The Sporting News has agreed to a $7.2 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve claims that it illegally promoted gambling via radio, print and the internet, the San Diego Union Tribune reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner). According to Catherine Hanaway, U.S. attorney for eastern Missouri, the Sporting News ran the ads for six months after the Justice Department sent a letter in June 2003 to the Magazine Publishers of America saying that ads for internet gambling were illegal.

The Sporting News claimed it stopped running the ads as soon as it was notified of the government's position, but it nevertheless paid a $4.2 million fine on Thursday. The rest of the settlement will come in the form of public service aimed at dissuading people from online gambling.

But according to Calvin Ayre, CEO of online gambling site Bodog.com, interactive poker legality is a grey area. The U.S. Justice Department has danced around the issue while exerting pressure on media outlets to not run ads.

In a MarketingSherpa article, Ayre says his legal experts tell him media outlets running ads for international gambling companies are protected under the Constitution, "until such time as a U.S. judge of competent authority rules otherwise."