Scroll to the bottom of a brand-new casino homepage and you are usually looking at three payment logos, a copyright line and a slab of small print. From this week, for one class of site, that footer has a job.
Google’s revised gambling and games certification took effect on 26 August 2026. Per the published policy update, every new applicant must use the revised certification forms from that date, and a certified advertiser’s destination site is required to prominently display an age warning, addiction resources, terms and conditions, and a footer carrying the licensee name, the licence number and a privacy policy identifying the data controller. Operators are told to state their own licence details explicitly — registered business name and licence number. Affiliates and aggregators are told to carry a prominent statement in the same footer confirming that their outbound links go only to gambling entities licensed and authorised in the relevant geographic location.
Two structural changes travel with it. An advertiser aiming at more than one country now files a separate application for each country. And one account can no longer hold both online gambling and social casino certifications — those split. The policy also requires recertification on any material change to the information supplied, and says failure to do so could result in the account being suspended.
First, check off what this is. It is an advertising platform’s condition of sale. Google can decline to run an ad; it cannot grant, vary or withdraw a Great Britain licence, and none of this alters what the Commission asks of a licensee. A new casino that never buys a Google ad is untouched by the whole document.
Now check off what it is worth. The first item on our door checklist is licence visibility, and it is the one a footer can quietly fail: a Commission roundel with no number under it, or a number with nothing behind it. If a launch wants Google’s traffic, the number now has to sit on the page in a fixed, findable spot. That is not a verdict on anybody. It is a starting point that used to take hunting.
What comes next is unchanged, and it is the entire reason the number matters: take it to the public register, find the account, and confirm that the company, the trading name and the domain in front of you all sit on the same entry. A footer is the operator’s claim about itself. The register is the regulator’s record. Only one of those was written by the party asking for your deposit, so when they disagree, believe the register — and read the entry properly rather than glancing at the header.
One more item for the same sitting, before any welcome offer sets the pace: find the safer-gambling controls, and fix the ceiling you actually want while the figure is still hypothetical. 18+.