Google Lifts Gambling Ad Restrictions in the U.K.

As of Friday, Google will allow gambling related advertising to appear against search results aimed at users within the U.K. The decision effectively reverses the search giant's blanket ban on all forms of gambling-related advertising, including play-for-fun sites, which came into effect in 2007.

Advertisers have been briefed on the new system this week, and searches for terms such as "Poker" and "Online Gambling" already return numerous placements from bookmakers and online gambling services such as Ladbrokes, bet365 and Virgin Casino.

"Over the last few months we've been reviewing our gambling advertising policy in Great Britain to ensure it is as consistent as possible with local business practices. Following the review we've decided to amend our policy," said James Cashmore, industry leader, entertainment and media, Google U.K., in a statement.

Gambling-related ads will only be displayed to users within the U.K., and will be subject to Google's "non-family safe" categorization. In short, this means the ads will only be shown in search results pages, not on sites in Google's content network. In addition, they will not appear when the "safe search" family filter is switched on.

Any advertiser within the European economic area will be permitted to purchase ads served to U.K. users, providing they have the necessary license to do so; however, Google will continue to prohibit gambling-related advertising on its properties outside of Great Britain.

Although it may also be legally obliged to relax its policies in other regions, a Google spokesperson said it currently had no plans to do so. "The U.K. seemed like a sensible place to start," he told ClickZ news, citing the relative acceptance of gambling related advertising within British culture.

The spokesperson insisted the move was by no means prompted by current economic conditions, stating, "These policy reviews have been going on for months. They are conducted over time."

"We see this as a positive move," Duncan Parry, chief solutions officer at digital marketing agency Steak Group noted in a statement e-mailed to ClickZ News. You only have to look at Google Trends for gambling keywords to know how much UK consumers want to gamble online and are using search engines to find gambling sites."

He went on to suggest, however, that the opening up of search as a major gambling-related ad medium could have a detrimental effect on other online channels. "It will be interesting to see how the eco-system of gambling brands, guide sites, affiliates and other channels that feed customers through to Web sites is affected," he said.