If you’re an app publisher or developer, one thing becomes clear once ads enter the picture: ignore the rules, and the consequences become your problem. If only it were that simple. An ad that’s perfectly compliant in Germany may violate advertising rules the moment it appears in Belgium. Serve it in Brazil and mandatory warning messages become part of the creative. On top of that, Apple and Google enforce their own platform policies worldwide, regardless of what individual countries allow.
For publishers, compliance isn’t just about what an ad says. It’s also about who sees it and where they see it. A user’s age and location can determine whether an ad is permitted at all, and that variability plays out inside a single mediation stack running the same campaigns across dozens of markets.
Gambling advertising illustrates this challenge better than almost any other category. Keeping up with the rules isn’t about understanding one law. It’s about navigating a patchwork of national regulations, platform requirements, and ongoing legal changes across the markets where your app operates. What follows is a reference point for understanding that landscape, not a substitute for legal advice specific to where your app operates.
Platform Policies That Apply to Every Mobile Publisher
Before country-specific gambling advertising laws come into play, every mobile publisher must first comply with the rules of the app stores. Apple and Google both prohibit gambling advertising in apps intended for children, require gambling-related apps to carry the appropriate age rating, and expect developers to comply with applicable local laws wherever an app is distributed. These requirements apply regardless of geography, and violations can result in app rejection, removal, or action against a developer account.
Meeting platform policy, however, doesn’t guarantee compliance with local law. An app can satisfy Apple or Google’s requirements and still violate gambling advertising rules once an ad is served in a specific market. Platform policies establish a common baseline, but they don’t replace local regulation. Once an app meets Apple and Google’s requirements, publishers still need to comply with the gambling advertising laws of every market where their ads are served.
Europe’s Patchwork of Gambling Advertising Rules
Europe doesn’t follow a single approach to gambling advertising. Instead, countries have chosen different ways to balance consumer protection, public health, and a regulated gambling market. Some have concluded that gambling advertising should disappear from public view almost entirely. Others still permit it, but only under strict conditions governing who can see it, when it can appear, or how it’s presented. Understanding those different regulatory models is far more useful than memorizing individual countries.
Near-Total Advertising Bans
Belgium and Italy have taken the most restrictive approach. Belgium’s Royal Decree of 2023 prohibits nearly all gambling advertising, making it one of Europe’s broadest advertising bans. Sports sponsorship is being phased out separately: stadium advertising ended in January 2025, and a full ban on shirt and team sponsorship follows in January 2028. Italy’s Dignity Decree (Law Decree No. 87/2018) similarly bans gambling advertising across all media and sponsorships. Italy’s rules are enforced by AGCOM, with fines starting at €50,000, and in July 2026 the Court of Justice of the European Union reinforced Italy’s enforcement approach in a case involving Google.
Targeted Advertising Only
Rather than prohibit gambling advertising altogether, the Netherlands has focused on restricting who can receive it. The Dutch Gambling Authority’s Untargeted Advertising Ban (2023) allows operators to advertise only to existing, age-verified customers aged 24 and older, reflecting a shift away from broad public campaigns. New guidance published in March 2026 clarified how operators and third-party advertising platforms are expected to demonstrate compliance, while the government continues to explore even stricter restrictions.
Time and Content Restrictions
The UK, Germany, and Spain all allow licensed gambling advertising, but each places limits on when it can appear and what it can say. The UK’s Gambling Act 2005 and the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice prohibit advertising that targets minors or associates gambling with financial success, while a new rule effective January 2026 bans promotional incentives that combine multiple gambling products. Germany’s State Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV 2021) restricts broadcast advertising for online casino games, virtual slots, and online poker to between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., and prohibits ads featuring active athletes or sports officials. Spain’s Royal Decree 958/2020 restricts gambling ads on TV, radio, and YouTube to between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Several provisions, including rules on celebrity endorsements, were struck down by the Supreme Court in a 2024 ruling, and Spain’s gambling regulator opened a public consultation in 2026 aimed at reinstating some of what was removed.
Responsible Gambling Frameworks
France, Sweden, and Ireland place greater emphasis on how gambling is advertised than on whether it can be advertised at all. France’s Loi n° 2010-476 first created a gambling regulator, ARJEL, and a 2019 ordinance replaced it with the current Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), which prohibits gambling advertising aimed at minors. Sweden’s Gambling Act (Spellag, 2018) requires moderation in marketing, bans advertising directed at anyone under 18, and mandates responsible gambling messaging. Ireland’s Gambling Regulation Act 2024, now being implemented in phases, established a dedicated gambling regulator and will introduce watershed restrictions prohibiting gambling advertising on television and radio between 5:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. once fully commenced.
North America’s State-by-State Compliance Challenge
North America’s gambling advertising rules are shaped at multiple levels rather than by one governing framework. In the United States, the FTC enforces general truthfulness standards for advertising, but the actual rules governing how, where, and to whom gambling may be advertised are set state by state, a structure that took hold after the 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal ban on sports betting and allowed states to legalize and regulate it individually. Canada follows a similar pattern, with provinces, rather than the federal government, setting most gambling advertising requirements.
That fragmentation sharpened further in 2026. Colorado’s Sports Betting Protections Act (SB26-131), effective August 12, 2026, became the first state law to prohibit sportsbooks from sending promotional push notifications or text messages encouraging bets, while also restricting marketing aimed at people under 21. The law also bans funding bets with credit cards, a violation classified as a class 2 misdemeanor, while the marketing restrictions carry civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation through the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission. Connecticut’s Public Act No. 26-53, signed in May 2026, restricts gambling advertising on college campuses and prohibits AI-powered personalized betting offers. At the federal level, the proposed Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement (GAME) Act of 2026 would ban targeted sports-betting ads to minors on large digital platforms, with FTC enforcement and civil penalties if enacted, though it remains introduced and has not passed.
