that the release exists. The apps open when you take it, through a control that confirms first, and taking it is what ends your protection.

That last step is deliberate. A clock that opened your apps at the end of a countdown would put the moment back inside somebody else's schedule; a release you take puts it back in yours. The release is held for seven days and then closes again, and if you never take it your protection simply carries on.

Why somebody else is in it at all

Because a wait you can cancel is not a wait. The server holds the deadline rather than the phone, and a keyholder is what makes the fast route cost a conversation instead of a thumb. What they hold is narrow: an answer when it is asked, and no way to start your protection, end it, or shorten or cancel a wait.

What this page does not claim

Nothing here reduces an urge, and none of it is treatment. Waiting is not a technique for feeling better and this is not advice about how to. It is a mechanism that makes one decision slower, and the organisations at the foot of this page do the other work. If the urges are getting more frequent rather than less, they are the call worth making, not this page.

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