First: this is not a syntax error, just a notification that the function split() is deprecated, i.e. it will not be maintained and may -- possibly -- not be included in some future release. That being the case, you can certainly go ahead and replace it with [man]preg_split/man, but if you are getting any actual errors, I would prioritize dealing with them over dealing with notice-level warnings such as this.
Anyway, you could use preg_split() as:
$resticted_categories = preg_split('/ ?, ?/',
MODULE_PAYMENT_GOOGLECHECKOUT_RESTRICTED_CATEGORIES);
(Assuming I've correctly interpreted that you want to split on zero or one space followed by a comma followed by zero or one space)