Apple App Store Gambling Policy
When you download an app, it should work as promised. Which is why human App Reviewers ensure that the apps on the App Store adhere to our strict app review standards. Our App Store Review Guidelines require apps to be safe, provide a good user experience, comply with our privacy rules, secure devices from malware and threats, and use approved. Apple allows online gambling applications in a few forms (and not just in places where it is explicitly permitted). They do not allow any payments through the applications - those have to be done on the websites A few examples: Pokerstars is avai. Notably, Apple is putting the finishing touches on a new Apple Arcade product it plans to launch this year. It is far from the first group to create a mobile arcade platform. But if competitors are sidelined from the App Store, the Apple Arcade would arguably be in an enviable position. Other groups are fighting back at Apple’s practices too.
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The American tech giant Apple is facing multiple lawsuits in the United States for the sale of games of chance through its App Store. Cases go through the courts of the states of Ohio, Connecticut and New Mexico. In the first two, the lawsuits were presented by the same lawyer.
The Apple App Store covers a market of 175 countries to which various computer applications are sold. With more than a million titles ranging from music, art, payment and billing solutions, advertising to dozens of entertainment applications of all kinds, this tool is used to download hundreds of millions of apps.
Last year the App Store managed to sell and invoice more than $ 520 billion. The only thing it is prohibited from selling is gambling because it is illegal in many states. The plaintiffs’ allegations is that the company allowed gambling games to be sold and such games caused harm to users.
Although the majority of individual plaintiffs claim to have had losses below $ 5000, which could be a minor legal matter in court, when it is transformed into a class action lawsuit the situation changes. Thousands of people claiming hundreds of millions of dollars may be involved in the case.
What is gambling?
Apple App Store Gambling Policy Template
The question that jumps out is: Why did Apple risk being sued in a case like this? However, the definition of “gambling” is not clear in the statutes of at least 16 states in the country and in the District of Columbia.
Such states prohibit certain games and devices. For example, in California some games that no one plays anymore or, as in the case of Oklahoma and Ohio, declare that games like poker are “games of chance” without further explanation.
One could also use definitions such as Tennessee’s which describes gambling as “betting anything of value for a win whose performance depends to some degree on chance.”
Almost all states use the so-called “dominance test”, but what is the “dominance factor”? So there is no objective definition of what chance is. Even more complicated is the definition for online games, which are often combinations or mixtures of several games, which transforms the new game into a different product. Online poker is a clear example.
The three elements of the game
Apple App Store Gambling Policy Online
The definition of the game involves three fundamental elements: consideration, chance and prize. For American gambling laws, the consideration boils down to “anything of value” centered on money or its equivalent that is delivered to the gambling operator. In return, the player receives the right to participate in the game or contest.
Sometimes it is possible to register and play for free, other times depending on the gaming site and the operator, you have to pay to play and bet. But what defines the chance of a game is the random element that must be decisive. That is what the legislator tries to consider as the predominant element.
As for the award, how to define it? As “anything of value”? That is a very vague definition. It can talk about money, a trip, a car or fancy gold bars, they can all be prizes.
The vagueness or lack of clarity of the American Gambling Law is the problem. That is what has been revealed with this rain of lawsuits against Apple. Until there is a definition commonly accepted by all legislators in the country, the problem will continue.
Source: https://calvinayre.com/2020/11/06/business/whats-in-a-name-lawsuits-reveal-the-achilles-heel-of-american-gambling-law/