Gamblers Anonymous
Gamblers Anonymous (GA) is a free, peer-led fellowship of people who share their experience with each other to stop gambling, and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop. In Ireland it runs meetings in towns and cities every day of the week, along with phone and Zoom meetings. There is no registration, no booking and no fee. You turn up and give your first name, and that is the whole entry process.
What Gamblers Anonymous actually is
GA is a mutual-aid group, not a treatment service. Nobody in the room is there as a clinician, and nobody is paid to run the meeting.
Members follow a twelve-step recovery programme, and the meetings sit at the centre of it. GA Ireland describes them as a confidential, safe place where members share honestly and learn from listening to others.
Two things are worth knowing before you go. First, anonymity runs both ways: you give a first name only, and what is said in the room stays there. Second, GA in the Republic is a separate fellowship from Gamblers Anonymous in England, Wales and Ulster, although Belfast meetings appear on the Irish meeting list too, so the two overlap in Northern Ireland.
Neither is part of the gambling industry.
How GA differs from other support in Ireland
GA is often confused with counselling services and with operator tools such as self-exclusion. The table sets the main Irish options side by side, using the contact details listed on the GRAI support page and each service’s own site.
| Service | Who it is for | Format | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gamblers Anonymous Ireland | People who want to stop gambling | Peer meetings, in person, phone and Zoom | 01 872 1133 |
| Gam-Anon | Family and friends of a gambler | Peer meetings, in person and online | Via gamblersanonymous.ie |
| Extern Problem Gambling | Anyone affected by gambling harm | Free specialist counselling | 089 241 5401 |
| Gambling Awareness Trust | Anyone worried about gambling | 24-hour helpline, every day | 1800 936 725 |
| HSE addiction services | People with any addiction | Specialist services, GP referral | 1800 459 459 |
Where you meet GA as a player
You will usually see the GA name in the responsible gambling section of a betting or casino site, next to deposit limits, reality checks and self-exclusion. Those tools act on your account; GA acts on you, and it keeps working after you close the app.
Self-exclusion with one operator blocks that operator only. If you are still gambling elsewhere, a meeting covers the gap that a single account setting cannot, which is why many people use both at once. The planned National Gambling Exclusion Register under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is designed to work across licensed operators, but it is a separate tool and does not replace peer support.
GA is not a complaints route either.
A dispute about a withheld payout or a bonus clause goes to the operator first, then to the regulator, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.
Practical next steps if you need it
The GA Ireland helpline is 01 872 1133 or 085 879 9995, open from 10am to 10pm, seven days a week. The meetings page lists venues by county, along with daily audio meetings by phone and Zoom meetings for anyone who cannot get to a room.
Regional numbers are published for Cork, Galway, Tipperary, Kerry, Waterford and Belfast, so you can ring someone local before your first meeting if walking in cold feels like too much. Meeting times change, and GA asks members to email [email protected] when a listing is out of date, so check the current schedule rather than relying on an old printout.
If it is someone close to you who gambles, Gam-Anon is the meeting for you, not GA.
