Google Lifts Social Casino Personal Ad Ban
Get ready to see a mass of social casino adverts on the run up to Christmas, as Google will remove them from its sensitive interest category in December and allow targeted advertising for the gambling apps. We expect to see the industry take full advantage of this new-found freedom.
The reclassification officially takes place on December 4th, although not all advertisers will get the full power of ad personalization until March 2025.
Social casinos are free-to-play gaming platforms that include all the traditional online casino games like slots, table games and, increasingly, live dealer sections. With Gold Coins, or freeplay coins, the casino are simply free entertainment.
The social casino model also uses elements like leaderboards and challenge matches on social media, which will now be joined by more Google advertising.
Separately, you can find Sweepstakes casinos with Sweeps Coins given as bonuses. These can be redeemed later for real money and they are still banned by Google when it comes to personalized advertising. Physical casinos, private lotteries and many other variations of gambling remain on the list.
The search engine allowed general advertising, but now it has opened the doors for more refined and tailored adverts by removing social casinos from the sensitive industries list. Sweepstakes casinos will remain on there, though, so this might not be as big a change as we’ve seen reported elsewhere. Specifically Google mentions app campaigns, so it remains to be seen if this concession is actually more limited than we think.
“Specifically, the Gambling in personalized ads sensitive interest category will be updated to explicitly exclude social casino game App campaigns,” said a Google statement. “As a reminder, if a type of gambling ad is included in the gambling sensitive interest category, we do not allow personalization.”
