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Latest essayGuide · September 29, 2026 · 9 min read

How to Block DraftKings, FanDuel and Other Sportsbooks

Each company's own self-exclusion, your state's list, a site block on your computer and your phone's app controls: what each lock covers, how long it lasts and what it misses.

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5 to 12

Online sportsbooks licensed besides DraftKings and FanDuel in most states where they take bets

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Guide · Updated September 29, 2026 · 9 min readHow to Block Gambling Sites on Windows: Free and Paid OptionsYou can block gambling sites on Windows with free filters and extensions or with dedicated blocking software. Choose by what each covers and who can change it later.Read article

Research · Updated September 29, 2026 · 6 min readThe $1.1 Billion Attention Machine: What DraftKings' Advertising Budget BuysDraftKings recorded $1.1248 billion in advertising costs in 2025, about nine times its 2018 figure. Eight years of filings show when the spending surged, when revenue overtook it, and what the number still cannot tell us.Read article

How It Works · Updated September 28, 2026 · 5 min readA Gambling Blocker Where Someone Else Holds the KeyThe key is not a password handed to another person. It is continuing authority to approve or deny a specific exit, with clear privacy, cooling-off, and recovery limits.Read article

Architecture · Updated September 28, 2026 · 7 min readGambling Blockers Without a VPN or DNS: The Real TradeoffNo remote tunnel is not the same as no VPN permission, and no remote DNS service is not the same as no DNS filtering. Compare the exact platform, mode, and system layers before you install.Read article

Guide · Updated September 23, 2026 · 9 min readCan Canadian Banks Block Gambling Transactions? A Bank-by-Bank GuideSome Canadian banks reserve the right to block online gambling payments, but a September 12, 2026 check of 13 found no documented block you can ask for.Read article

Guide · Updated September 23, 2026 · 4 min readHow to Block Kalshi and Polymarket on Windows: What a Domain Block Can and Cannot DoA practical look at GuardianBlock's Custom Blocks workflow—and the accounts, apps, devices, and access paths that a Windows website-domain rule does not cover.Read article

Data · September 20, 2026 · 5 min readKalshi One Year Later: Still Mostly Sports, Now Mostly ParlaysSportico reported that sports was about 90% of Kalshi's trading volume in September 2025. A count of the exchange's public market data for September 1–19, 2026 puts sports near 82%, parlays above half of everything, and fifteen-minute crypto contracts at most of what is left.Read article

Buyer’s Guide · September 17, 2026 · 13 min readGamban Alternatives for Windows: Six Options and What Each Vendor SaysThe Windows alternatives to Gamban covered here are BetBlocker, GamBlock, OFFBET, DigitalZen, Cold Turkey, and GuardianBlock, which publishes this page. They differ on price, on how a block ends, and on whether another person is involved. Nothing is ranked.Read article

Explainer · Updated September 16, 2026 · 8 min readThe Four Ways a Gambling Blocker Can Be Locked - and What Each One Actually Protects AgainstA secret someone else holds, a waiting period you cannot skip, a door that does not open until it expires, or a person who approves each exit. They are not the same lock, and the difference decides what happens at 1 a.m.Read article

Guide · Updated September 16, 2026 · 7 min readMy Partner Agreed to a Gambling Blocker. How Do I Set It Up Without Spying?A consent-first setup guide for the person holding the key: the conversation, the Windows account, the blocker, what you will see, and the exit you agree on before you need it.Read article

How It Works · Updated September 16, 2026 · 4 min readA Gambling Blocker for the Laptop You Own but Also Use for WorkIf your own Windows laptop carries a work VPN or mapped drives, look for a blocker that does not alter your DNS, VPN, proxy, or drive settings. Here is what to check before you install anything.Read article

Essay · Updated September 16, 2026 · 4 min readConsensual Accountability vs. Surveillance: Where the Line Actually IsAccountability is agreed in a calm moment, limited to protection events, symmetric, and has an exit you both know. Surveillance is none of those. The difference is the whole ethics of this category.Read article

Buyer’s Guide · Updated September 16, 2026 · 6 min readQuestions to Ask Before You Trust a Gambling BlockerFive checks reveal more than a sweeping promise: how the software appears, who can authorize an exit, what it sees, what happens when it goes quiet, and which limits the company states plainly.Read article

Practical Guide · Updated September 16, 2026 · 4 min readWhat Is a Gambling Accountability Partner?The useful version is a chosen, bounded support role: enough visibility to carry out an agreed response, without turning the relationship into surveillance.Read article

Research · Updated September 16, 2026 · 6 min readSelf-Exclusion Works, But It LeaksSelf-exclusion is one of the best-evidenced first steps a person worried about gambling can take. It also has edges — the operators it can't touch, the state line it stops at, the clock that runs out — and those edges are where relapse finds a door.Read article

Architecture · Updated September 16, 2026 · 3 min readWhy GuardianBlock Doesn't Use DNS or VPN FilteringGuardianBlock is designed around browser policy, local device posture, and chosen-person accountability — not control of the network path. That narrower boundary is deliberate: it is a design boundary, not a compatibility promise for every network setup.Read article

Guide · September 12, 2026 · 5 min readI Found Out My Partner Has Gambling Debt. What Now?Start with your own safety and support, then find out which debts and accounts are in your name. Talk with your partner only if and when it is calm and safe; not everything has to be solved today.Read article

