Uncle Sam and at least one charity are getting an early Christmas present courtesy of Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., which have agreed to fork over a combined $31 million to settle claims that they promoted illegal online gambling, a federal prosecutor announced. The three companies have cut a deal with Catherine Hanaway, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, under which they'll pay up but neither admit nor contest charges that they received advertising money from online-gambling operations.