YouTube takes an even harder stance against gambling sites

Posted by author March 4, 2025 Gambling

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Summary

YouTube is cracking down on gambling content, enforcing stricter policies starting March 19, 2025.
Creators can’t direct viewers to unauthorized sites or promise guaranteed returns.
Age restrictions may be applied to videos with gambling content to protect younger viewers.

Despite things looking the same, YouTube is always evolving, bringing new changes that affect the experience for viewers and creators. While the platform used to be a bit more free, the brand has had a harder stance on certain types of content over the past few years, cleaning up the platform in an effort to really expand its viewership. With that said, it looks like YouTube is now taking aim at online gambling content, making changes to its existing policies that will take place starting on March 19, 2025.

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More changes that will make the platform safer for young viewers

The home screen in Incognito mode in YouTube on Android.

Currently, YouTube doesn’t allow creators to direct their viewers to gambling websites, apps, or services that are not authorized by Google. There’s a pretty long and substantial list which is split into different regions, so YouTube does provide a pretty wide lane here at the moment.

YouTube is expanding this policy to cover any links that are mentioned, along with any logos or images that are displayed on YouTube as well. While not a huge deal, it does look like the platform is trying to close any loopholes that might have existed with its current policy.

YouTube also goes on to state that it may remove content if the creator makes promises of “guaranteed returns”. Perhaps the most important change is that videos that feature gambling sites or apps may be age-restricted, preventing younger viewers from accessing the video at all.

Although this may have an effect on creators, the important thing here is that YouTube is once again trying to protect younger viewers. In addition to the above, YouTube recently announced that changes will be rolled out for creators in regard to mid-roll ads, providing a more seamless watching experience.

While they currently do a pretty good job of interrupting the viewing experience, the new change promises that the ads will be injected into the content in more natural areas of the video. Not only will this new change benefit viewers, but it will also hopefully help content creators retain viewership as well.