Research · August 31, 2026 · 5 min readKalshi, Young Adults, and the NFL: The Prediction-Market Protection GapA headline $5.4 billion estimate does not tell us what young adults lost—or even how many traded. It does expose a harder question: why can the same sports proposition arrive with a different age gate and a different set of protections?Read article

Guide · Updated August 31, 2026 · 7 min readHow to Block Gambling Apps on an iPhone (2026)Everything you need is already on the phone: Apple's own restrictions can stop new gambling apps, hide the ones already installed, and lock it all behind a passcode. The part that decides whether any of it works is who holds that passcode — and it shouldn't be you.Read article

Research · Updated August 31, 2026 · 4 min readThe Gambling Ad Load: How Sports Became a Betting InterfaceSports betting cues no longer live only in commercial breaks. Broadcasts, odds integrations, social feeds, app pushes, host reads, and promos can all turn one game into a cue-rich betting surface.Read article

Research · Updated August 31, 2026 · 4 min readGambling Addiction Searches Rose After Sportsbooks Went MobileA JAMA Internal Medicine study found 23% more gambling-addiction help-seeking searches than expected after the U.S. sports-betting expansion. That figure is about search behavior, not clinical diagnoses. It means the private search signal moved as sportsbooks moved into online, always-available access.Read article

Research · Updated August 31, 2026 · 4 min readWhy Parlays, Props, and In-Play Bets Hit DifferentlyA pre-game wager is one decision. Mobile sportsbooks can turn the same game into dozens of decisions: same-game parlays, player props, live odds, cash-out, boosts, and prompts. The research does not say every feature proves addiction. It says tempo matters.Read article

Research · Updated August 31, 2026 · 4 min readSports Betting's Household Balance Sheet: What the New Research Says About Debt, Savings, and FoodLegal sportsbooks are usually sold as entertainment or tax revenue. Recent research asks a harder question: what happens to household cash, credit, savings, and food when betting moves onto the phone?Read article

Guide · Updated August 31, 2026 · 5 min readWhen Trading Becomes Gambling: Options, Crypto, and the No-Go ListOptions, crypto, and Robinhood-style apps can be legitimate financial tools. For some people, they also become the place where loss-chasing happens. The honest answer is not to call every brokerage a casino. It is to draw your own no-go line.Read article

Opinion · Updated August 31, 2026 · 6 min readIs Kalshi Gambling? Prediction Markets, Sports Bets, and the Fight Over Who Regulates ThemA current legal read on Kalshi, Polymarket, and the “event contracts” now landing inside finance apps — where federal and state regulators disagree, two appeals courts have split, and familiar gambling safeguards do not apply in the same way.Read article

Guide · August 26, 2026 · 8 min readOntario Self-Exclusion: BetGuard, OLG My PlayBreak and What Each Covers (2026)One registration covers every regulated online gambling site in Ontario. It does not cover a casino floor, and it does not simply expire. Here is what each program covers, how to register, and what happens when a term ends.Read article

Guide · August 26, 2026 · 7 min readGame Break Self-Exclusion in British Columbia: How to Enrol and What It Covers (2026)BCLC's Game Break covers B.C. gambling facilities and your PlayNow.com account from a single enrolment. The three routes in, the four term lengths, and the end-of-term rule: a Game Break does not end on its own.Read article

Guide · August 26, 2026 · 7 min readSaskatchewan Self-Exclusion: SIGA, SaskGaming Game Break and PlayNow (2026)Three enrolment desks, two program names, and one piece of scope that runs in a single direction. Who runs each program, what each says it covers, how long it runs, and the question the official pages leave open.Read article

Canada Guide · August 25, 2026 · 4 min readHow to Block Gambling Sites in CanadaStart with the official self-exclusion program that fits your province and operator, then add separately scoped device, payment, and human-support layers.Read article

Research · August 21, 2026 · 3 min readSports Betting Is Bigger. Is It Actually Getting Worse?Legal commercial U.S. sports-betting handle has nearly tripled since 2021. The evidence on harm is more complicated—and more useful when the numbers are kept in their proper lanes.Read article

Research · August 21, 2026 · 6 min readHow Many Americans Will Bet on the NFL in 2026? The Honest AnswerThere is no single defensible number. The trade group best placed to publish one did for years, then abandoned the survey behind it and wrote down why—leaving measurements that count dollars, accounts and wagers instead of people.Read article

Research · August 21, 2026 · 4 min readSportsbook Ads Are Down. So Why Does Betting Feel More Inescapable?Television sportsbook spots have fallen from their peak. Betting still reaches football viewers through pregame talk, odds widgets, sponsorships, and media integrations. Both can be true.Read article

Guide · July 17, 2026 · 5 min readGAMSTOP Self-Exclusion: How to Register and What It Covers (2026)A current guide to who can register, what information you need, how long the exclusion lasts, and the separate protections Gamstop Online does not replace.Read article

Guide · July 2, 2026 · 4 min readWorld Cup Betting Is Everywhere Right Now. Here Is the Survival Plan.If the tournament is a trigger, do the administrative work before kickoff: tell one person, self-exclude where you can, add payment friction, block your devices, and make the next bet less automatic.Read article

Opinion · July 1, 2026 · 2 min readThe World Cup's Other Score: A Generation Primed to GambleThe 2026 tournament is on track to be the most heavily bet sporting event ever staged — built around betting that feels normal, instant, and everywhere.Read article

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How to Block DraftKings, FanDuel and Other Sportsbooks

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