INTERNET GIANTS NAILED FOR ONLINE GAMBLING ADS

21 December 2007

Major US companies pay millions in settlement, agree to halt online gambling ads


The US Department of Justice has scored another victory in its war against online gambling, intimidating US giant Internet companies Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! into paying millions in fines and to desist from carrying online gambling advertising.

The US Attorney's office in St. Louis announced the settlements, believed to involve some $31.5 million today (Wednesday), saying that the companies concerned "did not admit or deny" federal prosecutors' claims that as much as a decade of the advertising aided and abetted a crime – specifically online gambling.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said that the settlement ends years of investigative work and 12 to 17 months of negotiations with the companies, and brings the total of Internet gambling-related settlements reached with the St. Louis office to $70 million.

The St. Louis Despatch reports that one of the specialties of Hanaway's office is the prosecution of online gambling activities. Her office recently reached civil and criminal settlements with BetOnSports, once one of the largest online gaming companies, that has closed the company down and left its executives detained awaiting trial.

Google agreed to pay $3 million cash. Microsoft agreed to pay $4.5 million to the U.S., plus $7.5 million to the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and $9 million to fund a three-year public service ad campaign aimed at educating users that online gambling is illegal. Yahoo! agreed to pay $3 million and run their own $4.5 million, three-year ad campaign.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa