Gambling News - June 2005 Edition

"Google, Yahoo Lose Bid to Dismiss Gambling Ad Suit"

Gambling losers sue advertisers of gambling sites. We were driven to gamble!

Two men, Mario Cisneros and Michael Voight both claim that they used sponsored links which they found at search engines or on Web sites to locate online casinos where they gambled and eventually lost money. Now they are bringing a case against Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc. and other Internet search engines. They have brought the case on behalf of the Californian public. The lawsuit is based on the fact that advertisements for online casinos appear on the computer screen alongside the search results. This has raised legal issues surrounding online gambling sites and asks whether search engine companies are allowed to display advertisements or trademarks for such sites.

Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc., Ask Jeeves, and the ten other Internet search engine companies that are being sued went to court and tried to persuade the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, but California state Judge, Richard Kramer from San Francisco, ruled in favor of allowing the evidence gathering process of the case to continue. Ira Rothken, a lawyer for Cisneros and Voight, said, “The court gave us a green light to move forward. Unless the case is settled it’s extremely likely we’ll go to trial,” he said.

Rothken pointed out that Yahoo! made as much as $12.97 each time a person clicked on an ad that directed him to an illegal Internet gambling web site. Since the filing of the lawsuit, most of the search engine companies have ceased displaying advertisements for online gambling sites.

Steve Langdon, a spokesman for Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, noted that Google does not permit advertising for online casinos, and added “the whole case is without merit.” Langdon cites company guidelines that were established prior to when the suit was even filed that prohibit ads “with the primary purpose of driving Internet traffic to online gambling sites”.

If the stock market is an indication, Google, Yahoo!, and Ask Jeeves don’t seem to be suffering from the possible lawsuit looming overhead. On Monday, Google shares rose $10.68 or 3.8 percent to a record $290.94 on the Nasdaq. Ask Jeeves shares rose 23 cents to $31.33 and Yahoo! Shares rose 60 cents to $38.52.

But the search engine companies were reluctant to comment on the case. Colby Zintl, spokeswoman for the search engine company, Ask Jeeves, said that the California-based search engine company doesn’t comment on pending litigation and spokeswoman for Yahoo!, Joanna Stevens, did not respond to calls seeking a comment on the case.

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