Expect to see advertisements from Pennsylvania online casinos when you use Google in the near future.

The same thing will happen in New Jersey, Deleware, and Nevada as well. Online casinos or online poker are available in each of those states in addition to Pennsylvania. Gambling Compliance (paywall) reported on the change in the long-standing Google policy last week. The search engine giant produced over $116 billion in advertising revenue last year.

PA, NJ, DE, and NV will have gambling ads

The tech giant is updating its gambling and games policy to allow PA, New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada to enable online casino ads.

If you travel to Las Vegas and expect to see ads for a variety of online casino games, don’t. Nevada does not permit most online casino games but does allow online poker.

Google’s new policy has no exact launch date. However, the policy could change as soon as the end of December or more likely in early 2020.

Change by Google comes as online gambling takes off

While there are still only a few states with legal and regulated online casinos, the list of states with online sports betting is growing by the week.

The policy change will permit online casino operators in the four states to routinely run ads via Google Ads, Google Display Network, YouTube, and AdMob.

The various platforms have specific niches:

  • Google Ads emphasizes connecting with clickable keywords, the most familiar form of internet advertising.
  • Google Display places display ads across the internet.
  • YouTube generates ad revenue from video ads placed before and during user videos
  • AdMob targets mobile apps users.

Google Ad Manager not part of the deal

Google Ad Manager, which gives publisher some leeway about which ads appear on their sites, remains off-limits for gambling ads

Would-be advertisers will need to apply for certifications meant to assure age-verifications and a responsible gambling message.

Google began heading in this direction last June when it allowed sports betting ads in New Jersey. The company soon added Nevada and West Virginia to the list.

Then in October, Google allowed sports betting ads to appear in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, and Rhode Island.

No changes so far at Facebook

Google already allows gambling ads in many other countries where it operates. The Google Play Store, on the other hand, will continue its policy of no real-money gambling apps.

Facebook, on the other hand, is generally unreceptive to all gambling advertising. The company accounts for about 22 percent of internet ad revenue.

Facebook has a new play-for-fun provision for gambling in some non-US jurisdictions. However, that’s only on the country level, and not state-by-state, and does not extend to the US.