It’s a familiar scene: sun, sand, a cheap Ryanair flight, and a full English breakfast being served five hours from Birmingham. The Canary Islands have long been a second home for Brits looking to swap grey skies for something brighter.
But while most come for the weather, a few are quietly coming for something else entirely: a way back into online gambling, outside the reach of UK regulations.
Back home, the landscape has changed. The UK’s GamStop program, which blocks access to licensed betting sites for those who opt in, has made it harder to gamble on impulse. It’s been praised, criticised, and picked apart in equal measure, but overall, it works. If you’re trying to quit, it gives you a wall to lean against.
However, that wall doesn’t stretch as far as the Canaries.
Once you’re out of the UK, even just temporarily, the rules begin to blur. With nothing more than a Spanish Wi-Fi connection and a few quiet minutes, it becomes surprisingly easy to find access to UK casinos not on GamStop. These are offshore platforms, unlicensed in Britain, which actively promote themselves to UK players who’ve self-excluded. And they’re not hiding either.
There’s something about being away that dulls the edges of responsibility. You’re not at work, you’re not home, and nobody’s checking your browser. So, when one of those well-targeted ads pops up, “UK players welcome,” “No GamStop limits,” it doesn't feel like a relapse. It just feels like part of the holiday.
Most of these offshore casinos are registered in places with light-touch licensing: Curaçao, Malta, and sometimes Eastern Europe. Some are functional, others shady. The good ones mimic legit sites well enough, offering sports betting, slots, and flashy bonuses. But beneath the surface, accountability tends to be... optional.
The problem? You're not protected. There’s no UK regulator to step in if they withhold your payout. No one to complain to if your balance mysteriously disappears. And if you’re gambling on these sites because you were blocked back home, odds are you already know the risk.
It’s not that everyone who heads to Lanzarote suddenly starts betting offshore. But for those who already struggled with gambling, the break from UK restrictions can feel like an invitation to go back.
"I thought I’d beaten it," said one British expat living in Puerto de la Cruz. "I signed up to GamStop, got help, and stayed clean for almost a year. Then I moved here for work. Within a few weeks, I’d found a site that let me back in. No checks, no blocks. I lost nearly two grand before I even realised what I was doing."
Stories like that aren’t hard to find, on forums, Reddit threads, even in WhatsApp groups. Some people are just looking for a way around the system. Others are genuinely caught off guard, thinking they’re still protected by UK blocks when they’re not.
The Canary Islands make a perfect storm. The British presence here is strong, with tourists, retirees, and remote workers. Wi-Fi is everywhere. You don’t need a VPN, just a local IP. That alone is enough to unlock access to hundreds of offshore casinos that the UK regulators can't touch.
There’s also the emotional side. Travel, even short-term, shakes routines. You’re sleeping odd hours, eating differently, and drinking more. If gambling was a problem before, those cracks can reopen, especially if you're scrolling through your phone while waiting for your next beer.
It's not the location itself that's the issue; it's the space it creates. Distance, especially from responsibility, can make poor decisions feel harmless.
To be fair, GamStop was never pitched as a perfect solution. It’s a UK-based self-exclusion scheme, not an international firewall. It’s meant to keep people out of licenced British platforms, not chase them across borders.
Still, the fact that getting around it is this easy should give regulators pause. You don’t need a tech background or dark web knowledge. You just need to be out of the country and mildly curious.
There have been calls for financial institutions to help plug these gaps by blocking payments to known offshore operators, for example, but enforcement is tricky. Politically, there’s also the matter of jurisdiction. Spain isn’t going to chase down British tourists betting online. It’s not illegal here, and the Spanish regulator has its own problems to handle.
The Canary Islands will keep drawing in British sunseekers. That much won’t change. But the idea that distance equals freedom can be dangerous, especially when it comes to habits people worked hard to break.
There’s no shame in enjoying your holiday. But it’s worth remembering that digital fences, like GamStop, only work if you don’t walk around them. And the moment you leave the UK, the path around them opens up faster than most expect.
So, if you’ve made the decision to stop gambling, treat it like luggage: pack it carefully, and don’t leave it behind just because you're somewhere new.
After all, it’s easy to escape the UK. Escaping old patterns? That takes a bit more work.
Gamble Responsibly: Gambling should be enjoyed as a form of entertainment, not a way to earn money. Always gamble within your financial means and set limits to stay in control. You must be 18 or older to participate in gambling activities. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, seek help from organisations like FEJAR (Federación Española de Jugadores de Azar Rehabilitados) at www.fejar.org. Stay safe and gamble responsibly.
