Ethics Newsline®

SAN FRANCISCO
Internet superpowers Google and Yahoo! last week yielded to government pressure, announcing that they would strip their popular search engines of ads for online casinos by the end of April.

The decision comes after a wave of grand jury subpoenas last year targeted U.S. broadcasters, publishers, and Web sites accused of “aiding and abetting” online gambling.

Federal prosecutors have prodded the firms to abandon ads for online gambling firms, saying the ads may be illegal under theories not yet tested in courts, reported the New York Times.

Last week, Yahoo! and its Overture subsidiary said they would no longer run such ads due to a “lack of clarity in the current environment.” Yahoo! said it will still run the ads in foreign markets.

Google said it also would adopt similar restrictions, but would extend its ban to foreign markets as well.

Last week’s move will also remove online gambling ads from Microsoft Corp.’s MSN site, which is powered by Overture, reported the Associated Press. Search engine Lycos also has dropped the ads over the past several months.

While abandoning the ads is not expected to hurt the search engines’ revenues, the same may not hold true for the online gaming industry, which has relied on traffic from the sites to boost business, noted the Times.

“There’s been a general message sent to publishers from various agencies in the government that the legality of this advertising is unclear,” Dakota Sullivan, vice president for marketing at California-based search engine LookSmart, told the Times.

“There’s been a general shift in the atmosphere,” he added, noting that his firm is reviewing its own policies. “There’s a question of whether it’s legal, and, beyond that, whether it’s right.”