I sometimes get visitors to the main site here looking for things like “poker adwords”, but a few things have changed with Google Adwords and gambling since the last time I wrote about it. When I wrote my main article about Google Adwords and their poker advertising policy, Google just plain didn’t accept advertising for online poker sites at all. So if you wanted to PPC advertising for poker on Google, you were just plain out of luck. At one time they even made their policy so strict that you couldn’t even use the word “poker” in any advertisement. (And I know they’re pretty draconian about Google Adsense and gambling too, although a lot of sites seem to get away with it. How Google Adsense on a gambling site would be profitable compared to other monetization strategies in the gambling niche is a whole other subject though.)

Google Adwords Policy Related to Poker PPC Ads and Gambling PPC Ads

So here’s what I read today on Google’s Adwords page about advertising online gambling on Google:

Don’t promote online gambling or related sites when targeting ads outside Great Britain, Italy, France, or Spain.

The operative phrase here is “outside Great Britain, Italy, France or Spain. I guess this means you can promote online poker as long as you only target ads in Great Britan, Italy, France, and Spain, right?

Not so fast. There’s more.

Google is helpful enough to actually define what they mean by “online gambling”. The Google Adwords definition for “online gambling” includes any of the following subjects: bingo, casino games, lotteries, sports betting, sports books, sites providing handicapping tips, gambling tutoring, gambling ebooks, “play for fun” gambling games, and affiliate sites. Basically they’ve done a pretty good job of getting specific about the various ways that online poker webmasters used to get around the ban on gambling ads. (It was a common practice for Google Adwords advertisers to promote a gambling ebook or a gambling tips infoproduct during the day, then switch the site content in the late afternoon or evening when Google employees went home for the evening.)

But there’s still more.

Poker Adwords on Google Targeting Great Britain

Not everyone can promote poker via Google Adwords just because their target audience is Great Britain. This type of advertising is restricted to advertisers registered with the Gambling Commission. (That counts me out.) Not only that, but you have to set up a separate Google Adwords account exclusively devoted to your online gambling ads. No fair using your regular account; Google Adwords needs to monitor their gambling advertising and poker PPC advertising closely. You also have to apply for and receive approval before you’re able to advertise poker via Google Adwords in Great Britain.

Poker Adwords on Google Targeting Italy

Maybe it’s easier to run poker related Google Adwords advertising in Italy? Nah. You still have to apply for approval before you can do Google PPC poker advertising in Italy.

And you have to be registered with the AASA.

AND you have to be using a .it domain.

Hey, if you thought the “Google Cash” strategy for advertising gambling affiliate programs via Google Adwords was going to be easy money, then buddy, you’re living in the good ole days.

Poker Google Adwords Targeting France and Spain

I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind this at all. At the beginning of their policy statement, Google Adwords says you can’t advertise online gambling anywhere but in “Great Britain, Italy, France and Spain”. But when you get to the part about poker and gambling adwords in France and Spain, this is what the policy states:

At this time, legislation in both France and Spain does not allow the promotion of online gambling ads, except by state licensed entities. Therefore, Google AdWords does not currently accept applications for online gambling in France or Spain.

So no luck there either. Now I’m going to include my advice to people who want to make money promoting poker on Adwords.

Randy’s Advice to People Hoping to Make Money Promoting Poker Via PPC or Google Adwords

Learn how to do SEO instead. It’s not that hard, and if you have the self-discipline to sit down and write remotely useful content on a regular basis, you’ll make a lot of money without having to use “poker adwords” strategies. And your profits will be better too, because if you’re using Google Adwords to promote poker, then you’re spending money on advertising that you don’t have to spend. Advertising money spent = less profit.

Also, keep in mind that Google changes its policies. My site doesn’t claim to be an authority on “poker Adwords” or “Google Adwords and gambling”. This is just the best information I could find on the subject by taking a look at Google’s guidelines here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Google, PPC . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.