Google’s new rules squeeze gambling affiliates

• Google’s certification requirements for gambling and games advertisers took effect on 14 September, extending checks first introduced in select markets in March.
• Manager Accounts face tighter scrutiny: repeated certificate revocations, or repeated violations across accounts they manage, can now put an entire account’s certification eligibility at risk.
• The update follows a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling that found Google cannot automatically claim liability protection for gambling videos posted by a paid YouTube partner.

Google began enforcing tougher certification checks for gambling and games advertisers on 14 September, expanding rules first tested in a handful of markets since March to cover every category under its Gambling and Games Policy.

Without a valid certification, an account cannot serve gambling ads, and Google can withdraw a certification once granted if an advertiser breaches the policy.

Agencies on the hook

The March version of the Gambling and Games Policy asked advertisers in selected gambling markets to show a solid compliance record before Google would certify them. That bar now applies everywhere the policy reaches, and Google says it will judge advertisers on both their licensing status and how well they have followed its rules in the past.

Manager Accounts, the structures agencies use to run several advertiser accounts from one login, come in for particular scrutiny. Affiliates and aggregators, which often sit inside shared agency accounts, are among those most exposed. Google set out the stakes for agencies managing several clients through one account.

Google said:

“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.”

In practice, one client’s repeated violations can now threaten certification for an agency’s entire client book, not just the account where the breach happened.

Domain lines drawn

Google also repeated domain rules that were already part of the certification application, spelling them out again for anyone who missed them the first time. A site built on a free subdomain still will not qualify, a common setup among smaller affiliate operators. The domain submitted must be directly owned and controlled by the advertising business, and standalone domains unrelated to gambling remain ineligible for certification.

Google told advertisers that only the English-language version of the policy counts for enforcement purposes, whatever language they read it in.

This certification update is separate from a change Google made to its Ad Manager Authorized Buyers policy from 10 August, which added 16 markets, including Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom, and lifted the requirement for authorized buyers to certify individual end advertisers there.

That update decided where gambling and social casino ads can run through third-party programmatic buying. September’s rules decide who can place ads directly through Google Ads, and publishers in the newly added markets can still block gambling categories through Ad Manager’s brand protection tools.

Legal front widens

The certification changes land weeks after a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union that could reshape how platforms handle gambling content posted by paid partners, including the affiliate-style creator deals that underpinned this case.

In July, the court found that Google could not automatically rely on its hosting exemption for gambling videos on YouTube where it had reviewed a creator’s channel, its most-viewed or newest videos and their metadata for the purpose of forming a commercial partnership. The case traces back to a €750,000 ($854,250) fine that Italy’s communications regulator, AGCOM, imposed on Google over YouTube videos that breached the country’s Dignity Decree, which bans gambling advertising outright.

AGCOM’s original 2022 decision also ordered Google to remove more than 630 videos from the channels involved, and separately fined the content creator €700,000. The Italian court that referred the case to the CJEU will now rule on the underlying fine using the court’s interpretation, and Google has said it is reviewing the judgment.

Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report put separate numbers on its enforcement effort, saying the company blocked or removed 270.7 million gambling and gaming ads and restricted a further 123.9 million.

The certification push is the latest in a run of market-specific moves aimed squarely at the affiliate channel. Google confirmed a ban on gambling-promoting content in Croatia, taking effect from 7 October and hitting affiliate and aggregator sites directly, and last year it reclassified sweepstakes casinos as gambling rather than social casino games, forcing them to meet the same certification standard as licensed operators.

For affiliates and the agencies that manage them through a shared Manager Account, the calculation has changed. Repeated compliance failures on any one client’s campaign can now put certification for the whole operation at risk, which is likely to push agencies toward auditing clients individually rather than managing them as a single block.

Affiliates will also want to check who else shares their Manager Account before the next review cycle catches them out.