Google UK to Allow Online Gambling Ads on YouTube

June 22, 2010 | News Category: Online Casinos

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For quite some time, Google did not allow any kind of online gambling advertising on their well known and popular search engine. Recently, some online gambling ads have been allowed, and now, YouTube, which is run by Google, will be allowing online gambling ads for their United Kingdom viewers. This is just one more way that we can see Google relaxing the advertising restrictions that were in place for those in the UK.

Both online gambling companies and betting companies that offer their online gambling sites to UK players will now be allowed to advertise themselves on YouTube, by using age-restricted campaigns. There are a number of ways to use YouTube for advertising, and those that will be available for use include ads on the YouTube home page, ads within brand channels, and ads on video pages.

Viewers will only be able to view the content of the advertisements if they have verified that they are over 18. Those who have YouTube accounts where their age is listed as over 18 will also have the ads appearing on their YouTube pages when they are using the site.

As one of the larger players in the UK online gambling scene, Ladbrokes is the first of the UK gambling brands that has a display ad on the YouTube website. They are running a click-to-play campaign.

James Cashmore, of Google UK, expressed his confidence that the online gambling ads would only reach those who are in fact over 18 years of age. He said that he felt that those regulating the online gambling industry in the UK would be happy with the restrictions that have been placed on the advertisements that will be allowed on YouTube.

This was not a sudden decision that was made, as Mr. Cashmore explains: "We’ve been in discussions with brands and agencies about this for more than two years."

Google has been in touch with GamCare, an organization that helps and supports those with gambling problems. However, when the first advertisement was released, Google had not yet informed the gambling support group that these kinds of ads would be available on YouTube.

On October 16th 2008, Google once again allowed paid search gambling terms to be used on their search engine, after it had been totally banned before. A couple of months later, on December 4th 2008, spirit brands were given permission to advertise using the AdWords system for the first time ever. From these two forward moving actions, it was clear that Google was going in the direction of changing their advertising policy on a greater scale, as can be seen by the most recent development with online gambling ads on YouTube.