Hi, sounds like you are really determined to stop but LIKE ME lack the self will. I can offer my recent experience as follows:
Regarding the local shop bans, i too found them useless. In my town there is a Merker, Ladbrokes (x2), Bet365, Independent bookies, and Admiral. I self excluded in January at Admiral as part of a local scheme – self exclude one, self exclude all but Ive continued to bet on the Fobts in both Bet365 and Ladbrokes. After a heavy losing session in Ladbrokes i even hinted to the cashier that im losing too much and thought i was banned. Guy came back with (and i dont blame him) – “Mate if you want to do your bollox, go ahead, my employer doesnt pay me enough to act as a bouncer and potentially create grounds for a fight if i try to ban someone who excluded themselves!”
For online,I did Gamstop for a year and it worked. I couldnt even buy a scratchcard online. I was getting itchy feet after 6 months and tempted to use European sites but when you search “non gamstop casinos” several listing sites bring up dozens of sites i never heard of that they plugged. However a quick search on Trustpilot flags most of these sites as dodgy, looking for any excuse for not paying so i decided against it.
Bandit unfortunately has quickly got me back into bad habits as i followed his steps and opened up BC.GAME account and so far am over 10k down!! (and i currently dont work so its from my savings!)
My Gamstop now expired and i thought i would return to UK “safe” sites but so far only one site has authorised me to reopen the account with a strict £200 a month limit. Therefore its at the other extreme and will likely lead me to continue using crypto site.
Good luck and hope things work out for you.