Gambling.com Turns into a Search Engine

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Gamblingcom-Turns-into-a-Search-Engine-38281.html

Gambling.com Turns into a Search Engine

Marketing Week
11/18/04 9:53 AM PT

Even though the government says online gambling is illegal in the U.S., an estimated 80 percent of worldwide gambling revenues come from U.S. players. U.S. players are logging on to Internet gambling sites based in other countries — including the UK — where they are legal.

Interactive gambling Web site Gambling.com has reinvented itself as a gambling-only search engine.

The company says the move has been triggered by the decisions of major search engine companies such as Overture (Nasdaq: OVER) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to ban online gambling sites’ advertising from being shown in the U.S.

London-based Gambling.com will no longer accept “traditional” forms of online advertising, such as banners, text links, pop-ups and sponsorship; instead, it will now only offer pay-per-click search advertising using a proprietary engine which has been developed in house over the past six months.

Widespread U.S. Gambling
Even though online gambling is illegal in the U.S., according to the American government, an estimated 80 percent of worldwide gambling revenues come from U.S. players. U.S. players are logging on to Internet casinos and gambling sites based in countries — including the UK — where they are legal.

The U.S. authorities have been trying to crack down on online gambling sites (wherever they may be based) for years, and have put increasing pressure on U.S. companies involved in running or providing services to such sites.

Major U.S. credit card companies now refuse to process transactions for such sites, while U.S.-based site owners and search engine companies, including MSN, Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) (which owns Overture) and Google have stopped taking their advertising.

Government Action
In May, U.S. marshals seized US$3.2 million (£1.7 million) from television and media company Discovery Communications. Discovery had been paid the money for U.S. TV advertising spots for ParadisePoker.com, an online poker “room” operated by Costa Rica-based online casino company Tropical Paradise.

Although the U.S. government says online gambling is banned under the Federal Wire Act, some U.S. courts have not supported its stance, and some states, such as New York, have refused to consider online gambling a crime.

And while U.S.-owned portals and search engine companies may refuse to show ads for gambling sites to U.S. surfers, they may accept them for display to surfers in other countries.

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