Search engine giants Google and Yahoo! are being taken to court over the advertising of online casinos. Despite that the United States Government already settled a claim with the companies for profiting millions by promoting illegal online casinos, their liability regarding the future will be further tested at a hearing on February 11th.
According to the lawsuit, Google and Yahoo! profited millions of dollars by advertising online casinos on their search results pages. The charges against them were settled in December with a multi-million dollar settlement, yet both companies have been evasive about the question of whether or not they did actually receive payments from online casinos to advertise. According to Reed Kathrein, the case's lead Attorney, "the agreement with the government does not go far enough...there is still more work to do in holding these companies accountable for the harm they have done to Californians, and to keep them and others from continuing these practices."
Kathrein explained that the aim of the trial is to prevent Yahoo! and Google from advertising online casinos in the future, and force them to admit that advertising online casinos in the US is illegal. In addition, the complaint demands that the companies donate the profits they earned from online casinos that have advertised with them to rehabilitation services for gambling addicts. However, the Federal Aiding and Abetting Statute marks the procuring of participants of illegal activity such as online casinos gambling as illegal.
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