Guide
Block the new
ways to bet.
The sportsbook is no longer the only door. Prediction markets sell contracts on games and elections, sweepstakes casinos pay out “coins” you can redeem for cash, and pick'em apps sell fantasy entries that work a lot like parlays. Many blockers were built before these existed. Here's how to block them across every app on your phone, and how to make sure one person you trust knows if you try.
Free malware and ad blocking, always. Gambling and other categories, plus partner alerts: 7-day free trial, then $7/month.
Why these slip through
They don't look like gambling to a filter.
A gambling filter is only as good as its list of sites, and most of those lists were built around classic bookmakers and online casinos. The newer products arrived later and often describe themselves as something else: an exchange, a game, a contest.
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A
Prediction markets
Sites like Kalshi and Polymarket let you buy a contract that pays out if a team wins or an event happens. They present themselves as trading. For someone trying to stop betting, the experience is the same: money down on an outcome, a result, and the pull to go again.
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B
Sweepstakes casinos
Chumba Casino, Pulsz, Stake.us and dozens like them run slots and table games on two kinds of virtual coins, one of which can be redeemed for real money. Because they're legally structured as sweepstakes, they show up in places a regular casino can't.
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C
Pick'em fantasy apps
PrizePicks, Underdog and similar apps ask you to pick whether players go over or under a stat line, with a payout for getting several right. It's sold as fantasy sports. It plays like a parlay.
We found this gap in our own filter first. When we audited Sworn's gambling category in September 2026 against a roster of 366 brands, it caught none of the prediction markets we checked and only 2 of 25 sweepstakes casinos. We added a second, much larger gambling list and our own additions, and re-tested.
What Sworn's Gambling category blocks
The names people actually ask about.
With the Gambling category on, these load nowhere on the phone: not in Safari or Chrome, not in an in-app browser, and not in the apps themselves, which stop connecting to their own servers.
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A
Prediction markets
Kalshi, Polymarket (both polymarket.com and its US exchange), Novig, ProphetX and Sporttrade.
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B
Sweepstakes casinos
Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, Pulsz, Stake.us, McLuck, WOW Vegas, Fortune Coins, Crown Coins, High 5 Casino and Modo.
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C
Pick'em fantasy apps
PrizePicks, Underdog, Sleeper, Dabble and Betr.
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D
Everything around them
The regular sportsbooks and online casinos, offshore and crypto casinos and their mirror sites, plus the odds tools, tipsters and bet trackers that exist to send you to one.
Brand names belong to their owners; we're not affiliated with any of them. The list is checked against the newest brands and refreshed weekly, but a brand-new site can appear before any list knows about it.
How to set it up
Three steps, about three minutes.
- Install Sworn and switch on the Gambling category. Malware and ad blocking are free forever. Gambling is one of the paid categories, and those plus partner alerts come with a 7-day free trial, then $7/month.
- Turn on the one setting. On iPhone, Sworn asks iOS to add its DNS setting (one Allow tap), then walks you to the Settings screen where you pick it. On Android, Sworn gives you an address to paste into the Private DNS setting and opens that screen for you. No VPN, so banking, Maps and everything else keep working.
- Add one person you trust. They confirm by email first. After that, if you try to reach a blocked site, they get a short email saying it happened and what kind of site it was. Never the site itself, never your history. If the filter is switched off or goes quiet, they're told that too.
The same account covers Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, so the laptop isn't the way around it.
What it can't do
The honest limits.
Some betting lives inside apps that are also something else. Brokerage and crypto apps have started offering event contracts alongside stocks and coins. Sworn doesn't block a whole banking or investing app to reach one feature inside it, so if that's where you bet, tell your partner, and consider closing that part of the account. Two more: Sworn can't see a browser like Brave or Firefox that sends its own encrypted DNS unless one setting is changed in each, and a determined person can remove it. What Sworn changes is that you're not alone when that happens. The person you chose finds out, without you having to raise your hand and ask.
More on the built-in iPhone and Android options in how to block gambling apps and sites.
Every app on your phone.
And someone in your corner.
Free to start. About three minutes to set up.
On a computer too? Set up the phone first, then add Windows, Mac, Linux or Chromebook to the same account.
Struggling with gambling? In the US, the National Problem Gambling Helpline is 1-800-GAMBLER. It's free, confidential and open 24/7. Sworn is a filter, and it doesn't replace treatment.