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Google, Yahoo ban online casino ads
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-06 11:20
The popular online search engines run by Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. are
banning ads from online casinos, reacting to a U.S. government crackdown on
Internet gambling.
Mountain View, California-based Google expects to drop all casino ads by the
end of this month. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo is phasing out the ads in
its U.S. market, but allowing them to continue in 14 countries where the company
operates Web sites.
Yahoo's decision also affects Microsoft Corp.'s MSN site, whose search engine
depends on a Yahoo subsidiary, Overture Services, for its online casino ads.
 Google and Yahoo are imposing the ban as U.S. authorities increase pressure
on the media to stop ``aiding and abetting'' offshore Internet casinos that have
been illegally accepting bets in the United States.
The push recently prompted broadcast giants Clear Channel Communications and
Infinity Broadcasting to stop broadcasting the ads of illegal online casinos.
Overture spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens attributed the casino ban to a ``lack
of clarity in the current environment'' and a desire to conform with its parent
company's policies. Yahoo stopped accepting banner ads from online casinos in
2002.
Google believes the action will help ``provide the best search and
advertising experience for its users.''
Critics of the ban say it compromises the media's right to distribute
information.
The current legal status of Internet gambling in the United States is in
dispute. Some site operators have been prosecuted under the 1961 Wire
Communications Act, which was written to cover sports betting by telephone.
The General Accounting Office has estimated there are 1,800 Internet gambling
operations. Virtually all of them are based outside of the United States, posing
an enforcement problem for U.S. authorities.
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