I got this email from Google concerning a change in their "AdWords policy" about advertising gambling sites and that I was "potentially affected by this policy change". I don't advertise any gambling sites... but I do have a directory that includes a gambling category. So I have now read a few threads here about some directories not allowing gambling sites... BUT they appear to be for other reasons... such as banking laws and PayPal. So can someone shed some light on this subject for me ? Gambling is legal in (some parts of) the US, and the big directories like DMOZ, Yahoo, and even G's own directory (from DMOZ) still lists those categories. If it matters... my directory is still new and there are no paid options for anything at this time. thanks,
You will probably find that online gambling is basically illegal in the USA. You'll probably find that the USA extends this to include people inthe USA gambling on offshore sites that are located in a country where those sites are legal. The USA has probably prohibited credit card companies from charging USA credit cards for such transactions. You'll probably find the gambling sites ask you to send the money via Western Unions (which the USA probably prohibits as well but is hard to enforce). You'll probably find that these prohibitions in the mind of the USA extend to promotion of the gambling sites that are legal in their jurisdictions in the USA. So if paypal is being used for paying for bets, or promotion of a site... the USA would look dimly upon this. If you have a gambling category, I suppose it would come down to whether you were promoting the gambling sites, or exercising your First Amendment Rights to discuss these sites in an editorial way. If you were outside the USA, hosting, you, etc, then none of this would be relevant... except to the extent you used services from the USA... !
So you're buying Adwords ads to promote your directory? You might wish to write them directly (whilst pointing out the hypocrisy in their own directory). Why it's my government's business whether I play the slots or blackjack, or not, I'll never figure out.