YouTube Regulated Goods Policy: Firearms, Drugs and Gambling

The YouTube regulated goods policy is less about what you talk about and more about what your video helps viewers do. A gun review, a casino stream or a documentary on drug use can all stay online; a shop link, a phone number or a build guide in the same video can get it removed – or, for some goods, end the channel. This page explains the rules for firearms, gambling, drugs, vapes, alcohol and pharmaceuticals as of October 2026, why seller links are the biggest risk, and how to appeal.

What does YouTube’s regulated goods policy cover?

YouTube’s regulated goods policy – officially “Illegal or regulated goods or services” – prohibits content that aims to directly sell, link to or facilitate access to certain goods and services, including by posting links, email addresses, phone numbers or other ways to contact a seller. As of October 2026 the list includes:

• firearms and certain firearm accessories, explosives;
• controlled narcotics and other drugs, non-regulated substances sold for abuse, and pharmaceuticals without a prescription;
• nicotine including vaping products, and alcohol;
• online gambling sites that are not certified;
• stolen financial data, counterfeit documents or currency;
• organs, endangered species, human smuggling, sex or escort services and unlicensed medical services.

The policy also bans, outside educational contexts, showing hard drug use or how to make drugs, showing how to use steroids for purposes like bodybuilding, facilitating the sale or creation of certain poisons, instructions for academic cheating, and minors drinking, vaping or using drugs. Like most Community Guidelines, it applies to videos, descriptions, comments and live streams, and to external links in any form. Instructions for weapons meant to kill or harm and for explosives sit in the neighboring harmful or dangerous content policy.

Are guns allowed on YouTube?

Yes, firearms content is allowed on YouTube – reviews, range footage, hunting, history and safety are all possible. YouTube’s firearms policy draws the line at selling and making:

• Not allowed: direct sales, including private sales, and links to shops, marketplaces or forums that sell firearms or certain accessories – such as parts that convert or simulate automatic fire and high-capacity magazines; instructions to make firearms, ammunition, high-capacity magazines or homemade suppressors; instructions to convert a firearm to automatic fire or install such accessories; instructions to remove certain safety devices.
• Not allowed on live streams: anyone holding, handling or transporting a firearm, whether or not it is fired. Video game firearms are excluded. According to YouTube’s policy-update log, channels that break this rule can lose live streaming temporarily or permanently – see upload or live streaming disabled.
• Age-restricted: real use of homemade firearms such as 3D-printed guns, automatic firearms and the accessories named above.

Links to sites that only discuss or review firearms are allowed as long as those sites don’t sell or give away the items. YouTube tightened this policy on June 18, 2024, adding the safety-device rule, the age restrictions and broader enforcement against purchase links. Educational, documentary and news content – including military, police and war-zone footage – can be an exception, but not for sales or build instructions.

What are YouTube’s gambling content rules?

Gambling content is allowed on YouTube with an age restriction; helping viewers reach uncertified gambling sites is not. As of October 2026:

• Content that facilitates access to online gambling or sports betting sites that are not certified is removed.
• Content that promises guaranteed returns from gambling is removed, whether or not the site is certified.
• Content that facilitates access to, promotes or depicts online gambling – including social and sweepstakes casinos – is age-restricted, even for certified sites.
• Exception: sports betting from Google-certified providers, or promotion of Google-certified gambling sites during a live sporting event, may be allowed for all audiences.

These rules were tightened in two steps, according to YouTube’s policy-update log: on March 19, 2025 for uncertified sites, guaranteed-return promises and age restrictions, and in November 2025 to cover gambling with items that have real-world monetary value, including digital goods, and to age-restrict social casinos. That last change matters for gaming channels that show skin or item gambling. What is legal and certified also differs by country, and YouTube expects creators to follow local regulations. Promises of easy money can additionally fall under the scam rules that hit many finance and crypto channels.

Drugs, vapes, alcohol and pharmaceuticals: where is the line?

The line is selling intent: discussing, reviewing or documenting is often allowed or age-restricted, while selling, linking or showing the way to buy is removed.

