Google's Gambling Ad Certification Rules Now Apply to Every Advertiser Worldwide

From 14 September every gambling advertiser must show a clean compliance record, manager accounts with repeated revocations are barred, and free subdomains and unrelated domains are ineligible. Croatia is cut off entirely from 7 October.

• Google's Gambling and Games policy update took effect on 14 September, extending the certification requirements introduced in March to every category under the policy, according to Google's own advertising policy notice posted on 13 July
• All accounts seeking to advertise in any gambling and games category "must now demonstrate good policy health"
• Manager accounts with repeated online gambling certificate revocations, or whose managed accounts are repeatedly flagged for gambling violations while certified, forfeit eligibility for new certificates and may have existing ones revoked
• Sites on free subdomains are ineligible, the domain must be directly owned and controlled by the business, and domains unrelated to gambling cannot be certified
• The update follows revised certification forms for all jurisdictions on 26 August, a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in July on Google's liability for gambling content in Italy, and a ban on all online gambling promotion targeting Croatia from 7 October

The March Rules Become the Global Rules

Google has completed the tightening of gambling advertising certification it began in the spring, and the requirements that applied to selected categories now apply to every advertiser of gambling and games on its platform.

The change took effect on 14 September, as set out in a policy notice Google posted on 13 July. "On September 14, 2026, the Google Ads Gambling and games policy will be updated to expand the certification requirements launched in March to all categories under this policy," the notice states. "All accounts seeking to advertise in any gambling and games category must now demonstrate good policy health."

The most consequential clause concerns manager accounts, the agency and network structures through which most gambling advertising is bought. "Manager Accounts (MCCs) with repeated online gambling certificate revocations, or accounts under MCC management that are repeatedly flagged for gambling violations while using a certificate, will forfeit eligibility to apply for any new online gambling certificates and may have existing certifications revoked." The domain requirements, which Google says already existed on the certification application and are "being reiterated for emphasis", are that websites hosted on free subdomains are ineligible, that the domain must be directly owned and controlled by the business, and that domains unrelated to gambling cannot be certified. The "Certification" section of the policy was updated when the requirements took effect.

The March update, posted in January and effective 23 March, had introduced the "good policy health" standard and the manager-account penalty for the first time. On 26 August Google separately updated its certification applications and standards for all online gambling jurisdictions, online non-casino games and social casino games, requiring all new applicants to use revised forms and to ensure their licensing credentials and operational details are fully up to date with their regulators.

The Pressure Behind the Policy

SBC News notes that the changes follow a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in July that Google could not automatically rely on intermediary liability protections for gambling content uploaded to YouTube by commercial partners, in a case arising from a €750,000 fine imposed by Italy's AGCOM over videos promoting online gambling in breach of the Dignity Decree. Authorities in Spain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have also warned Google over its advertising liabilities, and the Dutch regulator reported 4,600 illegal gambling ads to Meta earlier this year. Separately, Google will prohibit all promotion of online gambling content targeting Croatia from 7 October, revoking existing certifications, following that country's advertising restrictions in force since January.

The Target Is the Agency, Not the Operator

Licensed operators already hold certificates and mostly keep them. The accounts that lose gambling certificates repeatedly are the ones run at volume by intermediaries: affiliate networks, performance agencies and the manager-account structures that spin up new advertiser accounts as old ones are suspended. Google's rule attaches the penalty to the manager account rather than the advertiser beneath it, so an agency whose portfolio keeps tripping the gambling policy loses the ability to certify anyone, including its compliant clients. That inverts the economics of grey-market advertising: the intermediary that profited from churning accounts now carries the risk for its whole book. Combined with the domain rules, which stop an advertiser certifying a throwaway site and then redirecting, it is the closest Google has come to making its own distributors police the traffic they sell.

Google Is Doing by Policy What Regulators Have Been Demanding by Law

The Dutch regulator's chairman wrote last week that his country was "far too small" to make global platforms cooperate and that Europe would have to do it; the Italian case shows the courts are already there. Google's response is to build the compliance obligation into the certification process before more member states impose it by statute, and to exit outright, as in Croatia, where national law makes gambling advertising unworkable. For the industry, the practical effect is that a gambling advertiser's Google access now depends on the compliance record of everyone its agency serves. The businesses with the most to lose are the ones that never held a licence and relied on the platform not looking too closely. From this week it is looking.

The rules are global, the penalties are collective and the enforcement is Google's. The regulators who asked for this will now find out whether it works.