December 22 - Nobody is safe from the DOJ's sometimes absurd crusade against
online gambling, not even the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN. The search engine
giants have relented and agreed to pay $31.5 million in fines.
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The Department of Justice imposed the fines upon Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.
and Yahoo Inc, claiming that they illegally advertised online gambling. To make
the claim sound really legit the DOJ said that
they were being fined for "corporate conduct the government found in violation
of the Federal Wire Wager Act, federal wagering excise tax laws, and various
states' statutes and municipal laws prohibiting gambling."
Hang on a sec. The Wire Act was written in 1961. Internet advertising did not
exist. The Internet did not exist. Surely the SE's could have had a case to
fight.
Microsoft is set to pay the lion's share, a massive $21 million. The
money will apparently be split between the United States
government and a completely unrelated charity: International Centre for Missing and
Exploited Children (ICMEC). Now don't get me wrong, that is most certainly a
cause that is worthy of support, but we are fining advertising platforms for the
apparent wrongs of online gambling. Surely we are losing the plot here?
In a statement, Microsoft said that the fines supports their ongoing
commitment towards online safety, and that hopefully this will stop kids from
gambling before they even start. The DOJ must be smiling. One of the biggest
search engines has just implied that every kid who will start gambling will go
on to be an addict.
Yahoo in turn will cough up $7.5 million. They are doing so even though they
stopped accepting gambling ads some years ago but that did not stop them from
"cooperating".
Google came off lightly at $3m and in a statement they said they do not admit
any wrongdoing. Then why are they paying?
Had this been April I would have been having a good old chuckle now but scary
as it may be, back at the DOJ they must be doing high fives now to celebrate a
"productive" year for at least themselves...logic aside...
Related Gambling Articles:
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- Live The Dream At Pacific Online Poker Room - 12-23-07
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- Online Gambling Cause Abandoned By EU - 12-19-07
- NFL Football Betting Preview For Bears Vikings - 12-17-07
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