Hey glad to hear you’re feeling upbeat. It’s very simple and shouldn’t take you too long! Any online casinos/sports betting sites you have an account with, just simply google the website name and “self-exclusion” – it should take you to their responsible gambling page which instructs you on how you can request to self-exclude yourself.
For most sites a simply email to their support team with your account details and stating you wish you self-exclude yourself due to a gambling problem is enough. Some of the sites will have a specific area on their site/program where you can self-exclude yourself. Some of the more stricter websites require you to then sign a self-exclusion letter (very easy, they send you the template, you just print, sign and scan it back them and tick the time frame – eg. 1, 2, 5 years).
I literally made a template message the other night. Followed the above procedure and self-excluded myself from 15-20 online casino/poker/sports betting sites in just one night. Took about an hour to get it all done! Really the feeling of security and that you’re actively doing something to stop gambling will help you a lot in your recovery. Trust me it’s not weird at all, all gambling websites have a dedicated policy and approach towards self-exclusion and they are generally very accepting of your requirements (they probably get 10s if not 100s of requests to close/self-exclude accounts daily) – it’s totally confidential and they all dealt with it very professionally. This includes land based casinos/bookies – they also handle self-exclusion very professionally and anonymously. Don’t be shy!
As for gambling blockers, the best ones are gamblock or betfilter (I personally used this one). You are correct it wouldn’t be appropriate to install on your work computer (hey, don’t gamble at work :P) but it’s great on any personal PCs or mobile devices you gamble from. Completely blocks all gambling websites where you actually can gamble, but leaves open recovery or support websites such as this one so you can still engage in the forums. Also blocks gambling related ads that pop up. It’s very non-intrusive and is quite “incognito” in that it doesn’t show itself so even if someone else used your device, you don’t have to worry about them finding out about it. It’s also almost impossible to uninstall without screwing up your computer registry (a great deterrent from trying to uninstall it).