Where You Can and Cannot Advertise Restricted Categories: The Country Matrix
Gambling, crypto, pharma, dating and lending mapped against the US, UK, EU, Brazil, Australia, India and MENA. Open, gated or closed, and the detail that decides each one.
- Categories sit in one of three states per market: open, gated behind a certification or licence, or closed with no application route. A fourth state, gated but practically closed, is where most rejected advertisers actually sit.
- The US and New Zealand are the only two high-income countries permitting direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, so a US pharma funnel does not scale internationally.
- Gambling has the widest spread of any category: licensed and mainstream in the US and UK, banned outright in Italy and India, and heavily time- or channel-restricted across Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.
- Google grants certification per country, so a European or LATAM launch is several applications, not one.
- Chain liability is spreading: India, Brazil and the UK have all extended obligations beyond the operator to agencies, publishers and creators.
- The EU layer applies to every category: no profiling-based ads to minors, no targeting on special categories of data, and public ad repositories that make your creative continuously inspectable.
The most expensive assumption in international paid media is that a category behaves the same way in two countries. It usually does not, and the gap is often not a matter of degree. Some products are a licensed, mainstream advertising category in one market and a criminal offence to promote in the next.
This page maps the major restricted categories against the major markets, so a campaign plan can be checked against reality before the media is booked rather than after the account is suspended. Everything here was verified in September 2026 and every row should be re-checked before you rely on it, because this is the fastest-moving area of advertising regulation there is.
How to read this
Three states, and the difference between them decides what work is possible:
- Open. Advertisable under ordinary platform policy, subject to normal substantiation and targeting rules.
- Gated. Advertisable only after a certification, authorisation, pre-approval or licence submission, usually granted per country. This is an administrative problem.
- Closed. Prohibited by national law or platform policy, with no application route. This is a market entry problem, and no account structure changes it.
A fourth state is worth naming because it causes the most confusion: gated but practically closed, where a route formally exists but the licensing prerequisite is unavailable to you. That is where most advertisers who believe they have been unfairly rejected actually sit.
Gambling, betting and casino
The widest spread of any category, and the one where getting it wrong carries criminal rather than commercial consequences.
| Market | State | The detail that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Gated | Google certification per country, 21+, and targeting limited to states where the advertiser is licensed. DFS is the 18+ exception. |
| United Kingdom | Gated | UKGC licence plus CAP Code compliance. Since 1 September the Code also covers non-paid owned social targeted at UK consumers, regardless of company address. |
| Italy | Closed | Dignity Decree bans all gambling advertising and sponsorship. AGCOM enforcement, fines from EUR 50,000. |
| Belgium | Closed in practice | Near-total ban under the 2023 Royal Decree. Stadium advertising ended January 2025, shirt and team sponsorship ends January 2028. |
| Spain | Gated, heavily | Linear TV restricted to 01:00 to 05:00. Celebrity endorsement banned. |
| Netherlands | Gated, heavily | Untargeted mass advertising prohibited since 2023. Sports club and event sponsorship banned since 1 July 2025. |
| Germany | Gated | GlüStV 2021. 21:00 to 06:00 TV window for virtual slots and poker. |
| France | Gated | ANJ reviews operator advertising strategy. |
| Brazil | Gated, heavily | SPA licence. Ministry of Finance warning at 10% of the ad since 17 July 2026. Obligations extend across the whole advertising chain. |
| Australia | Gated, tightening | From 1 January 2027: live sport blackout, no athletes, celebrities or influencers, three TV ads per hour, inducement marketing restrictions. |
| India | Closed | Advertising an online money game is a criminal offence under the 2025 Act. Up to 2 years and Rs.50 lakh. |
| Most of MENA | Closed | Prohibited by national law across the region. |
Depth per market: Europe and the UK, Brazil and LATAM, Australia, United States, India.
Crypto and financial services
Licence-gated almost everywhere, and the licence is the binding constraint rather than the ad policy.
| Market | State | The detail that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Gated | Google crypto certification requires FinCEN MSB registration plus state money transmitter licensing, or a chartered bank entity. |
| United Kingdom | Gated, criminal exposure | FCA registration. Advertising cryptoassets to UK consumers outside the financial promotions regime is a criminal offence, regardless of where the firm is based. |
| EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway | Gated | MiCA authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider. Marketing communications must be fair, clear, not misleading, and state that no competent authority has reviewed them. |
| Everywhere | Closed | ICOs, DeFi trading protocols, crypto loans, unhosted wallets, trading signals and broker-review affiliate sites have no certification path on Google. |
Lending has its own trap: Google permits personal loans repayable in 61 days or longer, while Meta prohibits loans repayable in 90 days or less. A 75-day product is compliant on one platform and banned on the other, in every market. Full detail in the crypto and fintech guide.
Healthcare, pharma and supplements
The widest gap between the US and the rest of the world of any category on this page.
| Market | State | The detail that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Gated | One of only two high-income countries permitting direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising. FDA framework, plus Google certification and LegitScript for pharmacy and telehealth. |
| New Zealand | Gated | The other one. Medicines Act 1981, overseen by Medsafe. |
| UK, EU, Canada, Australia, most of the world | Closed for prescription DTC | Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines is prohibited. OTC, devices, wellness and clinic services remain available on their own terms. |
This is the single most common international scaling failure we see. A US telehealth or pharma funnel that performs well is often built on an advertising freedom that exists in two countries on earth. Extending it internationally is not a localisation project, it is a different product marketing strategy. See the healthcare and telehealth guide.
