Google has set the rules: starting September 14, all advertisers in the iGaming and gaming categories on Ads must undergo continuous certification. Previously, certification was more like a one-time ticket—once approved, there was basically nothing to manage. The new rules directly link eligibility to long-term compliance records, and accounts with poor records can be revoked at any time. In other words, certification has become an asset that needs to be maintained.
This time it is targeting the MCC manager accounts commonly used by agencies. If client accounts under them repeatedly violate rules or repeatedly lose certification, the entire MCC may lose even the ability to apply in the future. Platform solution teams that place ads through agencies also need to pay attention: whether the other party's account pool is clean directly affects whether your ads can run.
Google also reiterated three eligibility conditions, which will be enforced more strictly going forward: free subdomains will not be certified; domains must be owned and directly controlled by the applying entity; and domains unrelated to iGaming cannot be temporarily certified just to run ads. This is a reminder for white-label platform teams—the secondary and tertiary domains that come with template sites cannot pass certification. When the platform goes live, it should use its own independently registered domain, and this must be written into the checklist during the platform system selection stage.
The domain registration entity, platform operating entity, and ad account entity should be aligned as much as possible; ad placement plans should not rely on free subdomains; when choosing a standard platform solution package or a customized plan, confirm independent domains and compliant materials as deliverables in advance. Ad entry points are becoming more expensive, and the account record itself is money.