Canada’s provincial approach produces a similar outcome. Ontario’s AGCO iGaming Standards (2022) prohibit advertising gambling inducements except to existing players; a separate 2024 amendment added a ban on ads featuring active professional or amateur athletes. The AGCO has already fined operators for violations, including a CAD $110,000 penalty against BetMGM Canada for offering cash to induce new customers, and administrative penalties can reach CAD $200,000 per breach, with registration revocation as the final sanction. For publishers, that means there isn’t one North American gambling advertising standard to follow. There are dozens, each evolving on its own timeline.
Latin America’s Fastest-Moving Market: Brazil and Beyond
For nearly 70 years, gambling was largely prohibited in Brazil. Fixed-odds sports betting was legalized through Law No. 13,756/2018, and Law No. 14,790/2023, known as the Lei das Apostas, established the regulatory framework that supported the launch of the country’s regulated betting market on January 1, 2025. Barely a year and a half later, Brazil was already tightening how that new industry could advertise, making it one of the clearest examples of how quickly a gambling advertising regime can change once a market opens.
Two measures introduced in 2026 drove that shift. Portaria SPA/MF nº 1.964/2026, effective July 17, 2026, requires fixed-odds betting advertisements to display one of three mandatory warning messages covering at least 10% of the ad’s visible area. Portaria Interministerial MF/SECOM/MJSP nº 73/2026 prohibits misleading betting advertising, classifies advertising directed at children and adolescents as abusive, and requires digital platforms to prevent betting advertising from reaching minors. Enforcement is shared among the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, the Ministry of Communications (SECOM), the National Secretariat for Drug Policy (SNDD/MJSP), and Senacon, Brazil’s consumer protection authority, which can suspend an operator’s advertising registry status for violations.
Elsewhere in the region, regulation remains more decentralized. Argentina has no single national gambling advertising law. Buenos Aires City’s Ley 538, Article 12 restricts gambling promotion to factual information, requires addiction warnings, and prohibits minors from appearing in promotional material, while other provinces maintain their own rules. Mexico’s Ley Federal de Juegos y Sorteos, first enacted in 1947, permits licensed gambling advertising under the oversight of the Secretaría de Gobernación, although much of the framework predates modern digital advertising. For publishers operating across Latin America, that means Brazil now sets the pace for regulatory change, while neighboring markets continue to rely on older or more localized frameworks. A campaign that satisfies Brazil’s newer requirements may still need separate review against provincial rules in Argentina or Mexico’s federal law before it runs elsewhere in the region.
Asia-Pacific’s Diverse Gambling Advertising Frameworks
Asia-Pacific brings together some of the world’s largest mobile markets, but not a single approach to gambling advertising. Some countries have mature, licensed gambling industries with detailed advertising rules. Others prohibit most forms of gambling promotion altogether or limit it to tightly controlled operators. For publishers, geography matters as much as the ad itself, because moving from one market to the next can mean moving into an entirely different regulatory environment.
India has adopted one of the world’s strictest gambling advertising regimes. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 prohibits advertising for real-money online games, with violations punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to ₹50 lakh, or both. The law’s implementing rules took effect in May 2026.
Australia, by contrast, regulates rather than prohibits gambling advertising. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 bans advertising for unlicensed interactive gambling and restricts gambling ads during live sports broadcasts between 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. A 2026 reform bill would go further by capping television wagering advertisements at three per hour and tightening sports sponsorship rules, but it remains under Senate committee review and has not yet been enacted.
Japan tightened its framework in 2025 through amendments to the Basic Act on Measures Against Gambling Addiction, giving authorities grounds to order the takedown of online ads and blocking of sites that solicit unlicensed online gambling to an unspecified audience. There is no criminal penalty attached to the advertising provision itself, though using an offshore casino as a resident remains separately a criminal offense.
Several other jurisdictions follow similarly restrictive models through licensing and criminal law rather than advertising-specific legislation. Singapore’s Gambling Control Act 2022 makes advertising unlawful gambling an offense, while licensed operators may advertise only with regulatory approval. Malaysia’s Common Gaming Houses Act and Betting Act, both dating to 1953, tightly restrict gambling promotion. Thailand’s Gambling Act 1935 prohibits advertising that encourages participation in unlawful gambling, while Hong Kong’s Gambling Ordinance bans advertising for unauthorized bookmaking. Although the legal mechanisms differ, the outcome is largely the same: where gambling itself is tightly controlled, advertising for it is usually treated the same way.
Why Regulatory Fragmentation Is the Real Compliance Challenge
If there’s one pattern to gambling advertising regulation, it’s that there isn’t one. Markets are introducing new restrictions on different timelines, platforms continue to update their own policies independently, and markets that only recently legalized betting are already rewriting the rules around how it can be advertised.
For publishers running campaigns across dozens of countries, that fragmentation is the real compliance challenge. No mediation setting or geo-targeting rule configured today accounts for a law that didn’t exist last year, and manually tracking dozens of jurisdictions market by market isn’t a realistic long-term strategy. Putting these requirements into practice is a separate challenge altogether. Our guide to gambling ad compliance for mobile apps explores the operational side of enforcing gambling advertising policies across a global ad stack.
A note on accuracy: Gambling advertising law changes quickly, and jurisdictions frequently amend, delay, or overturn their own rules. This guide reflects the regulatory landscape at the time of publication and should not be treated as legal advice.
