Google’s gambling policies are being tweaked to allow users greater opportunity to block gambling ads from invading their digital domain. 

On Thursday, Google announced that it will allow users to adjust their personal Ad Settings to limit being exposed to ads involving ‘sensitive categories’ such as gambling and alcohol. The opportunity will initially be offered to US users of Google’s YouTube video platform, with the changes hitting the wider Google product line and other countries in “early 2021.”   

Google VP Debbie Weinstein said the policy was the result of ‘feedback’ from users who “would prefer to limit ads in certain categories.” Some of this feedback resulted from users who clicked on Google feature controls such as ‘Stop seeing this ad’ and ‘About this ad.’ 

Users will have to proactively opt out of seeing gambling ads and Weinstein cautioned that Google users who tick that box will see “fewer” gambling promos rather than a complete blackout. Visiting certain sites and clicking on certain articles may still result in users being exposed to contextual ads for unwanted/forbidden fruit.