 Screw the Sporting News
They have to spend 3 million over the next 3 years to educate the public about the evils of intenet gambling.
Sporting News Settles Gambling Ad Case for $7.2 Million
Published: Thursday, January 26, 2006
Author: Dan Katz
The United States Department of Justice announced last week that sports media company, The Sporting News, has agreed to settle a case in which it was accused of promoting illegal gambling websites through broadcast and print advertisements. The amount of the settlement was a whopping $7.2 million.
The terms of the settlement will have The Sporting News pay a $4.2 million fine as well as complete a $3 million, three year public service campaign to educate the public about "illegal" internet and telephone gambling.
The United States attorney's office in the Eastern District of Missouri began an investigation into internet gambling in 2003, reaching settlements with some American media companies who have run gambling ads. Other companies were questioned for information.
The amount of the settlement is based on profits The Sporting News made from gambling advertising between spring 2000 and the end of 2003. The company argues that it stopped running the ads when the government notified it that they were illegal, six months before the end of 2003.
Perhaps the most shocking and unsettling part of this development is the irresponsibly ludicrous statement by prosecutors (as related by Catherine L. Hanaway, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri) that running advertisements for gambling companies is comparable to running ads for child pornographers and drug dealers.
Wipe your eyes and read that again. Running advertisements for gambling companies is comparable to running ads for child pornographers and drug dealers.
Talk about exaggeration. So what do we think prosecutors think of land-based, U.S. casinos? Sure, they are legal, but they provide essentially the same service as online gaming companies. They must be compounds run by Satan himself.
Guess I'm catching the express train to hell.
Originally published January 26, 2006  |