Google has banned hundreds of millions of gambling adverts for breaching its rules, with the tech giant stating that its safety teams have been ‘working round the clock’.

Despite its efforts, however, Google still finds itself in regulatory crosshairs regarding illegal gambling across multiple markets, alongside some of its fellow Big Tech players.

Alphabet’s IT and tech firm has been using its Gemini AI tool to detect what it calls ‘bad ads’ – advertisements displayed via the Google Ads platform which break its rules and standards.

In 2025, it blocked or removed 8.3 billion ads, equating to around one banned advert for every person on the planet (based on the April 2026 estimate from Worldmeter).

Gambling and games consisted of the eighth-largest category of all banned adverts, with over 270.7 million ads blocked or removed in 2025. The sector was also the third largest category for restricted ads at 123.9 million.

“Our teams have long used advanced AI to identify and stop scammers, and Gemini takes that work even further,” said Keerat Sharma, Google’s Vice President and General Manager of Ads Privacy and Safety.

“Our models analyse hundreds of billions of signals – including account age, behavioural cues and campaign patterns – to stop threats before they reach people. 

“Unlike earlier keyword-based systems, our latest models better understand intent, helping us spot malicious content and preemptively block it, even when it’s designed to evade detection.”

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#Google #AdTech #AI #Compliance #DigitalAdvertising #GamblingRegulation #BigTech