Apple Withdraws 4,000 Gambling Apps from Chinese Store

It’s being written all over the news these days, that the world’s first $1 trillion company, Apple Inc. is purging its stores from gambling related apps. The tech giant is shutting down illegal online gambling services due to the government’s long-term plan to fight fraudulent activities on the Internet.

However, a recent crackdown in the United States has caused a lot of headaches to developers, as some online businesses had nothing to do with gambling. Among the affected services was a Polish iMagazine, a gif-sharing platform and an Xbox portal for sending clips to players. It seems that the battle is now changing grounds, since the U.S. number one technology company has withdrawn approximately 4,000 gambling apps from its Chinese store.

State Media Attack

The leading television broadcaster in the People’s Republic of China, CCTV, has reacted to the company’s decision, reporting that at least 4,500 apps with the keyword “gambling” were taken down on August 9th. The broadcaster also accused Apple of hosting illegal and fake lottery-ticket apps…

Nevertheless, China represents the company’s biggest market outside the U.S. and Apple has even formed a partnership with the government to reinforce its efforts in assessing online content.

According to the company’s press release, gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China as well. Unfortunately, a lot of developers are trying to distribute illegal gambling apps through multiple channels, but the enterprise stays persistent in its efforts to find the troublesome software and shut it down completely.

Rules For Allowing Apps (Onto Store)

To put it differently, Apple has already been accused of not following its own rules regarding . Many fake lottery apps and gambling-related services were allowed undisturbed utilization for a long period of time, reports CCTV.

In fact, the company was forced to apologize in 2013 for providing poor customer policy and underrated service standards. Last year, regulatory changes have caused an additional removal of hundreds of virtual private network apps and certain developers are now being asked to “reduce fraudulent activity to comply with government requests to fight illegal online gambling”.

Source:

“Apple reveals Chinese app crackdown”, igamingbusiness.com, August 20, 2018.