Why does Google ban gambling ads in the UK?
Google has been enforcing foreign legislation on people from the UK for some time now and they are losing money because of it.
Here in the UK gambling is a perfectly legitimate pastime with proper regulations and yet Google won’t let people advertise on Adwords for gambling related terms.
Why?
How can banning advertisers for things like “online casino” make any difference? The only thing hurting here is Google’s ad revenue. If they want to be responsible and stop people gambling then surely they should remove the organic listings too.
If I can walk down the high street and place a bet then why won’t Google let me do this by clicking on their adverts?
I have found this strange and frustraing. From what I understand, you can advertise offline gambling, but not online gambling.
I suspect it is to do with lawsuits rather than morals - but as you say, why does this not apply to organic listings too…?
Comment by Joe Williams — April 7, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
It seems to me that if Google were really worried about the moral implications of gambling that it would outlaw more than just online gambling in the UK…it’d take it global and kill all of the ads across the net that it has.
As to the point of this…I’d vote lazy maybe. Dumb possibly? Either that, or they just don’t give the searchers in the UK enough credit to realize that gambling is perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon. No matter how you slice this, the big G is definitely dropping the ball on this one
Comment by morgan — April 7, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
You raise a valid point but I think Google is covering it’s bases on this issue due to recent gambling advertising rules in the UK.
A quick search on the big G for “advertising gambling websites uk” will explain most of the issues which seem to boil down to the fact you can only advertise websites that are regulated by the Gambling Commission.
Rather than sift through the regulated and unregulated sites maybe Google has just decided not to bother with any online gambling sites for UK.
Added to this affiliate marketers wishing to promote gambling websites in the UK need to be regulated as well. For most I think this is more hassle then it’s worth and this is more a case of “can’t be bothered” more than anything else.
More info:
One thousand gambling websites face advertising ban
http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Press_notices/archive_2007/dcms090_07.htm
Ad ban looms for gambling websites
http://www.freelanceuk.com/news/2438.shtml
Off-shore gambling websites’ ads banned from UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/09/politicsandthemedia.advertising
Comment by John Blackmore — April 8, 2008 @ 9:32 am
i find it wierd how they see Yahoo allowing advertisers but still wont budge themselves? why carry on losing money?
Comment by dave — April 8, 2008 @ 12:03 pm