The case against Sporting News was closed yesterday in a 7.2 million dollars settlement. Sporting News was accused of promoting online gambling. According to the settlement agreement, Vulcan Sports Media, the company that operates Sporting News, will pay a 4.2 million dollars fine and will run a 3 million dollars campaign against online and telephone gambling.
This settlement is the newest development in the United States attorneys office in the Eastern District of Missouri investigation of online gambling. Since the start of the investigation in 2003, the state prosecutors have reached agreements with many American media companies. Catherine L. Hanaway, the state attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri said that the media companies that advertise gambling sites were warned that theses advertisements are as illegal as promoting drug dealing.
According to Ms. Hanaway, in 2003 the prosecutors informed media companies that they might be violating the law by advertising online casinos. Short time afterwards, there was a major decline in the number of online casino advertisements in the American media. The number of online gambling advertisements rose again last year, when it seemed that prosecutors are not planning to start with extensive prosecutions.
