Gambling Helplines in Ireland: Free, Confidential Support Numbers (2026)

Last reviewed 14 May 2026

Written by Mariia Magus · iGaming Content Researcher · Reviewed 2026-05-14

I built this page because Irish gambling-support numbers are often scattered across charity pages, regulator directories, and operator “safer gambling” sections. This directory keeps the main free, independent routes in one place. None of these services pays me. None of them knows this page exists. If a number is wrong, that’s on me — tell me through Contact and I’ll fix it that day.

If you need a gambling helpline in Ireland right now, the number is 1800 936 725 — the National Gambling Helpline, operated under the Gambling Awareness Trust through GamblingCare.ie. Lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, per GamblingCare’s own homepage (re-verified 2026-05-14). You can ask about confidentiality at the start of the call and share only what you are comfortable sharing. The call is free from Irish landlines and mobiles.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking about self-harm, call 999 or 112 right now. For emotional crisis support, Samaritans are on 116 123; for suicide and self-harm support specifically, Pieta are on 1800 247 247. All three are free, 24 hours a day. A gambling crisis and a mental-health crisis often arrive together — you can call any of these and mention gambling, or call the gambling helpline and mention what you are feeling.

This page lists the main free gambling-specific support routes we can verify for people in Ireland (Republic of), plus official State directories for wider treatment and money-support services. None of them is run by a gambling operator. We earn no commission for sending you to any of them, and we are not affiliated with any of them. If you would rather a person you trust read this with you, you can — nothing on the page asks for a sign-up. Numbers and URLs on this page were re-verified on 2026-05-14 against each service’s own website.

For wider responsible-gambling tools — deposit limits, bank blocks, taking a break — see our Responsible Gambling hub.

The National Gambling Helpline — 1800 936 725

The National Gambling Helpline is the clearest first call for many people in Ireland looking for gambling-specific support. GamblingCare.ie lists it as “National Helpline — Call now 1800 936 725” and states “Our lines are open 24 hours per day, 365 days of the year.” (re-verified 2026-05-14). The Gambling Awareness Trust — the charity behind this helpline — is currently funded by voluntary contributions from gambling operators. I want you to know that. It doesn’t mean the counsellor you reach will push you toward any operator; counsellors aren’t paid for that. But the funding source is real, and it’s worth knowing where the money comes from. Under section 54 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, a statutory Social Impact Fund is meant to replace this voluntary arrangement — though section 54 hasn’t been commenced as of 2026-05-14 (see our Act 2024 explainer).

Three things worth knowing before you call:

• The helpline is for anyone affected by gambling, not just the person gambling. Partners, parents, adult children, friends, and colleagues use it too. You do not have to be in crisis. You do not have to know what you want to do next.
• The call is confidential. You should not need to share more personal information than you are comfortable sharing; ask the helpline about confidentiality at the start of the call if you are unsure.
• The helpline can refer you on. If you decide you want counselling, peer support, or treatment, the person on the line can walk you through the next step rather than handing you a list of phone numbers to chase yourself.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) lists the same number on its public Get Help page at grai.ie/gambling-safety/…/get-help (re-verified 2026-05-14). That is the State regulator’s own signposting; we cite it here because cross-referencing the same number on the regulator’s site and the service provider’s site is the easiest way to be sure a helpline you find online is the real one.

Free counselling — Extern Problem Gambling

Extern Problem Gambling is an independent Irish charity that provides free online counselling across the island of Ireland and offers in-person counselling at its Tramore (Waterford) office, plus separate Wicklow support arranged through Living Life Counselling. Local arrangements and fee policies can change — check the Extern page for the current setup before attending an in-person session. The charity describes itself as “a dedicated, independent suite of supports, resources and referral pathways for problem gamblers and their families” (re-verified 2026-05-14).

What Extern offers, per its own site:

• A helpline callback service at 089 241 5401 for the Republic of Ireland and 07537 188 575 for Northern Ireland, available Monday to Friday, 9-5.
• A 24-hour line, which routes to the same National Gambling Helpline number 1800 936 725 in the Republic and 08000 886 725 in Northern Ireland.
• Free online counselling across the island, and in-person counselling at the Tramore office. Wicklow support is arranged through Living Life Counselling — confirm price and availability with Extern before attending.
• A Women’s Gambling Support Network with coaching and group meetings — worth flagging because most public-facing gambling-help content assumes the reader is a man and many women feel that pattern locks them out.
• Recovery toolkit booklets, podcast, recovery stories, and a “Stop Gambling App” listed alongside the human services.

If you would rather start by reading than by calling, the Extern site is designed for that.

Peer support — Gamblers Anonymous Ireland

Gamblers Anonymous Ireland runs free, anonymous peer-support meetings around Ireland. Meetings exist in many towns and cities; the GRAI Get Help portal lists current regional contact numbers (re-verified 2026-05-14) including:

• Dublin — 01 872 1133
• Cork — 087 285 9552
• Galway — 086 349 4450

The model is the same as other twelve-step rooms: free, peer-led, no fee, no membership card, no professional clinician in the room. You can attend without giving your last name. Many regions run online meetings as well as in-person ones; the operator-of-service for each region maintains its own schedule and the regional numbers above are the right starting point.

