How to Set a Gambling Restriction in Estonia (HAMPI)
Use Estonia's official HAMPI routes, choose the gambling categories you need, and understand activation, identity, and removal rules.
Last updated on Jul 27, 2026
Estonia's Tax and Customs Board maintains the national list of people with a restriction on gambling, commonly called HAMPI. You can set a restriction only for yourself and choose whether it covers games of chance, toto, and/or classical lotteries.
Use the official e-MTA route
Open the official e-MTA HAMPI service. The published menu path is Registers and inquiries → Registration → Registration of gambling restrictions. The Tax and Customs Board describes e-MTA as the easiest and fastest route.
Choose each category you need
Games of chance covers casino games, poker, and tournaments. Toto covers sports betting. Classical lotteries are a separate choice. Instant lotteries, including scratch cards, are not covered.
If this is also an immediate safety crisis
In Estonia, call 112 when life or health is in danger or urgent police, ambulance, or rescue help is needed. For emotional support, the government's 116 123 service is open daily from 10:00 to 24:00 in Estonian, Russian, and English. Calls to 116 123 are recorded. It is not an emergency-response service.
Before you apply
Decide which categories need to be blocked. Selecting games of chance does not silently add toto, and selecting toto does not add casino games or poker. If you want both casino and sports-betting coverage, select both categories in the official form.
The current ETCB placement form asks for:
- your name;
- your Estonian personal ID number, or date of birth if you do not have one;
- the gambling categories to restrict;
- a number from 6 to 36 months;
- the date; and
- your signature.
The 6–36-month choice is not an automatic end date. It sets the earliest point after which you may separately ask to be removed from HAMPI. The restriction does not expire by itself.
Use only the official service or forms. Guarding Gamblers does not collect an identity number, identity document, signature, or application.
How to set the restriction
Open e-MTA and sign in
Use the official HAMPI service or sign in to e-MTA and follow:
Registers and inquiries → Registration → Registration of gambling restrictions
Only the person being restricted can apply. A family member, friend, support worker, or gambling operator cannot complete a personal e-MTA application for you.
Select every category you want covered
Choose one or more of:
- games of chance for casino games, poker, and tournaments;
- toto for sports betting; and
- classical lotteries.
Instant lotteries such as scratch cards are outside HAMPI's published scope. Another venue, operator, device, or payment block may still be useful for products the selected categories do not cover.
Choose the removal threshold carefully
Choose 6–36 months. During that selected period, the restriction cannot be changed or declared invalid.
Reaching the selected date does not remove the restriction. It only makes a separate removal request available. If no removal request is made, the restriction continues.
Submit and check the registration
The official instructions say an e-MTA restriction takes effect no later than the day after submission. Check the registration in e-MTA rather than assuming that opening the form or starting an application made it active.
Do not deposit, wager, or repeatedly sign in to test the restriction. Do not delay an urgent protection request solely to withdraw money, wait for a bet to settle, or clarify an operator-account action.
Other official application routes
e-MTA is not the only published route.
Digitally signed email
The current ETCB instructions say a person who can use an accepted Estonian digital-identification application may apply by digitally signed email. The page gives Mobile-ID, Smart-ID, and an ID-card as examples.
An unsigned email application is not accepted. The current English instructions do not publish the personal-application email recipient or an activation time for this route. Follow the current linked instructions or ask ETCB where the signed form should be sent; do not use an address copied from an operator or another site.
ETCB service bureau
You can apply at an ETCB service bureau with an identity document and the official form. The service provider makes a copy of the identity document. If valid identity documents spell your name differently, the official instructions require a separate application for each spelling.
The restriction takes effect within two working days after a bureau application.
Gambling location
You can apply at a gambling location for games of chance or toto. The operator checks identity, makes a copy of the identity document, accepts the form, and forwards it to ETCB without delay.
ETCB registers the restriction within two working days after the operator forwards the application. A gambling location is not the same as an unverified online support inbox, and the official wording does not establish that every remote support desk accepts the form.
