Self exclusion in the US: state by state, and the gap

No app can make gambling impossible on an iPhone. The phone belongs to the person holding it, the Screen Time permission a blocker runs on is theirs to withdraw, and a product that says otherwise is claiming a power iOS does not give it. What a circle changes is the cost of undoing it, because ending a term early takes a request, a wait measured in days rather than seconds, and a second person who is told when protection goes off, when the phone stops confirming, and when the subscription lapses.

First, what Fold'em is not

Fold'em is not a state self exclusion programme, is not connected to any gaming regulator, and registers nobody with any of them. Those are public services, they are free, and every one is worth doing before an app is worth downloading. This page is short on purpose. The state level picture is large, most of it could not be read from this machine on the day the page was written, and a page that filled the rest in from memory would be worse than a page that stops.

There is no national register, and that is the whole shape of it

Every state programme reads the same way once you notice the boundary. Pennsylvania's regulator puts it in one sentence: Self-exclusion only applies to licensed gaming providers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A person excluded in one state is not excluded in the next one, and a person excluded from one kind of gambling inside a state is often not excluded from the others.

So the honest starting point for a reader in the United States is their own state's regulator, and after that the National Council on Problem Gambling's directory, which describes itself as a list to connect with local support and resources and tells the reader to Use the map below or contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline™ (1-800-MY-RESET) to be connected with gambling resources in your state.

Source: gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/news-and-transparency/faq/what-self-exclusion, read 3 September 2026.

The seven states this page could read

Each of these was fetched from the regulator's own page on 3 September 2026 and each is quoted rather than described. The list is not a ranking and it is not complete; it is what a machine outside the United States could read that day.

New Jersey. Four ways in, and what you get differs by which one you use. In person or by video, you can self exclude from all casino gaming and Sports Wagering activities located in Atlantic City casinos AND Racetrack Sports Wagering Facilities AND from all Internet Gaming and Sports Wagering activities, with Minimum self-exclusion periods are one year, five years or lifetime. Online, it is internet gaming and sports wagering only, and Minimum self-exclusion periods are one year or five years.

Source: njoag.gov, Division of Gaming Enforcement self exclusion, read 3 September 2026.

Pennsylvania. Four separate programmes, not one. The state's own responsible play site lists self exclusion from Casinos, Interactive Gambling, Video Gaming Terminals and Fantasy Contests as four things you request individually, and the terms end differently: Casino self-exclusions for one year or five years remain in effect until the self-excluded person requests removal at the conclusion of the ban, while iGaming, VGT and Fantasy self-exclusions expire at the conclusion of the selected ban period. Nobody else can put you on a list: A person cannot place another person on the Self-Exclusion Lists.

Source: responsibleplay.pa.gov/self-exclusion, read 3 September 2026.

Massachusetts. One programme with three enrolments. It is a statewide program that allows you to voluntarily exclude yourself from casino gambling, sports wagering, or iLottery for a predetermined amount of time, and you can enroll in one or more of the gambling types. Coming back is not automatic: Persons enrolled in the Voluntary Self-Exclusion Program must complete a brief reinstatement session at the completion of their term in order to return to gambling.

Source: massgaming.com/about/voluntary-self-exclusion, read 3 September 2026.

Illinois. One list covering casinos and sports wagering together, and you cannot join it from your phone. The board's page says the 2019 Sports Wagering Act required IGB to expand the program to include sports wagering and that Individuals on the self-exclusion list are precluded from participation in sports wagering, then states the route plainly: Persons must enroll in the Self-Exclusion Program in person at various sanctioned enrollment sites throughout the state.

Source: igb.illinois.gov, Self Exclusion Program, read 3 September 2026.

Ohio. One programme across three kinds of gambling, run by two commissions together. Ohio Casino Control and the Ohio Lottery Commissions partner to administer this program. Time Out Ohio offers individuals the ability to ban themselves from Ohio's casinos, Ohio racinos and Ohio sports gaming for one year, five years or their lifetime. The page also warns that the ban may include affiliated properties outside of Ohio.

Source: casinocontrol.ohio.gov, Time Out Ohio, read 3 September 2026.

Indiana. One form for the casinos, and the terms are stated on the regulator's own page: the commission maintains the Voluntary Exclusion Program (VEP) allowing individuals to self-exclude from all Indiana casinos by completing just one form, and A person may sign up at any Indiana casino, at the IGC office in Indianapolis, with a designated problem gambling treatment provider or online via the IGC's website for one year, five years or lifetime exclusion.

