The Department of Justice has imposed fines upon Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc, for the advertisement of illegal online gambling.
The big three agreed to pay the $31.5 million in fines to the United States government. The department of Justice said that the three search engine giants 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.”
The Federal Wire Wager Act was written into law in 1961, the internet was first widely put into use in the 80’s.
Microsoft will pay the largest set of fines, in total, $21 Million. Proceeds from the fines paid by Microsoft will be split among the United States government and the unrelated charity; International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC). Another chunk of the fines Microsoft will pay will go be spent on a more targeted public service campaign against gambling. The Associated Press states that the public service campaign will focus on college aged and younger persons.
“This agreement reflects our ongoing commitment to online safety,” the said in a statement made to the press. “We’re hopeful that our educational campaign will stop young people from gambling before they start.”
Yahoo will pay $7.5 million per their settlement with the US attorney’s office. $3 million in forfeiture, and another $4.5 in public service ads spread over three years.
“Yahoo stopped accepting online gambling advertisements years ago, and after the U.S. Attorney’s office contacted Yahoo with its concerns, we worked cooperatively over several years to reach this settlement,” spokeswoman Kelley Benander said on yahoo’s behalf in a statement.
Google got stuck with a little less than half of their average daily profit of $11 million dollars, with fines totalling $3 million. . A statement from John Murchinson Spokesman for Google Inc said;
“While we did not admit any wrongdoing, the Department of Justice has advised that online gambling is illegal in the United States and ads to promote it are improper,” as a result, “Google voluntarily discontinued running such ads, which were a very small part of our AdWords business, in April 2004.” he continued.
The United States Attorney’s office according to the Associated Press has led in the effort to put a stop to ‘illegal web-based gambling’. There is no distinction made in any statements thus far between sports betting, online poker, online casinos etc. Aside from a comment made by Catherine Hanaway n which she relays that the US Attorney Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. have all agreed to stop accepting ads for ‘sports wagering and other online gambling’, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said.
Online gambling is a $6 billion per year industry in the United States. “I do think the prosecution from this office has had a chilling affect on online gambling,” Hanaway said.
This is definitely not the first attack on online gambling in fact, the United States just finished up negotiations with Europe closing on a new trade plan in effort to make up for lost online gambling dollars from the United States.
We are even still in the midst of trade violations involving Antigua and Barbuda, and as the Associated Press reported, BetOnSports PLC was charged with and plead guilty to racketeering involving illegal sports bets taken by the company.
Company exec’s from BetOnSports PLC are still awaiting court dates. A civil settlement was reached in November 2006 in which the company made the agreement to close out US sportsbets. Hanaway’s office was also involved in these the prosecution of these cases – scooping more than $40 million in forfeitures and back taxes for the United States.
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