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Google has tightened its US gambling rules again, this time pulling the plug on horse racing affiliates and comparison sites across its ad network.
Effective 1 December 2025, Google Ads’ updated Gambling and Games policy for the United States bans any ad that promotes online horse racing betting via aggregators or third-party promoters. The change took effect immediately when Google published the update in its policy changelog.
Considerations of the new changes, and who’s affected?
Under the new rules, Google will no longer show ads that promote online horse race betting via comparison sites, tipster portals, or other affiliate-style pages targeting US users.
At the same time, the company is cancelling all existing certifications previously granted to “horse racing aggregators” and closing the door to any new applications from similar sites.
In practice, that means US-facing racing affiliates can no longer use Google Ads across search, display, or video to drive traffic to Racebook partners, even when those partners hold full licenses of their own.
Operators can still advertise racing
Google has drawn a clear line between aggregators or third-party intermediaries and operators. While affiliate-style activity is now out of bounds, the company says that licensed online gambling operators may continue to directly advertise their own horse racing products in the US, provided they hold the relevant gambling certification and meet existing rules on age-gating and responsible gambling.
That carve-out keeps the door open for major racebooks and sportsbook brands but will remove a layer of third-party marketing that many operators have relied on.
No official statement from Google on its stance on online horse betting?
Google has not offered a detailed public explanation beyond the short policy note. However, the move fits into a broader tightening of gambling rules that the company has implemented from 2024 to 2025.
Earlier this year (2024-2025), Google tightened its gambling definitions and documentation, expanded country-specific controls, and raised certification hurdles for advertisers, including affiliates. In October, it also reclassified sweepstakes casinos as gambling rather than social casino games, responding to regulatory pressure on the dual-currency models.
According to industry analysts, the horse-racing move may be part of a broader effort to curb higher-risk, referral-driven models and to maintain clearer accountability with licensed operators.
Channels and future outlook
The update applies to Google Ads campaigns targeting United States users across search, display, and video, in line with the platform’s general gambling rules. Some formats (such as Gmail and Shopping ads) were already off-limits for gambling content and remain so.
For now, the horse-racing aggregator ban is US-only. Google has not announced similar changes for other markets. Still, its gambling policy is explicitly country-based and regularly revised, so affiliates should expect further fine-tuning rather than a one-off shift.
Source: PPC Land
