Is your license plate actually an advert?
780,000 cars in Maryland drive with license plates advertising an Asian casino, but drivers don’t know it
The state of Maryland has hundreds of thousands of cars with license plates that contain a link to a website that commemorates the War of 1812. Local enthusiasts have determined that the project is linked to an offshore casino. That’s where the link on the license plates leads after redirecting.
How the patriotic site began directing users to an Asian casino
Just the facts – 15% of all cars registered in Maryland drive around with license plates that have military motifs in their design. In the midst of all this splendor was a link to starspangled200.org. An inconspicuous URL leads to the site of a casino registered offshore. The illegal casino offers all kinds of classic gambling games, as well as live casino, which has recently become very popular among Americans.
The Star Spangled 200 portal used to be owned by a non-profit organization registered in 2007. Today, an attempt to open a site about the War of 1812 will only redirect the user to globeinternational.info, which hosts a Filipino online gambling establishment.
Needless to say, the pages of the online casino have no information about the military actions in 1812. There is no memorial material, but there is gambling and offers to take part in virtual cockfights. And the appearance of a typo in the URL is completely excluded.
Journalists from The Washington Post found out that the casino in the Philippines belongs to a private company, which has kept strict silence on the subject. And Maryland officials have made numerous attempts to contact the owners of the project but with no success. Nor have they been able to get in touch with representatives of the Star Spangled 200 organization. The partners of this nonprofit from Sandy Hillman Communications announced its dissolution several years ago. Characteristically, no one knows which people are now in charge of maintaining the site.
The solution to the problem has been delayed
The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) has issued a statement opposing support for gambling and its advertising. Separately, it was reported that the agency had nothing to do with the casino site and the link that redirects the user to the project.
MVA bosses must now decide what they will do next. So far, the organization’s future plans have not been disclosed. Paul J. Wiedefeld, the Maryland Secretary of Transportation, has been unable to say anything definite about what the authorities and others will do in the future.
A possible way out of the situation could be to replace the vehicle registration plates or buy back the URL. Both options require substantial expenditures, which the authorities probably don’t want to do. But something has to be done anyway, so we’ll just have to wait and see what solution the officials choose.