Source: in.gov/igc/voluntary-exclusion-program, read 3 September 2026.

Michigan. Two lists with two forms, which is the clearest illustration on this page of why one registration is rarely one registration. The board's self exclusion forms page lists a Disassociated Persons Application Form - Detroit Casinos and, separately, an Internet Gaming and Sports Betting Self-Exclusion - Responsible Gaming Database Form. The durations are not stated on that page and are not stated here.

Source: michigan.gov/mgcb, self exclusion forms, read 3 September 2026.

Why the number on the billboard is not the number here

A reader in the United States sees one number on every piece of gambling advertising and a different one on this page, so it is worth saying why rather than leaving it strange. The National Council on Problem Gambling's own helpline page today leads with 1-800-MY-RESET for call, text and chat, and that is the number the block at the foot of this page dials. The former number appears on that page only inside its text messaging terms, which name both forms together: By texting the National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-522-4700 or 1-800-697-3738), the help seeker consents to receive text messages from the National Council on Problem Gambling.

The number printed on advertising, 1-800-GAMBLER, is a different organisation's line. New Jersey's own self exclusion page prints it as New Jersey's Gambling Helpline: 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537). It is a real line and a person who calls it will reach somebody; it is simply not the national council's, and this page does not present it as one. Several states also run their own: Ohio's regulator prints Problem Gambling Helpline : 1-800-589-9966 in its own footer.

None of that changes what to do. Any of these numbers reaches a person, and the one at the foot of this page is the one its publisher currently leads with.

Source: ncpgambling.org/help-treatment, read 3 September 2026.

Who to call in the United States

National Problem Gambling Helpline run by the National Council on Problem Gambling, for call, text or chat, 1 800 697 3738. Its publisher prints it as 1-800-MY-RESET. The same line is also the shortest route to your own state's programme, because the register itself is a state matter and never a national one: the council's directory says to Use the map below or contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline™ (1-800-MY-RESET) to be connected with gambling resources in your state.

Source: ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/help-by-state, read 3 September 2026.

The apps themselves

If one particular app is the one you keep opening, its page says which layer reaches it and what the operator's own account tools do. These are the brands our own roster files under the United States, measured on 1 September 2026; the whole roster is at the operator pages.

• BetMGM
• BetRivers
• Caesars Sportsbook
• DraftKings
• ESPN BET
• Fanatics Sportsbook
• FanDuel
• Hard Rock Bet
• PointsBet

The layer a register never touches

The device layer answers the two things a register structurally cannot, and in a country with no national register that is a larger share of the problem than elsewhere. On an iPhone it is Apple's Screen Time sealing the apps you picked, so a sealed app draws a block screen instead of opening, and an encrypted DNS setting that answers a known gambling address with 0.0.0.0, the address for nowhere, so the page fails to load in any browser on the phone.

What it does not do is worth the same plainness. A phone block reaches one handset. It does not close an account, does not stop one being opened, does not reach a laptop or a casino floor, and it cannot register you with any state. Both halves also belong to the person holding the phone: Screen Time permission can be withdrawn in iOS Settings and the DNS setting can be switched off there, and no app on iOS can prevent either. What a product can do about that is report it rather than pretend, which is what a keyholder is for.

Start with your own state, because it is free and it reaches every licensed operator there. Ask your bank about a gambling block. Then close the device layer. The order that holds puts all of it in sequence, and what a register does not reach is the fuller account of why the phone did not notice.

What this page could not read

• New York. gaming.ny.gov answered an automated read with an HTTP 403 on 3 September 2026, and its voluntary self exclusion request form came back as a PDF this machine could not read. New York is the largest online sports betting market in the country and nothing about its programme is stated on this page.
• Arizona. gaming.az.gov answered an HTTP 403 on 3 September 2026.
• Tennessee and Louisiana. tn.gov and gaming.la.gov refused the connection outright from this machine on 3 September 2026, which is a refusal rather than a missing page.
• Colorado and Iowa. The two paths tried at sbg.colorado.gov and irgc.iowa.gov answered HTTP 404 on 3 September 2026, so the programme pages exist somewhere on those sites and were not found. That is a search that was not finished, not a finding.
• Every other state. Forty three states and the territories are not on this page at all. A reader outside the seven above should start at their own regulator or at the directory linked in the block below.
• What each operator's own self exclusion does. The two largest sportsbooks' responsible gaming pages both answered an HTTP 403 from outside the United States when this research was compiled on 2 September 2026, so no page here describes an operator's own account level exclusion, its length, or whether it reaches every state.