Facebook to Allow Online Gambling Ads

 Facebook announced new rules this week that would allow online gambling advertisements to be placed on the popular social networking site. This would allow online poker rooms, casino sites, sportsbooks and other similar organizations to target players through Facebook.

However, there are a number of restrictions that have been put in place with the project, presumably to protect the site from a myriad of legal issues. First, the site requires that all advertisers follow local laws when creating advertisements, as well as when determining who will see their ads. In addition, these ads may only target Facebook members residing in certain countries, as determined by Facebook itself.

In addition, several rules have been put into place regarding the United States. USA-based advertisers are allowed to place advertisements for online gambling on Facebook. However, these ads cannot target Americans; instead, they will be shown to potential players in the countries in which Facebook is allowing online gambling advertisements. While these restrictions won’t affect too many online gambling companies (few of which have any operations originating from the United States), it could impact affiliates, who would certainly like to use Facebook to target new players.

However, if you’re a small affiliate who is excited at the prospect of advertising on the world’s largest social network, you might want to think twice before jumping in. The minimum advertising campaign has been set at a hefty $30,000 – likely too large for smaller affiliates to afford, and perhaps even enough to price out some small gambling sites.

Still, the move is a definite change in policy for Facebook, which has never allowed advertisements for online gambling in the past. Facebook, which claims over 750 million active members, was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and three of his college roommates.