What HAMPI does
Estonian-authorised gambling operators must check HAMPI and must not allow a person to gamble in the categories where a restriction is registered. The ETCB operator instructions say operators may use HAMPI data only to verify whether a restriction exists, and employee access requires permission.
HAMPI does not establish:
- coverage beyond operators and categories within HAMPI's published scope;
- automatic coverage for a category you did not select;
- account closure, suspension, or deletion;
- personal-data erasure;
- whether login or withdrawals remain available;
- how a balance, pending withdrawal, bonus, or open bet is handled;
- whether direct marketing stops; or
- whether an operator account can later reopen.
Use an operator's current official route for those separate questions. Do not send a password, one-time code, full payment details, or an unrequested identity document through an ordinary support message.
How removal works
The selected 6–36-month period must pass before you can request removal. The restriction does not disappear automatically.
The current official routes are:
- e-MTA: removal occurs no later than the day after the removal request; or
- an ETCB service bureau: removal occurs no later than the second working day after the request.
The current instructions do not publish operator or ordinary unsigned-email removal routes. Removal from HAMPI also does not reopen a gambling account, settle money, restore a bonus, restart marketing, or require an operator to accept new play.
If you are considering removal because of immediate pressure, debt, or an urge to gamble, pause before completing it and contact someone you trust or a support service. You can also add a separate gambling blocker or bank gambling block. Those tools do not change HAMPI but can add another barrier.
Help with gambling and the application
The Gambling Addiction Counselling Centre publishes phone 15410, Monday–Friday 10:00–18:00, with counselling in Estonian and Russian. Its current price page says free services are intended for Estonian citizens and funded through the end of 2026, so confirm current eligibility and price before relying on free care. This is not a 24-hour crisis or emergency line.
For emotional support, Estonia's Social Insurance Board publishes 116 123, daily 10:00–24:00, in Estonian, Russian, and English. The service is free and calls are recorded. For immediate danger or urgent police, ambulance, or rescue help, call 112.
For HAMPI form or service clarification, use the contact route currently published by ETCB. Its general footer currently lists emta@emta.ee, but the English HAMPI instructions do not label that address as the signed-email application recipient.
If a licensed operator still allows gambling
First save the HAMPI status shown in e-MTA and the relevant operator, account, date, and transaction information that already exists. Do not place another bet to test the block.
Try to resolve the issue with the organiser through its current official route. The ETCB legal-operator page publishes hasart@emta.ee for an operator problem that remains unresolved. That escalation address is not verified as the recipient for a personal digitally signed HAMPI application.
Questions people ask
Can someone set the restriction for me?
No. The official instructions say a person can set a restriction only for themself. Someone else can help you find the official service or sit with you, but they cannot become the applicant.
Does one category cover casino games and sports betting?
No. Choose games of chance for casino games, poker, and tournaments, and choose toto for sports betting. Select both when you want both categories covered.
Does HAMPI cover scratch cards?
No. ETCB says instant lotteries, including scratch cards, are not covered.
Does the restriction end after the period I choose?
No. The selected 6–36 months is the earliest point after which you may separately request removal. The restriction continues until the removal process is completed.
Will HAMPI close my accounts or return my balance?
The reviewed ETCB sources do not say that HAMPI closes an account, returns a balance, settles open bets, permits withdrawals, deletes stored data, stops marketing, or requires reopening. Ask the operator through its current official route, but do not delay an urgent restriction solely to resolve those items.
Source review
This guide was reviewed on 27 July 2026 against ETCB's current restriction instructions, operator-access instructions, placement and removal forms, and legal-operator page. The support section was checked against the current Gambling Addiction Counselling Centre, Estonian Social Insurance Board, and Emergency Response Centre pages.
Recheck the official pages before relying on a copied recipient, form, contact hour, or processing time. The direct e-MTA service and source links above remain the controlling routes.