when i was developing websites several years ago i set up a few w/ adsense. some had unique data and others i just threw up various scripts to gather data. it was one of those sites that google algorithm spotted because i was having the script post twice every half hour. as you can imagine, the posts add up quickly..surprising, i received a warning and wasn't banned. most of my accrued money from it came from posting handicapping advice..which is pretty close to gambling and against google's adsense TOS... (but they take advertising dollars from gambling websites..lol)
i haven't really tried to do much development in a few years, so there's $70 something dollars still sits in my adsense account. and i can't take it out until i reach 100. i'm sure once i do start it up again, when i get closer, i will get banned for something and google will confiscate the funds. i've just read so many horror stories and people can't do jack shit about it. google pretty much last say,..legal or not.
look at this story i found. guy sued google because of it and won!!!..fast forward to google's appeal of the decision...and he lost...lol...guess how much it was for......
couple years old..but a good read...here is a link to the story
why i sued google and won
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-..._b_172403.html
google gets slammed publicly by ny times and other outlets and appeals $760 verdict and obv wins
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-..._b_213176.html