(AsiaGameHub) – Google has prohibited hundreds of millions of gambling advertisements for violating its policies, with the technology leader noting that its safety personnel have been operating ‘round the clock’.
Even with these initiatives, Google continues to face regulatory scrutiny concerning illicit gambling across various regions, similar to other major tech corporations.
The Alphabet-owned company is utilizing its Gemini AI technology to identify ‘bad ads’—promotions on the Google Ads platform that fail to meet its guidelines and requirements.
Throughout 2025, the company obstructed or deleted 8.3 billion advertisements, which roughly translates to one prohibited ad for every individual on Earth (per Worldmeter’s April 2026 projections).
The gambling and gaming sector represented the eighth-largest group of prohibited advertisements, with over 270.7 million ads removed or blocked in 2025. Additionally, it was the third-largest category for restricted advertisements, totaling 123.9 million.
“Our teams have utilized sophisticated AI for a long time to detect and halt fraudsters, and Gemini enhances those efforts significantly,” stated Keerat Sharma, Vice President and General Manager of Ads Privacy and Safety at Google.
“Our systems evaluate hundreds of billions of data points—such as account longevity, behavioral indicators, and campaign trends—to neutralize risks before they impact users.
“In contrast to previous keyword-reliant systems, our current models have a superior grasp of intent, enabling us to identify harmful content and block it proactively, even when it is crafted to bypass detection.”
Which advertisements were taken down?…
Gambling-related advertising has become a higher priority for Google over the last year, driven by increasing public and political anxiety regarding the exposure of betting content—both regulated and unregulated—in various territories.
Concerns have surfaced in numerous nations, including the UK, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Australia, prompting a response from Google. In January, the company’s European headquarters, Google Ireland, declared that advertising regulations would become stricter starting in March 2026.
The Google Ads team at Google Ireland informed stakeholders that accounts with frequent certification cancellations or policy breaches could have their certifications withdrawn or future requests for Google Ads certification denied.
In its 2025 summary, Google detailed significant enforcement measures against publishers. An analysis of policy breaches by page volume indicated 9.7 million violations within the gambling and games publishing sector, ranking it fifth overall.
However, the report did not specify the status of these gambling platforms—specifically, whether the promoted operators held licenses in the regions they targeted through Google Ads.
This remains a critical point regarding the expectations placed on tech giants by gambling authorities. The frequency of unlicensed ads on social media has been frequently highlighted in the UK recently, amid intense discussions on regulation and taxes.
In Brazil, the emerging ‘Bets’ industry is still contending with a persistent black market that existed long before the legal market launched on January 1, 2025.
On Saturday (18 April), the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) contacted Google Brazil and Apple to seek ‘clarification regarding the presence of unauthorized betting apps’ in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
According to the MJSP, these gambling applications were not registered with the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), the regulatory body under Brazil’s Ministry of Finance.
The apps were flagged through monitoring conducted by the General Coordination of Rating Classification of the National Secretariat of Digital Rights (SEDIGI).
The MJSP has requested that Google and Apple provide comprehensive details on their internal guidelines, vetting processes, and a current inventory of all apps in the lottery, betting, and casino segments on their respective platforms.
Pressure persists for tech firms like Google and Apple, as well as social media platforms like Meta and X, to curb the spread of online gambling. Regulators in several markets, such as the UK and Brazil, have also pointed to the use of influencers to market illegal services.
Despite this, the California-based tech giant remains certain that its efforts to police the Google Ads platform are effective. It places significant trust in the Gemini AI system, with Sharma noting that Gemini has “vastly enhanced our capability to identify and halt problematic ads.”
“Our mechanisms intercepted more than 99% of ads that violated policies before they were ever displayed, and we are constantly refining our safeguards to stay ahead of sophisticated tactics,” Sharma claimed.
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