Mixed feelings for online advertising agencies, following Google policy change on gambling.
On Friday 17th October, Google opened up its pay per click advertising platform which displays sponsored listings above and alongside organic search results, to gambling companies in the UK provided they’re registered with the UK’s regulator - the Gambling Commission and to any companies in Europe that are registered with their own national gambling regulator.
This follows the prior introduction by the UK government of a ban on gambling websites from outside of the European Economic Area advertising to Internet users in the UK.
Google AdWords ads will not however be displayed to Internet surfers in Northern Ireland who will have to search further on the Internet, or enter mis-spellings, in order to seek out opportunities to fritter away their money. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK not included in Google’s recent change in online advertising policy.