Documentaries and educational content can show drug use when they don’t explain how to make or buy drugs – YouTube’s own example is a documentary about drug use in a community that discourages it. But some content is not allowed even with educational context, such as content that sells drugs or prescription-only medicine without a prescription.

Why are links to sellers the biggest risk?

Because a link turns a permitted topic into facilitating a sale – and for some goods, YouTube treats that as grounds for terminating the channel. The policy says that providing links or contact details where hard drugs or certain poisonous substances can be bought, or where pharmaceuticals are sold without a prescription, may result in termination. The external links policy separately bans links to sites selling regulated goods, and it counts URLs shown in the video, spelled-out addresses and spoken directions.

For most other violations, the standard ladder applies: removal and usually a warning first, which an optional policy training lets expire 90 days after you complete it; then strikes – 1 week without uploads, then 2 weeks, and three strikes within 90 days may result in the channel being removed. A single case of severe abuse or a channel dedicated to selling regulated goods can be terminated without that ladder.

How do you appeal a regulated goods strike?

Appeal by showing that the video informs rather than sells: no link, no price, no contact, no purchase or build instructions.

1. Find the triggerCheck the video, description, pinned comment, end screen and anything you said aloud. Most regulated goods strikes come from a link or a sentence like “get it at …”.
2. Keep the videoDeleting it keeps the strike and ends your right to appeal.
3. Remove links elsewhereClear similar seller links from your other videos now, so a reviewer looking at the channel sees no pattern.
4. Gather contextTimestamps for safety information, educational framing or the absence of purchase details; for gambling, whether the site shown is certified in your country.
5. Appeal in timeStrikes and warnings: within 6 months, each strike once, via YouTube Studio → “Channel violations” → “Appeal”. Terminated channels: “Begin Review” → “Start Appeal”, within 1 year, two appeals in that year as of October 2026. Details: how to appeal a Community Guidelines strike.

Video: [video URL] – removed on [date] under the illegal or regulated
goods policy

The video [reviews / demonstrates / discusses] [item or topic]. It does
not sell anything or help viewers buy it: there is no link, price,
contact detail or purchase instruction in the video, description or
comments.

[If a link was the issue:] The link to [site] led to [an informational
page / a manufacturer’s specification sheet] that does not sell [item].
I have removed it nonetheless.

[If gambling:] The video makes no promise of winnings, and [describe
age restriction / certification status, if known].

If the video is unsuitable for younger viewers, please consider an age
restriction instead of removal.

The Appeal Kit adds the long version for escalation, the 5-part appeal structure and the 12 mistakes that get appeals rejected – €87, one-time, with a 30-day no-questions refund.

What are your realistic chances?

Your chances are reasonable for reviews, range footage, documentaries and age-appropriate gambling content where the strike came from an ambiguous element – and a successful appeal may end with an age restriction instead of full reinstatement. They are poor if the video contained a working purchase route: a seller link, a phone number, a “code” for a shop, a private sale. For links to hard drugs or prescription-free medicine, YouTube names termination as a possible consequence, and an appeal has little to argue with.

What should you not do?

• Don’t move a seller link into a pinned comment, a link-in-bio page or a spoken “search for …” – all count.
• Don’t live stream range days or gun transport, even without shooting.
• Don’t promise winnings, “sure bets” or guaranteed returns in gambling content.
• Don’t delete the video to clean up – the strike stays and the appeal is gone.
• Don’t open a backup channel for the same content while you have a strike or a termination. That is circumvention.

How do you keep a gun, gambling or vape channel compliant?

Separate information from commerce: the channel informs and entertains, and nothing on it helps a viewer buy.

• No shop, marketplace or seller links for regulated goods anywhere on the channel – including sponsor and affiliate links.
• Firearms: no build, conversion or safety-device removal content; no firearms on live streams.
• Gambling: certified providers only, no guaranteed-return promises, and expect age restriction.
• Vapes, alcohol, drugs: no minors on screen, no purchase routes, educational framing for harm-reduction content.
• Check new uploads and your back catalogue against these rules every quarter with the channel audit checklist.

Frequently asked questions