Only a few months after the highly publicized investigations of Internet sites Walla! and One initiated by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, it turns out that other companies are charging for advertising for gambling web sites - illegally, and without anything being done about the matter. Passersby and riders on public transportation are being exposed these days to a widespread campaign for the Internet site www.king.co.il. The ads are plastered all over buses of the Dan bus cooperative.

Walla! is owned by the Haaretz group and Bezeq.

King is the Internet site which led to an investigation against One owner Yoram Arbel three and a half months ago, on suspicions that he was advertising the gambling site.

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It is possible to bet money on blackjack, roulette, poker and bingo on the site, after downloading software and providing one's credit card details. Surfing to gambling sites is not illegal in Israel, but advertising them is.

TheMarker found out two days ago that the Israeli branch of Google, google.co.il, has been receiving payment for advertising gambling sites. Google advertises for bet365.com, which allows betting on everything from English football to dog racing, and other activities such as games of chance and casino games. Google also advertises for carnivalcasino.com, which is owned by Empire Online's Noam Lanir.

Google's advertising for the sites appears in its links column on the left side of the screen.

The advertisements show up when you search for words such as gambling or casino. If someone clicks on the advertising links on the left side, then the gambling site pays Google; but Google receives no payment if surfers reach the site through the regular search results column in the center of the page.

However, in order to appear in the list of advertisements, the customer must buy the rights to certain keywords. The price is set by an auction process, with the higher the bid, the higher up on the list the buyer appears. On top of the keywords payment, the advertiser still pays Google for every click on its ads. The price ranges from a few cents to hundreds of dollars for each click on an ad.

Until about a month ago, it was possible to see advertising for the King site on Google Israel as well.

While Dan and Google continue to be paid for gambling advertising without any interference, Walla! and One were caught up in a storm a few months ago and the police national fraud squad even came to their offices.

The police investigation was initiated by the attorney general, who wanted to increase the supervision and enforcement of the laws on advertising online gambling.

The Justice Ministry said: "The Economic Department in the State Prosecutors Office has prepared a detailed opinion about the extent of illegal gambling on the Internet. The opinion proposes ways to deal with the matter, such as concentrating enforcement against a number of middlemen who enable the illegal gambling operations, and by doing so aid in violating the law, and exposing them to the public. In particular we mean the advertisers and various clearing bodies [credit card companies and banks].

"Recently, the police opened a number of investigations against sites suspected of advertising illegal gambling over the Internet and against site operators. The state prosecutor and the police intend to increase enforcement activities in these areas, in order to limit illegal Internet gambling as much as possible. The Justice Ministry is studying the need to change the relevant laws."

The company responsible for advertising on Dan buses, Canaan, responded: "The company abides by the law. As opposed to other media, we do not advertise casinos or gambling in any form. We advertise gaming sites such as poker or backgammon where the skill factor is greater than the luck factor, based on legal opinions that we receive."

Google responded: "Google forbids advertising gaming sites that mix gambling with money. The matter violates the company's policies, as published on its site. Google regularly scans the ads on the site, and if it finds an ad that violates its policies, it removes it. The sites mentioned did not appear on Google when we received TheMarker's request, and it seems that they were removed in any case as part of the company's regular activities."