Google expands personalized YouTube gambling ads in the US, UK and Canada, while prediction markets face separate restrictions. | Source: Shutterstock
Share
Key Takeaways
Google has expanded personalized gambling advertising on YouTube in the US, UK, and Canada.
Restrictions on sensitive targeting, advertiser certification, and underage audiences remain.
Prediction-market advertisers face separate rules.
Google has expanded personalized gambling advertising on YouTube across the US, UK, and Canada, with prediction markets included among the products subject to its sensitive-targeting rules.
The change took effect on Oct. 30, but prediction-market operators face a narrower advertising route.
Google’s separate policy currently permits eligible campaigns only in specified US locations, leaving Britain and Canada outside that approval.
What YouTube’s Gambling Advertising Change Allows
Personalized advertising lets businesses direct campaigns toward audience groups selected based on specific characteristics or interests.
Google’s targeting rules distinguish between audiences it defines and those advertisers assemble themselves.
For sensitive categories, which include gambling, advertisers can use predefined Google audiences.
The company says those audiences are configured to exclude sensitive user signals.
Available targeting categories include interests, demographics,s and location. Google’s notice does not specify which targeting features were changed by the update.
However, advertisers cannot freely build their own customer groups for sensitive-category campaigns.
Google’s gambling policy states:
“You can’t use advertiser-curated audiences.”
Google also explicitly prohibits targeting based on health information related to gambling.
Prediction Markets Face a Separate Advertising Test
Google includes prediction markets within its gambling-sensitive advertising category, making the update relevant to an industry competing for mainstream attention.
However, permission to personalize an advertisement is only one part of the approval process.
“all applicable local financial, commodity, and/or gaming licenses”
Its approved locations currently cover the US, excluding Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, New York, and Ohio.
Britain and Canada are also not listed.
The US requirements identify qualifying CFTC-authorised exchanges and NFA-authorised brokerages offering access to specified exchange-listed products.
The policy separately prohibits ads for binary options that pay a fixed amount or zero depending on a financial asset’s price movement.
It comes as prediction markets face competing interpretations of their legal status.
As CCN previously reported, federal regulators are challenging Utah’s effort to apply gambling laws to event contracts.
Certification and Age Restrictions Remain
Google’s broader gambling advertising rules require approved locations, responsible gambling information, and compliance with relevant licensing requirements.
They also state that gambling advertisements must “never target minors.”
Separately, users under 18 are ineligible for personalized advertising of any kind under Google’s targeting policy.
The YouTube update, therefore, does not permit unlicensed crypto casinos to advertise simply because they accept digital assets.
The personalization change follows another adjustment to gambling advertising in October.
In a notice published Oct. 7, Google said certified online-gambling advertisers would become eligible for YouTube Masthead advertisements from Oct. 21.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
