Google to Ban Gambling Affiliate Ads in Croatia From October 7
Under the policy update published on September 9, Google will revoke all existing certifications for advertisers of online gambling-promoting content in Croatia and stop accepting new certification applications.
Google separates operator advertising from gambling-promoting content in its gambling policy. The policy identifies aggregator and affiliate sites providing information about or comparisons of gambling services as the permitted form of online gambling-promoting content.
Affiliates Lose Access While Operators Remain Eligible
From October 7, the change creates a clear split in paid acquisition through Google Ads:
- Existing gambling-promoting content certifications will be revoked.
- New applications for those certifications will no longer be accepted.
- Advertising of online gambling itself will remain permitted where Google’s country-specific requirements are met.
That means the update is not a blanket Google Ads ban on gambling in Croatia. Licensed operators will retain access to the platform, while affiliates and comparison sites covered by the gambling-promoting content category will lose the certification route entirely.
Google’s current Croatia requirements allow advertising for online lotteries and bingo, casino games and betting. Gambling and betting operators must be licensed by the Croatian gambling authorities, while lotteries and bingo are restricted to Croatian Lottery LLC.
For affiliates, the practical impact is therefore stronger than a new compliance condition or tighter approval standard: the relevant Google Ads certification will cease to exist for campaigns targeting Croatia.
Google Is Also Tightening Gambling Certification Rules Globally
The Croatia change comes days before a separate global Google Ads certification update takes effect on September 14.
Under that policy, accounts seeking to advertise in any gambling and games category must demonstrate good policy health. Manager Accounts with repeated gambling certificate revocations, or repeated violations among managed accounts using certificates, may lose eligibility to apply for new online gambling certifications and may also have existing certifications withdrawn.
Google is also reiterating that certified advertisers must directly own and control their domains and that sites hosted on free subdomains are not eligible.
The September 14 requirements were announced in July and are separate from the new Croatia-specific restriction. In Croatia, however, Google is going further for gambling-promoting content: rather than raising the certification threshold, it is removing certification availability altogether from October 7.