A URL on the backside of Maryland license plates made to commemorate the 2 hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner now hyperlinks to a touchdown web page for an on-line on line casino within the Philippines.
The hyperlink on the plates initially led to a web site concerning the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, offering fee for each buy to the anthem bicentennial-focused nonprofit Star Spangled 200 Inc.
The anthem was impressed by the 1814 siege of Fort McHenry through the conflict, witnessed by the track’s author Francis Scott Key from a truce ship in Baltimore Harbor.
As of August 2022, the URL nonetheless led to that web site, starspangled200.org, in accordance to the Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine.”
By December 2022, nevertheless, the area had lapsed, permitting the Fafa855 on-line on line casino’s Philippines department to leap on the URL. Now, that tackle redirects to a touchdown web page promoting the on line casino.
The URL discrepancy went unnoticed to most of the people till a person within the Maryland subreddit found the brand new touchdown web page.
“I was never a fan of having a plate celebrating the War of 1812, but I’m even more upset now that I (and tons of other Marylanders) are driving advertisements for international online gambling,” person libdd posted.
There are about 798,000 War of 1812 commemorative plates in circulation. The plates have been standard-issue from 2010 till September 2016, when the present plates that includes the Maryland flag have been launched.
The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration is working to repair the problem.
“The MVA does not endorse the views or content on the current website using that URL, and is working with the agency’s IT department to identify options to resolve the current issue,” the state company instructed WTTG-TV.
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com