Peer support is not for everyone, and the data we have access to does not support claiming one route works better than another for everyone. What it does suggest is that the combination of a helpline call, counselling, and peer contact is more often used than any single one of them alone.

State and consumer-information routes

Two State-published pages are worth bookmarking even if you don’t intend to read them today.

The first is the GRAI Get Help portal at grai.ie/gambling-safety/understand-your-gambling/get-help (re-verified 2026-05-14). It is the Irish State gambling regulator’s single-page directory of help services, including GamblingCare, Extern, Gamblers Anonymous, the Family Addiction Support Network at (042) 935 5251 / (087) 904 6405, MABS (Money Advice and Budgeting Service) at 0818 07 2000, and the Samaritans at 116 123. It also lists named residential treatment providers — Rutland Centre, Tabor Group, Aiseiri, Cuan Mhuire — which we deliberately do not promote one over another on this page because we cannot verify clinical outcomes.

The second is Citizens Information’s Help for gambling addiction page at citizensinformation.ie (page manually checked on 2026-05-11; re-checked on next scheduled review). Citizens Information is a government-funded consumer service and a useful State-backed route alongside the gambling-specific helplines above.

We list the State routes second on this page rather than first because most people searching for “gambling helpline Ireland” want a phone number, not a directory of directories. If you have already called the helpline and want to know what the regulator and the State say about how the support landscape fits together, the GRAI and Citizens Information pages are the answers.

Northern Ireland routes

This page covers the Republic of Ireland. The most useful thing we can do for readers in Northern Ireland is point at the cross-border charity that already serves both jurisdictions — Extern Problem Gambling — and at two UK-wide services that publish their own numbers.

• The Northern Ireland 24-hour gambling helpline is 08000 886 725. Extern Problem Gambling lists this number alongside the Republic’s 1800 936 725 on problemgambling.ie (re-verified 2026-05-14).
• GamCare operates a UK-wide National Gambling Helpline; readers in Northern Ireland may use it. GamCare also provides family-and-friends support.

We do not list every Northern Ireland service here because the page would become a UK-Ireland directory and stop being useful for someone in Limerick or Donegal looking for the Republic’s number. If you want a Northern Ireland-specific directory, Dunlewey Addiction Services maintains one.

If you are in immediate crisis

If you or someone with you is in immediate danger, including thoughts of self-harm, contact emergency services on 999 or 112. Emergency services in Ireland are free from any phone, including a phone with no credit.

For non-emergency mental-health support that exists alongside the gambling-specific routes above:

• Samaritans — 116 123 — free, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Listed on the GRAI Get Help portal (re-verified 2026-05-14).
• Pieta House (suicide and self-harm support) — 1800 247 247 — free.
• HSE Your Mental Health — hse.ie/mental-health for the State health service’s mental-health information.

A gambling crisis and a mental-health crisis often arrive together. Mentioning suicide or self-harm on a gambling helpline call is okay; the person on the line can help you decide the next step or direct you to crisis support. Mentioning gambling on a Samaritans call is also okay.

Why we list these specific services and not others

Two editorial rules shape the directory above. Both come from our Methodology page and we restate them here so you can see them:

• Free and not operator-operated. Every helpline or support route we directly recommend on this page is free at point of use, and none is operated, branded, or marketed by a gambling operator. State directories may also list residential treatment providers with their own referral, admission, or funding arrangements — we do not promote one of those over another on this page because we cannot verify clinical outcomes. Where a recommended service receives gambling-industry funding through an independent charity or trust (the Gambling Awareness Trust behind GamblingCare.ie is the main example), we disclose that clearly in the section about that service. Operator-run “responsible gambling” centres exist, and operators have obligations to provide them under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 (see the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 explainer). We do not link to them from this page because a person who feels they need a helpline benefits from a route that is structurally independent of the operator they may be trying to step away from.
• Independently verifiable. Every number is cross-checked between the service’s own website and at least one independent source: usually the GRAI Get Help portal, sometimes Citizens Information. If we cannot cross-verify a number on the day we publish, the number does not appear.

We earn no commission from any service listed here, and we are not affiliated with any of them. We are an independent editorial project; the publisher disclosure is on About.

This page is not a marketing communication for any gambling operator. We do not run social media advertising for gambling, we do not promote gambling products, and we do not operate age-gating on this directory because the content is help-seeking information, not gambling promotion. The Irish rules on social media advertising, age-gating, and the safer-gambling message in marketing communications are explained on the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 page and on the ASAI Code Section 10. Those rules govern advertising; this page sits outside them and exists because the helplines themselves deserve a clean directory.

When this page was last verified

I’ll re-check this page on 14 June 2026. If a number is wrong before then, message me through Contact — I fix mistakes in plain sight with a dated note, not buried in a footer.

I keep the page short on purpose. The helplines do the work, not me. The only thing I’m asking is that you call one of them when you need to.

This page is informational and is written mainly for adults. If you are under 18 and worried about gambling — your own or someone else’s — you can still use the help resources above, call 999 or 112 in an emergency, or speak to a trusted adult. The page is not medical, clinical, or legal advice — for any of those, speak to a qualified professional. Our editorial rules and the source hierarchy we use are on the Methodology page.