Google ends use of “Rich Results” for gambling products

The search giant has announced that gambling operator and affiliates will no longer be able to use rich results to mark up their offerings.

US.- The tech giant Google has updated its content guidelines for how ads are displayed in search results on its eponymous search engine. Gambling operators and affiliates will no longer be able to use a format that Google terms Rich Results to mark up products in search results.

The change applies as of this month as part of a wider policy on the listing of “high-risk products“, which also covers firearms and other weapons, tobacco, vaping and recreational drugs. The Rich Results function allows advertisers to instantly display certain product information such as price, availability and star rating on a product’s keyword search results.

Google said: “We don’t allow content that promotes widely prohibited or regulated goods, services, or information that may facilitate serious, immediate, or long-term harm to people.”

The move will apply in all jurisdictions irrespective of whether gambling advertising is permitted locally. There will be no manual actions in Google Search Console for violation of the new guidelines. Google simply won’t show the Rich Results in the results displayers on Google Search.

Several countries are expected to announce new rules on gambling advertising imminently. The Netherlands is expected to go ahead with a ban on untargeted gambling ads following a ban on the use of role models in adverts that came into effect on June 30. And some measures on ads are expected as part of the UK’s overhaul of gambling legislation.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, gambling operators have claimed that the country’s national lottery used its influence to lobby for a ban on all other gambling advertising.