You can bet that Yahoo! and Google are both breathing sighs of relief after a Superior Court judge in California threw out a lawsuit against the two for accepting online gambling sdvertisements according to mediapost.com.

The suit was initiated by two California residents, one of whom lost a large sum ($100K) of money gambling online, claiming that a number of online entities, of which Google and Yahoo! were included, violated state law by posting ads from online gambling companies.

Originally, the suit sought financial compensation, but a Californian court dismissed those claims, ruling that the plaintiffs could only win an injunction against the defendants if successful.

"California Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled that search engines are immune from liability based on the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields Web sites from liability for material provided by outside companies," mediapost.com said.

"Kramer also ruled that there was no reason to issue an injunction against the companies because they had already stopped accepting gambling ads in the U.S."

"Without comment on whether defendants' sponsoring online gambling sites in the past was wrongful, it is clear from the evidence that each defendant has ceased such sponsorship," as Judge Kramer said.