Microsoft, Google, Yahoo to Pay $31.5M Over Illegal Gambling Ads from ABC News reports the big three search engine companies settled with the US Justice Department to pay $31.5 million to educate that online gambling is illegal in the United States.

Microsoft is paying the most with $21 million, followed by Yahoo shelling out $7.5 million and Google paying $3 million. The money will go into a government backed fund used to air public service announcements. Microsoft is also paying $9 million to International Center for Missing and Exploited Children as part of this settlement.

For more coverage on this news, see Techmeme.

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Legal: General | Microsoft: Business Issues | Yahoo: Legal

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz