Network-level DNS filtering
Block gambling sites on every device in the house, from one place
NetGuard is a DNS resolver that refuses to look up gambling domains. Point your router at it once and every phone, laptop, console and television on the network is covered, with no software to install on any of them.
69 suffix rules across 4 lists, each covering every subdomain. Last reviewed . See every entry.
Read before you rely on it
What this does not do
DNS filtering is a speed bump, not a lock. Anyone with administrator rights can undo it in a minute, a VPN bypasses it entirely, and mobile data is not covered at all.
Read the full list of limitations before you rely on it.
The figures
Why anyone bothers
These figures come from the Gambling Commission's annual survey. They are quoted with their source and their uncertainty, because a statistic without either is decoration.
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2.4%
of adults in Great Britain scored 8 or more on the PGSI, the threshold for problem gambling
Roughly 1.3 million adults. 95% confidence interval 1.9% to 2.8%.
Source: Gambling Commission, Gambling Survey for Great Britain, Annual Report 2025 (retrieved 2026-08-23)
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10.4%
of gamblers aged 18 to 24 scored 8 or more on the PGSI, against 0.8% of those aged 75 and over
The steepest age gradient in the survey.
Source: Gambling Commission, Gambling Survey for Great Britain, Annual Report 2025 (retrieved 2026-08-23)
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3.3%
of adults reported being negatively affected by someone else’s gambling
Relationship breakdown was the most commonly reported consequence.
Source: Gambling Commission, Gambling Survey for Great Britain, Annual Report 2025 (retrieved 2026-08-23)
The mechanism
How it works
Every time a device opens a website it first asks a DNS resolver to turn the name into an address. NetGuard sits in that position. When the name is on a list you have enabled, it answers that the name does not exist, and the connection never starts.
That is the whole mechanism. It is why it covers devices with no settings screen, and why it is defeated by anything that does not ask DNS.
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01
One change, every device
Set it on the router and anything joining the network is covered, including devices you cannot configure.
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02
No query logging by default
A DNS log is a diary of a household. Ours is off unless you turn it on, and we explain what turning it on means.
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03
Lists you can read
Every rule is published with the register it came from and the date a person last checked it.
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04
Support routes are never blocked
GamCare, GAMSTOP, BeGambleAware, the NHS and Citizens Advice can never be filtered, whatever a list says.
Word of mouth
Reviews
From the journal
Recent notes
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Why we do not advertise a blocklist count
A competitor advertises 4.2 million blocked domains. We counted ours and got 69. Both numbers are accurate and only one of them means anything.
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DNS over HTTPS broke our assumptions
Filtering worked on every device and failed in one browser. The bug was in our documentation, not our code.
Take the first step
Start with one device
The quick start changes DNS settings on a single machine so you can see what filtering does before you change anything for anyone else. It takes about fifteen minutes and costs nothing.