Gambling Ad Ban Widened

As early as 2004, both Yahoo and Google implemented bans on gambling ads, much to the dismay of the gambling industry. Today, the ban is being expanded to include sites that encourage people to gamble even though there is no money involved – in the UK at least. This is quite an irony, in fact, as the UK government is relaxing its laws regarding gambling.

The recent Google move includes tutorials relating to gambling, sites offering play-for-fun services, and any site which promotes gambling-related content. According to Google:

“Advertising is not permitted for online casinos, sports books, bingo and affiliates with the primary purpose of driving traffic to online gambling sites.
“This includes, but is not limited to, the promotion of online casinos and gambling activities, sports books, lotteries, bingo, poker, sites that provide tips, odds and handicapping, software facilitating online casinos and gambling, gambling tutoring online, gambling related eBooks, sites where the primary purpose is ‘play for fun’ gambling, or casino games of skill, and affiliates with the primary purpose of driving traffic to online gambling sites.”

This comes as a discouraging turn of events for avid UK online players. We do understand trying to help people avoid the gambling trap but what about those who are responsible enough and who just want to play for fun? It is true, banning ads will not stop anyone who wants to play a game online but this is just the beginning. Where will it end? Again on Google’s part, they claim:

“Google has always prohibited the advertising of things like bingo, poker and online casinos.
“However, having looked at this issue very carefully and considered the views of our users, we have decided to extend our policy.
“While we respect people’s differing views on gambling - and support freedom of expression - we believe that this new policy is simpler for everyone to understand and more in tune with users’ wishes.”