Google Expands Gambling Ads to 37 Markets, Tightens Rules

Kyle Kevin

iGaming Writer

Fact Checked

More markets open to programmatic gambling demand. Fewer advertisers allowed through the front door. Google is doing both at once, five weeks apart.

Google is opening gambling advertising to 37 markets through its programmatic network from 10 August. Authorized buyers will be able to serve online casino, sportsbook, and social casino creatives across that expanded geography. The company told AdSense publishers in a mandatory service email on 20 July. According to that notice, the certification step currently applied to end advertisers in the programmatic channel disappears in those markets. However, a second change runs the other way. From 14 September, gambling advertisers buying directly through Google Ads face stricter certification. Licensing status and compliance record will both count.

The 37-Market Expansion

The list spans five continents. Asian and Asia-Pacific markets include Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. Europe accounts for the largest bloc, covering the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy’s neighbours Austria and Switzerland, the Nordics, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and much of central and eastern Europe. The Americas bring in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. South Africa, Israel, and Turkey round it out. The covered content is broad. It includes online casinos, sportsbooks, bingo and slot sites and apps, online lottery products, and sports betting. It also covers games using virtual currencies or in-game items carrying real-world value. According to Google, all advertising served under the expanded policy must comply with applicable local laws, regulations, and industry standards in each market. So inclusion on the list is not a statement about legality anywhere. That distinction matters, and our guide to whether online casinos are legal in Japan shows why.

Tighter Certification for Gambling Advertising

The September change targets advertisers, not geographies. It amends the Google Ads Gambling and Games policy rather than the programmatic rules. Advertisers will need to meet expanded certification standards to keep running gambling ads. They must also maintain what Google calls good policy health. According to the company, both licensing status and a record of compliance with platform rules will factor into approval. So a licence alone will no longer be sufficient. Operators with Gambling Ad repeated violations or weak compliance histories may be refused certification outright. Existing approvals can also be withdrawn. Marketing agencies face additional scrutiny where they manage multiple accounts. Repeated breaches across manager accounts could affect certification eligibility for the agency itself. That is a meaningful shift in accountability. An agency can no longer treat each client account as an isolated compliance record. In contrast to the programmatic expansion, this change narrows the field. Advertising-conduct enforcement also features in our report on the UK’s gambling sponsorship ban.

What It Means for Publishers

Publishers in the newly added markets should expect more gambling creatives. Google told AdSense publishers they may see a higher volume of gambling-related display advertising. However, the controls remain in their hands. Publishers can block individual advertisers. They can restrict specific authorized buyers. They can also block sensitive or general advertising categories through the Ad Review Center. So the expansion increases available demand without removing publisher discretion. The mechanics of the existing policy still apply. Google’s Authorized Buyers gambling policy includes a country table governing how gambling creatives serve across auction types. Creatives targeting countries outside that table are disapproved. The exception covers preferred deals and programmatic guaranteed arrangements where a publisher block override is enabled. Google said the full revised policy language publishes on the Authorized Buyers policy page on 10 August, the day the change takes effect. The company confirmed the update touches the Authorized Buyers policy alone. Other frameworks are unaffected. Trade coverage of gambling advertising policy, including AGBrief, tracks these platform changes.

Why Gambling Advertising Policy Is Splitting Two Ways

Google is not moving in one direction on gambling. It recently restricted prediction-market advertising in additional US states, tightening where those products can promote. Now it is widening programmatic gambling reach across 37 markets. The two are consistent under one rule: licensed, locally lawful gambling gets access, and everything ambiguous gets squeezed. Prediction markets sit in a contested classification, so they lose ground. Regulated operators with clean records gain it. The local-compliance requirement carries real weight in Asia. Several listed markets restrict or prohibit online casino play for residents even where advertising infrastructure exists. Japan is the clearest case, since online casino gambling is illegal there and players have faced prosecution. Appearing on an advertising list changes nothing about that. As a result, the burden falls on advertisers and buyers to know each market’s law. Google’s policy defers to local rules rather than overriding them. The prediction-market side sits in our report on Google’s prediction-market ad ban, and social-media promotion scrutiny features in our coverage of celebrity gambling giveaways.

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This article has been thoroughly researched and reviewed by the CasinoBait editorial team to ensure accuracy and relevance for Asian casino players.