Tech giants, Apple have given mobile gaming operators until September 3 to comply with new regulations. With the mobile gaming segment quickly expanding, it appears that Apple may have endangered some operations. The company have announced that only apps developed specifically for iOS will be allowed.
The new guidelines have stated that, HTML5 games which are distributed within apps “may not provide access to real money gaming, lotteries, or charitable donations, and they also may not support digital commerce.”
This new requirement follows an update earlier this year which required apps to have a “minimal level of nativity”, meaning that sportsbooks, casinos, bingo and lotteries can no longer simply repackage their websites as apps.
Products for sports betting, poker, casino, bingo, lottery or horse racing betting operators may be removed via these new rules. As most apps in the App Store are HTML5 sites adapted, it appears that they will need to update their offering.
Agency Decree 53 said: “mobile gaming operators may need to invest lots of money and time to comply before the deadline.
“Three months to build a fully featured native sportsbook app from scratch for a major operator is a massive undertaking and potentially unrealistic,” it said.
“It will require sizable and skilled native development teams to ensure all functionalities are fully compliant. However, operators with less complex products may be able to meet the deadline if they start now.”
This new ruling came after previous changed were made after Apple updated its App Store review guidelines on June 3, which included a revision of the 4.7 rule which further imposes restrictions on gambling apps – which states that “real money” games have to be included in the binary.
