Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have been fined a total of $31.5m by the US government for advertising illegal gambling websites.
Microsoft will pay $21m, Yahoo will pay $7.5m and Google will pay $3m in a settlement agreed with the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Microsoft's fine is the largest as its case dates back 10 years. The other two search sites have run gambling and sports betting adverts for a lesser period.
Charges by DoJ in the case claimed that the three companies had violated the Federal Wire Wager Act, related tax laws and the individual gambling regulations set up by individual US states.
The settlement follows 18 months of negotiations between the internet companies and the DoJ.
Microsoft's fine includes a $7.5m contribution to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children and an agreement to run a three-year $9m advertising campaign warning young people of the dangers of gambling.
Post your comment
Send an email to the Computing editor at feedback@computing.co.uk
del.icio.us
digg this
reddit!
Partnership with Intel will see hardware and software upgrade to improve film creation 08 Jul 2008
Virtualisation specialist also warns that full-year sales will be below expectations 08 Jul 2008
Fraud should be reported to police, not banks and consumers must have more protection, says Committee 08 Jul 2008
More news
Warmer datacentres and print management spearhead green push 03 Jul 2008
Open source tool in development to measure workload-based data centre carbon output 02 Jul 2008
Cutting fuel costs and improved services high on airline’s agenda 03 Jul 2008 More in depth
Advertising Marketplace
- Enterprise Accounting Solutions
- Business Intelligence Solutions
- Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
- Supply Chain Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Project Management Solutions
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Security Solutions
- Systems Management
- Networking and Communications Solutions
Featured jobs
More job opportunities