Google continues to keep the gaming industry on its toes, this time with an announced update to the company’s gambling advertising policy.
The new policy will specifically designated which countries are approved for gambling-related advertising and require advertisers to have a designated landing page with responsible gambling information.
The new policy will continue to allow aggregators and affilaites to promote legal online gambling sites so long as they “provide information about, or a comparison of, gambling services.” The will continue to be required to register with Google as a gambling advertiser. Affiliates that expand beyond the scope of information or comparison potentially face restrictions.
Affiliates also must ensure any operators they promote have active licenses and registrations for the markets they are advertising in.
Affiliates and aggreators will not be allowed to promote social casino games, however. Google defines social casino games as “online simulated gambling-style games where there is no opportunity to win something of value” and separately classifies affiliate promotion of games with virtual currency with real-world value are still acceptable.
The update was very clear that violations in the social category would be treated with a strong response.
“We take violations of this category very seriously and consider them egregious. If we find violations of this social casino games policy, we will suspend your Google Ads accounts upon detection and without prior warning, and you will not be allowed to advertise with us again,” the update read.
Both online gambling and social casino promotional sites will need to register with Google for certification.
The policy is set to take effect on April 14, 2025.
During the latest Catena Media earnings call CEO Manuel Stan noted that continued changes by Google impacted the affilaite’s bottom line in November and December. The changes in Google algorithms to cut down on spam and AI content, particularly content from third part providers, has had a huge impact on the affiliate industry in recent months.
