3 Search Giants and 10 Years of Illegal Gambling

We’ve all seen the tacky ads on our search engine results pages.  Or maybe you’ve seen flashing, annoying banner ads promoting online gambling.  But did you know that Google, Yahoo and MSN have all accepted millions of dollars from overseas gambling companies to be able to get prominent advertisements?

10 Years of Crap

The internet is already full of garbage that we don’t want to see, don’t care to buy into or don’t believe is worth the code that makes the site.  So we rely on the search engines to filter the bogus and present the legit.  Since 1997, Yahoo and MSN have actively accepted money to allow the advertisements enticing web surfers to go foolishly blow some money at their site.  Google went right out the gate doing the same thing around the turn of the century.  Don’t do evil… right.

To me, I think this was a bad move by all 3 companies.  Yes they need money (well except Microsoft).  Yes these were registered businesses offering gambling portals.  It may have not galvanized search users all too much, if at all, however it does send a clear message;  if you have cash then you’re welcome to peddle your services.  Regardless of what the US Government feels about online gambling.

The Man Steps In

Leave it to our government to get all up in arms when there’s money flying around and they’re not getting any.  October of 2006, the ability for credit card companies to accept charges for online gambling portals was brought to a screeching halt.  Domestic and international portals were given the smack down from that move.  The government didn’t get any money right at the time of that decision, but they weren’t done yet.

In a typical bass ackwards fashion, the government went after the big 3 search engines for the most damages.  No no, nevermind that the gambling companies were the ones dumping hordes of other people’s money into the whole thing, go after the places they advertised on.  That’ll teach em!

The owners of these operations did get their asses in a bind too.  Close to $40 million dollars worth of forfeitures and back taxes have been collected by our government against these companies and individuals.

In essence, that’s like a big movie studio suing a theater chain for showing their movie after it flopped and they lost money on it.  Don’t focus on the fact the theaters had nothing to do with the lame ass script, horrible acting, shoddy cinematography, and cheeseball soundtrack;  blame them for showing it.

I’m not giving the big 3 a ticket on the “No-Fault Express”, because they screwed the pooch on this one too.  Never accept money if it comes from an ethical fire-starter such as gambling, porn, or something else that most religions deem as unsavory.  Church and state have never really been separated in the US, so if you piss off one, you’re bound to rile up the other.

The Punishment

It was decided by the Justice Department this past Wednesday that the big 3 must pay out some fat cash, to the tune of $31.5 million bucks.  For those of you at home with your score card, that’s over $70 million dollars generated out of this whole thing.  The search engines got stung the hardest.

Microsoft - $20 million

Yahoo - $7.5 million

Google - $3 million

Ouch.  I mean, seriously dude.  Ouch.  Microsoft really got it the worst out of the 3.  That may be chump change to them, but it shows us which one of these 3 really didn’t give a crap about where their advertiser money was coming from.

Conclusion

Money.  Money in.  Money out.  The 3 search giants move on with their corporate lives, the government takes the money and does who knows what with it, the online gambling portals look for a new avenue to get rich again, and scores of everyday people could be still feeling the aftermath of what online gambling has done to them.

Sphinn This Twitter This Stumble This Trackback