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Amazon Advertising Policy Guide: Restricted Verticals

This unified reference guide outlines the campaign requirements, supply placement rules, audience targeting, and creative standards across five key restricted advertising categories on Amazon Ads.

General Setup & Account Requirements
  • Category Declaration: Advertisers must accurately select the relevant product category (e.g., "Gambling and Sports Betting") during account setup to ensure proper signals are passed to inventory suppliers.
  • Pre-Approval & Licensing: Pre-approval is required for Gambling & Games and Cryptocurrency campaigns prior to launch. Advertisers must submit proof of valid state or federal licensing and maintain active coverage throughout the campaign.
  • Pre-Approval Turnaround: The estimated SLA for pre-approval is 5 business days. Approved status is granted at the advertiser level and applies to future campaigns for one calendar year.
Category Rules & Targeting Restrictions
Vertical Allowed Sub-Categories Age & Demographic Restrictions Location & Geographic Restrictions
Alcohol Alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic alternatives (0–0.5% ABV), and accessories/merchandise. • Target age 21+.

• "Non-alcoholic" or "alcohol-free" products must follow identical targeting, dayparting, and placement restrictions as alcoholic beverages. 		Subject to regional and local laws.
Financial Services & Crypto Crypto/exchanges/wallets/NFTs, bank accounts, credit offers, insurance, BNPL, and payment services. • Demographic targeting prohibited for credit, banking, payment, debt, and homeowner/renter insurance. • DMA-level or broader targeting only.

• Postal/ZIP code targeting is strictly prohibited.
Gambling & Games Online gambling, offline brick-and-mortar casinos, social casinos, and prediction markets. • Target age 21+ (18+ for prediction markets). • Prediction markets: Detarget NV.

• Online Casino: CT, DE, MI, NJ, PA, and WV only.
Housing & Employment Real estate search, housing, job search platforms, career sites, recruitment, and military recruitment. • Demographic targeting (age, gender, marital/parental status) prohibited.

• Demographic or 3P audience targeting prohibited for job ads targeting individuals. 		• Highly granular geographic targeting (ZIP/postal codes) is strictly prohibited.
Retail SMB First-Party (1P) brands selling owned products and Third-Party (3P) retailers selling other brands. • 1P: Full usage of 1P in-market/lifestyle audiences across all placements.

• 3P: 1P audiences permitted only on non-store Amazon O&O. Open internet allows advertiser, look-alike, geo, demo, and performance + audiences. 		Determined by entity type (not destination landing page).
Supply & Placement Rules
  • Alcohol Inventory:
    • Open Internet: Allowed conditionally with accurate category declaration.
    • Amazon O&O Streaming TV & Twitch: Dayparted exclusively from 5:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Must exclude content rated NR, TV-Y, G, and PG/TV-PG.
    • Prohibited Channels: Alexa, Out-of-Home (OOH), and Sponsored TV are not available/prohibited.
  • Financial Services Inventory:
    • Amazon O&O Streaming TV: Exclude content rated NR, TV-Y, G, and PG/TV-PG. Frequency cap: 3x per 24 hours.
    • Twitch: Frequency cap: 3x per 24 hours. Homepage, first impression takeovers, and sponsorships are blocked.
  • Gambling Inventory:
    • Amazon Store (Display): Limited to official state lotteries running off the homepage.
    • Fire Tablet: Fantasy sports, sports betting, online casino, and offline casino only. Mature flag required, no autoplay, frequency cap: 3x per 24 hours.
    • Fire TV: Dayparted from 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM. Frequency cap: 3x per 24 hours; no Share-of-Voice (SOV) or takeovers.
    • Prime Video / STV: Restricted to PG-13 / TV-14+ content. Frequency cap: 3x per 24 hours.
    • Twitch: Must use category "Gambling and Sports Betting". No homepage ads; creator sponsorships reviewed case-by-case.
    • Amazon Music: Detarget Children's/Kids Podcasts. Interactive audio is prohibited; clickable ads must direct to mobile app/app stores only.
  • Housing & Employment Inventory:
    • Amazon O&O Inventory: Prohibits ads for specific dwellings, apartments, or individual buildings. Homepage placements are blocked for all employment/recruitment ads without exception.
    • Military Recruitment: Excludes content rated NR, TV-Y, TV-Y7, and G on Streaming TV. Limited to brand awareness messages only (direct recruitment prohibited).
    • Amazon Music Free: Excludes Children's Music and Kids Podcasts. Frequency cap: 1x per 24 hours.
  • Retail SMB Inventory:
    • 1P Retailers: Allowed across all Amazon O&O and Open Internet placements. May link out to external e-commerce sites from Open Internet (linking offsite from Amazon Store/Fresh/Whole Foods is restricted).
    • 3P Retailers: Prohibited from advertising within the Amazon Store. Allowed on non-store Amazon O&O and Open Internet provided ads link out to non-Amazon URLs. Cannot use IM/LS or custom audiences on Open Internet.
Creative Standards & Prohibited Content
  • Alcohol Restrictions: Must include required regional disclaimers and safe drinking messages. Prohibits depictions of excessive consumption, dangerous behavior while drinking, or claims of athletic/therapeutic benefits. Ads cannot link or refer to Amazon subsidiaries (e.g., Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh).
  • Financial Services Restrictions: Strictly prohibits Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), high-risk options/binary options/spread betting, financial distress loan services (credit repair, bail bonds), predatory payday loans, or get-rich-quick schemes. Payment service ads must promote methods usable on Amazon.
  • Gambling Restrictions: Prohibits depicting models/actors who are or appear under age 25. Prohibits depicting irresponsible gambling behaviors (e.g., chasing losses) or appealing to underage individuals. Must display responsible gaming resources where required by law.
  • Housing & Employment Restrictions: Salary/earnings references must be precise and verifiable. Prohibits pressuring statements (e.g., needing a better career, being laid off) or discriminatory language suggesting preference or exclusion.
  • Age Depictions: Models/actors appearing under 25 years old are strictly prohibited in Alcohol and Gambling creatives.
Creative Support Resources
  • Creative Agent: A self-service conversational tool available for building high-quality image, audio, and video ad assets.
  • Video Production Support: Amazon Ads creative producers assist qualifying Streaming TV campaigns with AI-generated and post-production services to deliver TV-quality video assets.