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There are hundreds of mobile betting and mobile friendly casinos that are access on a daily basis by iPhone and iPad users from around the world. However, things are expected to change significantly as Apple has released a new policy that will impact mobile betting apps and mobile casinos who do not comply with the new policy changes.
Gaming operators who keep tab on Apple policies will not be surprised by the new changes as there were rumours of such changes doing the rounds on social media much before Apple decided to come out with an official confirmation.
The new policy changes will significantly impact operators who offer real money games via the Apple App store.
They will need to ensure that all of their products and services are customized for the Apple store and not are not wrapped versions of their sites which Apple used to permit earlier. The App Store Review Guidelines makes it clear that those apps and mobile websites that do not comply with the new policy, will be banned from Sep 3, 2019.
Clause 4.7 in the new guidelines go on to say
HTML5 games distributed in apps may not provide access to real money gaming, lotteries, or charitable donations, and may not support digital commerce. This functionality is only appropriate for code that’s embedded in the binary and can be reviewed by Apple. This guideline is now enforced for new apps. Existing apps must follow this guideline by September 3, 2019.
Gambling Operators Have 3 Months To Comply
Gambling operators who want to continue to offer their services on the Apple App store have less than 3 months to get their products in order. This is a rather short time period as many of them have wrapped versions which means they will either have to focus on developing a native iOS app or focus on updating and customizing their current apps so that it meets the compliance standards laid out by Apple.
Betting operators will be under a lot of pressure to get things in order before Sep 3. This is because the new season of the National Football League (NFL) kick-starts on Sep 5 and in October the new NBA season will commence. Betting operators in Pennsylvania and West Virginia will be very keen on having their betting services ready as this will be their first sports betting season!
