By Ben Charny, 4 August 2004 09:00
NEWS Some gambling ads on Google, Yahoo! and other major websites are illegal in California, according to a new lawsuit.
The 60-page filing, presented in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that the companies sell rights to web advertisements based on searches for terms such as "illegal gambling," "internet gambling" and "California gambling."
The online businesses also use geotracking software to target particular regions, including California, for illegal gambling ads, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit demands that the companies stop accepting the advertisements and give California "millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains," said attorney Ira Rothken, one of several attorneys from firms involved in the class-action lawsuit.
The suit is the latest to involve internet gambling, which has become a multibillion-dollar-a-year business and is usually focused on online poker or blackjack. Wireless interests, including mobile phone service providers, also offer gambling opportunities to their subscribers.
Yahoo! and Google, in turn, rake in a majority of the millions of dollars gambling firms spend on advertising, according to the lawsuit. Representatives from the two companies did not return a call seeking comment.
In all, about a dozen high-profile web companies are named as defendants. Included among them is CNET Networks, publisher of silicon.com.
Ben Charny writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. Mike W
Didn't some Americans express outrage at France (and some other countries) wanting to block web content that was offensive, under the Freedom of Speech principles ?
Sauce for the goose ...!
2. Mark Jones
With consideration to the last comment, thankfully America is a place where different people are able to express different opinions. This lawsuit is the action of the Californian governing authories whereas those complaining about censorship in France are primarily grass-root-level 'Net users, campaigners for free information and the "hacking" fraternities. Lumping them all together is not very insightful and is typical of the "let's bash America for any and no good reason" brigade.
America is a democracy and differences in opinions in a democratic nation should not be interpreted as national hypocrisy. (I am British).