A recent lawsuit that was filed on behalf of Mario Cisneros, Michael Voight, and the general public called out a number of search engines for displaying ads for online gambling establishments. The suit claimed the defendants displayed these ads for within the state of California, where Internet gambling is illegal.

According to an article written by Danny Sullivan that appeared on SearchEngineWatch.com, one of the defendants used the search engine ads to find gambling sites, where he then proceeded to lose $100000. The lawsuit was filed a few months after Yahoo and Google, who were named in the filing, announced they were no longer going to display ads for online casinos (Yahoo in the US and Google worldwide).

However, since this announcement, many have reported the continued appearance of these ads within SERPs. The plaintiffs are seeking restitution from the accused search engines and the recovery of the following:

“All revenues and profits acquired by Internet gambling websites, who purchased sponsored links and advertisements with defendants, from persons using computers in California who gambled on their websites; and

All revenues and profits acquired by defendants from providing sponsored links of gambling websites advertising online Internet gambling in California.”

As well as:

“All revenues, taxes, and fees, wrongfully avoided or withheld from the state acquired by Internet gambling websites who purchased advertisements with defendants, from persons using computers in California who gambled on their websites, which proceeds belong to the State of California by virtue of Penal Code 325”

The gentleman who lost his money gambling on sites that he elected to visit is also wanting the named search engines to reimburse him.

Click here to read the filing in its PDF entirety.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.