Why Gambling Sites Are Blocked by Default
Every age tier blocks gambling out of the box. Here's the reasoning, and why network-level blocking matters more for gambling than most categories.
What the gambling category covers
Sportsbooks, online casinos, poker rooms, lottery sites, skin-betting and loot-box adjacent services, and the affiliate and "mirror" sites that funnel traffic to them. It's one of the largest categories we maintain, because operators run many domains.
Why the default is block, for everyone
Gambling platforms are engineered for repeat engagement: in-play betting lets users wager while a match unfolds, and deposit bonuses reward coming back tomorrow. Research consistently links early exposure — including simulated gambling in games — to problem gambling later in life. And age verification on betting sites is imperfect; the operators themselves state that underage accounts are discovered and closed after the fact.
Why network-level matters here
Gambling advertising reaches kids through social media and influencers, so blocking works best when it covers every device and every app — not one browser. DNS-level filtering on your home network is the only approach a child can't uninstall or route around with a different browser.
If your family plays fantasy sports or buys lottery tickets as adults, you can allow the category for the adult tier from the filtering matrix.