Google’s 2025 Ads Safety report reveals how Gemini is monitoring ads behind the scenes
Over 270 million gambling and gaming ads were removed or blocked by Google in 2025, with almost 10 million publisher violations handed out for online gambling violations, and around 124 million ads in the sector were restricted, according to Google’s 2025 Ad Safety report.
This makes illegal gambling the fifth most common vertical for infractions with 9.7 million publishers flagged for policy violations. It sits behind sexual content, dangerous and derogatory content, shocking content, and weapons promotion and sales..
“Bad actors are using generative AI to create deceptive ads at scale, and Gemini helps us detect and block them in real time,” explained Keerat Sharma, vice president and general manager, ads privacy and safety at Google.
“By the end of last year, the majority of responsive search ads created in Google Ads were reviewed instantly, and harmful content was blocked at submission – a capability we plan to bring to more ad formats this year.”
Gemini-powered tools blocked or removed over 8.3 billion policy-violating ads in 2025, with over 99% blocked before they were ever seen by a human, the report highlighted.
Gemini also helped the company to act on four times as many user reports as the previous year. Over 24.9 million advertiser accounts were suspended, and a further 4.8 billion ads were restricted in some form or another.
Incorrect advertiser suspensions were also reduced by 80% last year, which Google explained is partially thanks to Gemini’s enhanced ability to distinguish between “credible offer and an intricate lure”.
“This accuracy allows us to focus on two things in tandem: prioritizing the removal of harmful content while helping honest businesses keep their ads running,” Google said.
Of the removed ads, the largest offending category was in ‘abusing the ad network’, which covers malicious, deceptive, or manipulative behaviour that disrupts Google’s systems or harms users, according to Google’s help centre.
Following closely are ‘personalisation violations’ with over 755 million blocked across the year, which Google explained occur when advertisers use, collect, or share user data in ways that breach privacy policies, particularly concerning sensitive interest categories or personally identifiable information (PII).
More than 600 million ads were removed for policy violations, which are closely related to scams – a significant figure considering one of its biggest rivals, Meta, has come under scrutiny for repeatedly failing to prevent illegal financial ads.
In fact, it was recently uncovered that Meta made around $16bn from advertising online scams, banned goods, or illegal online gambling – equating to around 10% of its revenue.
This could explain Google’s push to keep its platform strictly content controlled, offering a safe and reliable alternative for advertisers who want to reach a wide audience, maintaining trust between advertisers and consumers.
