Google Welcomes UK Online Gambling Ads

Google has announced it is to relax its policy on online gambling ads in the UK.

Online gambling companies will be able to use paid search ads on Google to market their services to British punters from today.

The search engine giant banned gaming businesses from its AdWords service in all territories 16 months ago because of concerns about legal problems in the US.

However, it has now decided to accept ads from gaming companies registered with the UK's Gambling Commission or businesses in the European economic area which are licensed by the relevant local authority.

The move means that people in England, Wales and Scotland can expect to see text ads for online poker, casino and bingo companies when they type gambling-related search terms into Google.

Although the relaxation of the rules only applies to three territories, industry analysts have predicted it will earn Google tens of millions of pounds.

Lyndsay Menzies, managing director for digital marketing agency bigmouthmedia, welcomed Google's about turn, but warned it could cause some problems in the advertising industry.

"It will certainly lead to a big switch in the way that advertisers and agencies manage search engine optimisation campaigns for gambling sector clients," she added.