A total of 17 million gambling-related ads fell victim to Google’s crackdown on non-compliant advertisers last year. According to a Wednesday report, the search engine took down 1.7 billion ads that failed to conform to its advertising policies in 2016. The figure posted was twice as large as the number of ads blocked in 2015.
Google explained that it has taken certain measures to purge its network from “bad” ads. In the first place, it has increased the number of ad categories that would not be allowed in the search engine. It has also upgraded the technology that spots such bad ads in order to be able to block violators more quickly and effectively.
In its report, Google noted that the number of ads that attempted at promoting gambling-related initiatives without the proper authorization to do so increased in 2016. By proper authorization the search behemoth meant ads that did not comply with the regulations in the countries they were intended for. Such ads accounted for 1% of all blocked ads over the course of 2016.
Aside from gambling-related advertisements, Google also removed 5 million ads that promoted payday loans, more than 68 million bad ads for pharmaceuticals, almost 80 million ads that featured misleading content, and over 23,000 self-clicking ads. In addition, nearly 7 million ads were blocked for trying to intentionally trick Google’s detection systems.
The search engine extended its clampdown to the so-called fake news publishers or websites in its AdSense ad network that deceived visitors into thinking they were actual news outlets. A total of 550 such publishers were reviewed in December 2016 and almost 200 of them were removed from the network for good.
Gambling-related ads, no matter in what form they are presented to the public, have always been the subject of bitter controversy, mainly due to the nature of the products they promote. Apart from the Internet, where gambling ads can pop-up from here and there, television is the other popular channel to be regularly opted for by gambling advertisers.
While it is a bit more challenging to block online gambling-related advertising content, television as a channel can be more easily monitored and regulated. For instance, it has become clear late last year that the UK may impose a daytime ban on TV gambling ads as a result from growing concerns over the availability of such ads to minors and other vulnerable people.