Dating and companionship
| Market | State | The detail that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| US, UK, EU, most of APAC and LATAM | Gated | Google certification in two tiers, General and Restricted. Meta requires prior written permission. TikTok treats dating apps as a restricted industry. |
| India | Gated | Not on Google's ineligible list. Certification and Meta permission still required. |
| Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal | Closed on Google | Dating ads not eligible to serve. |
| Most of MENA | Closed on Google | Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen. |
Full breakdown in the dating advertising guide.
The EU layer that applies to every category
Regardless of the national position on your vertical, three EU-wide rules apply once you target the bloc.
- No profiling-based advertising to minors under the Digital Services Act, and the ban cannot be overridden by parental consent. Meta, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat all removed targeted advertising to underage users in response.
- No profiling-based advertising using special categories of data, including religion, ethnicity, health, sexual orientation and race. Interest-based audiences that proxy for any of these are the failure mode, and the symptom is shrinking delivery rather than a rejection notice.
- Ad transparency. Ads must be labelled with who placed them and why the user is seeing them, and very large platforms maintain public ad repositories. Your European creative is continuously inspectable by regulators, competitors and complainants.
Consent sits alongside this. GDPR and ePrivacy mean conversion signal quality in the EU depends on a working consent management platform, and advertisers moving a US offer into Europe usually diagnose the resulting conversion collapse as a creative problem when it is a consent problem.
Six rules that hold across every market
- Certification is per country. Google grants it that way. Plan account structure around it before applying, because you cannot restructure mid-application.
- Platform approval is not a legal defence. A creative that clears review can still be unlawful under national law. The two systems are independent and only one of them can put someone in court.
- Chain liability is spreading. India, Brazil and the UK have all extended obligations beyond the operator to agencies, publishers and creators. Reading only operator-facing rules reads the wrong half.
- One global creative pool guarantees a violation. Celebrity assets are standard in some markets, banned in Spain, banned in Brazil for success-linkage, and banned in Australia from January 2027.
- Exclude closed markets structurally. Not as a targeting preference. Spillover into Italy or India is the exposure, and it needs auditing rather than assuming.
- Date everything. Log what each policy and each national rule said on launch day. When you appeal or answer a regulator months later, that record is the case.
Related
Start with the restricted products advertising guide for how each platform gates a category, and black hat, grey hat and dark area performance marketing for what the workaround terminology actually refers to. If an account is already down: Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Snapchat.
We run multi-market restricted campaigns through restricted vertical advertising, including the per-country certification work this page describes.
- Every row checked against regulator, platform or industry sources in September 2026.
- This is a summary for planning, not a substitute for a per-market legal review. Verify each row before you rely on it.
- Nothing here is legal advice.
What to verify before acting on Where You Can and Cannot Advertise Restricted Categories
Rules and platform behaviour change after an article is published. Confirm campaign policy, billing settings, attribution windows, conversion tracking, and platform changes against the Google Ads Help before you act on anything below, because the right answer depends on your entity, state, turnover, and current setup.
| Checkpoint | Why it matters | Where to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Current rule or platform status | Limits, forms, policies, and APIs can change after a blog update. | Google Ads Help |
| Your exact business case | A local shop, freelancer, D2C store, agency, and SaaS team rarely need the same next step. | Documents, invoices, campaign data, analytics setup, or workflow logs |
| Implementation evidence | The safest campaign decision is backed by proof, not memory or screenshots from an old setup. | Portal acknowledgement, dashboard export, invoice sample, test lead, or error log |
Going deeper: Restricted Vertical Advertising, Ad Account Recovery, and Performance Marketing.
Frequently asked questions
Which countries ban gambling advertising outright?
Italy prohibits all gambling advertising and sponsorship under the Dignity Decree, enforced by AGCOM with fines starting at EUR 50,000. Belgium operates a near-total ban under its 2023 Royal Decree, with stadium advertising ended in January 2025 and shirt and team sponsorship ending in January 2028. India prohibits advertising online money games entirely under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, as a criminal offence. Most of the MENA region prohibits it under national law.
Can I advertise prescription drugs outside the United States?
Almost nowhere. The United States and New Zealand are the only two high-income countries that permit direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines. The UK, EU, Canada, Australia and most of the world prohibit it. Over-the-counter products, medical devices, wellness services and clinic marketing remain available on their own terms, but a US prescription DTC funnel does not localise, it has to be rebuilt as a different marketing strategy.
Does a certification in one country work in another?
No. Google grants gambling, crypto, healthcare and dating certification per country, so targeting five markets means five applications with five sets of licensing evidence. Holding certification in one EU member state grants nothing in the next. This is the most common reason a European or LATAM launch planned as a single market stalls at the certification stage.
What EU rules apply to advertising regardless of my category?
The Digital Services Act bans profiling-based advertising to minors, and that ban cannot be overridden by parental consent. It also prohibits profiling-based advertising using special categories of data such as religion, ethnicity, health, sexual orientation and race. Ads must be labelled with who placed them and why the user is seeing them, and very large platforms maintain public ad repositories. GDPR and ePrivacy consent requirements sit alongside this and are the usual reason a US offer sees conversions collapse when extended into Europe.
Is platform approval enough to advertise legally?
No. Platform review and national law are independent systems, and only one of them can put someone in court. A creative that clears Google or Meta review can still be unlawful under the advertising law of the market it runs in. In India, Brazil and the UK, obligations now extend beyond the operator to agencies, publishers and creators, so the agency running a platform-approved campaign can carry liability of its own.
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