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Many Websites Sued Over Gambling Ads… For Breaking No Actual Law
Contributed by Mike on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004 @ 06:51PM
from the how-dare-they-run-ads dept.Is there a law in California against advertising gambling? It’s not entirely clear, to be honest, because the News.com article never bothers to say what the actual law is, so it’s tough to really analyze whether the lawsuits make sense without the context.
However, the lawsuit does claim that Google, Yahoo and a variety of other sites violate the law by providing ads on various gambling related keywords. No matter what the legal issues, the case raises a number of questions. First, should a local state law apply to advertising on an international site? This issue isn’t new, but it’s going to keep coming up until some sort of solution is agreed upon concerning how to handle local laws on the internet. More importantly, you have to wonder why, if this is illegal in California, why the case is being brought by private citizens rather than, say, the state of California? If you go and look at the actual complaint Actual Complaint (pdf file…) it turns out that this is a real stretch.
The reason News.com doesn’t point to the law, is because there isn’t a law the bans gambling ads in California. The lawyers don’t point to any law that actually make advertising of casinos illegal in California, but to laws that say gambling operations are illegal in California. From that, they extrapolate that if gambling is illegal, then advertising for casinos must be illegal. Of course, there are plenty of ads on both TV and highway billboards for casinos all around California, so it’s unlikely they have even the slightest bit of a case.
Major Web sites hit with suit over gambling ads
Published: August 3, 2004, 5:44 PM PDT
By Ben Charny
Staff Writer, CNET News.comupdate Some gambling ads on Google, Yahoo and other major Web sites are illegal in California, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
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 European cell 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 News.com.
Have
Well, that fits right in there with suing Macdonalds for being fat and suing Burgerking because you poured hot coffee in your lap.
Originally posted by Dominique
Well, that fits right in there with suing Macdonalds for being fat and suing Burgerking because you poured hot coffee in your lap.Those are perfect comparisons that fit this scenario absolutely.
“The defendants conspired with the Internet gambling Web sites to create and provide Internet advertisements to areas such as California in which Internet gambling is illegal with the knowledge and intention of persuading and directing California residents to visit these illegal gambling Web sites so as to illegally gamble in California,” the lawsuit states. “
Does California actually have a law in place? If not why do these morons continue to mislead people? You’d think the so called reputable media would be interested in presenting facts. Leave the gossip to national enquirer …
