Nevada's top public radio station has cut their advertising spot for an Internet poker room, due to the fact it may not be legal. According to both the state and federal governments, this particular poker room may be considered illegal. KNPR is that radio station that is stepping away from Internet poker advertising.
The poker site is the largest poker room on the Internet, and was the sponsor of a traffic report that ran on KNPR, Las Vegas, and last month. After the station was questioned about the sponsorship with KNPR, the Las Vegas Sun was contacted by the company that provided the report. The report is produced by Metro Networks, supplier of local traffic updates to radio stations nationwide.
KNPR ran the traffic report free in exchange for mentioning the sponsors of the report. This was the problem, because by federal law they are not allowed to further promote specific products or services. Partly this is because of advertising concerns, and partly because of the subject in question.
The sponsorship began with Westwood One, a publicly traded company, in New York that owns Metro Networks. They also have a wide variety of news, sports and entertainment programs. Westwood One General Counsel David Hillman wasn't aware of the poker sponsorship and also wasn't aware of the legal issues around Internet gambling.
Broadcasts occur in 75 cities around the country and 50 radio stations in each city. Not every ad reaches the legal department. KNPR General Manager Lamar Marchese said that at least they were pulling the ad, so it wouldn’t further aggravate the situation. KNPR is a private nonprofit group of volunteers, which doesn't make decisions about sponsors. Still they pulled the sponsor spots; they didn’t put on the air to begin with. Metro Networks is supposed to pay attention to business it sends out. It hurts the radio companies, who air it, and don’t know the ramifications, that Metro should know. |
