| Real
Casinos> 2007
- Real Casinos News Archive>
Google Extends Online Gambling Ad Ban To Free Play
Sites
Total ban on UK online gambling ads now in force at
Yahoo! and Google
The giant search engine and information site Google in the UK has
extended its ban on Internet gambling adverts to embrace play-for-free
sites with immediate effect.
Hitherto, advertisers were able to run ads on the search engine
promoting free-to-play gambling websites. Now, that policy extends
to cover all online gambling sites, including those where no money
changes hands.
Google and Yahoo! have both recently banned advertisements on pay-to-play
online gambling websites in the UK, but Google are the first major
engine to ban all forms of online gambling advertising from their
service.
In the past, gambling websites have tried to work around this legislation
by advertising free sections of their sites, or separating domains
devoted to free gambling on search terms like "online gambling"
in order to generate traffic. Now, these sites will no longer be
visible.
Gambling websites have previously used this method to gain details
from a user and manipulate this information to launch highly targeted
email marketing campaigns directly to the customer, in order to
entice them to sign up for pay-to play games.
A Google spokesperson detailed the changes in a statement released
today:
"Google has always prohibited the advertising of things like
bingo, poker and online casinos. However having looked at this issue
very carefully and considered the views of our users, we have decided
to extend our policy. We will no longer take ads for sites that
promote gambling related content or gambling tutorials or whose
primary purpose is `playing for fun', gambling or casino games of
skill.
"While we respect people's differing views on gambling - and
support freedom of expression - we believe that this new policy
is simpler for everyone to understand and more in tune with users'
wishes."
This leaves MSN as the only one of the three major search engines
still allowing advertising for pay-to-play gambling websites in
the UK.
|
