Casino News

Google's gambling ad changes "encouraging"

2009-01-19 12:37:57

Google's decision to relax its rules on gambling advertising is a positive step for the gaming industry.

This is the claim of Brian Wright, spokesman for the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), who suggested that having a company as big as Google appearing to recognise that gaming adverts do not pose a massive threat could be indicative of public opinion.

In October last year, Google changed its AdWords rules to allow Gambling Commission-registered operators to market themselves to the UK.

Earlier this month, it expanded on this policy, allowing sports spread betting organisations, gambling aggregators and price comparison websites to also run adverts under various terms and conditions.

The move was welcomed by Mr Wright, the RGA's business director, who remarked: "As an industry, we've always welcomed the opportunity to regulate [advertising] responsibly and [Google's policy change] is an encouraging step indeed."

He suggested that his organisation may point to Google's decision when discussing marketing regulation with the Advertising Standards Authority.