Is advertising internet gambling on search engines dangerous - Google Sued

Yahoo, Google and several other search engines have been sued in California for carrying gambling ads which gamblers have followed, and in due course lost money.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all Californians as online gambling within California is illegal. It is however unclear whether advertising of illegal gambling is illegal.

Search Engine Watch.Com also mentions that a casino advertising site, Casino City has launched another lawsuit claiming that there is a first amendment right to advertise gambling online.

It is fairly clear that online advertising of gambling does contribute to increased gambling and new online gamblers - to put it simply if it didn't work, the online casinos wouldn't spend the money. Legalities aside, if a gambler wants to gamble online they can go directly to the site - the rest of us don't need gambling pushed down our throats.

Online gambling advertising also seems to be targeted at the young (through excessive gambling advertising on peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa) or those with an interest in sports. This is not even considering the mass of advertising on the dark side of the net where advertising for gambling and pornography dominate sites with illegal content such as pirate software.

We don't need the internet's most used sites - Search Engines like Yahoo and Google - to be contributing to this growing problem. They have made a promise to get rid of gambling sites from their indexes, they should be held to their word.

GG