Until around a year ago, you could be forgiven for thinking that there wasn’t much difference between the App Store offered by Apple and the Play Store offered by Google. One is Apple’s way of allowing users to download apps for phones and tablets that run on iOS, and the other is Google’s way of allowing users of Android devices to do the same thing. With very few exceptions, the apps available are identical, and they’re offered to users at the same price. Here in early 2021, we’re starting to understand that they’re very different indeed.
Apple’s App Store has repeatedly found itself in the headlines during the past twelve months because of the company’s head-to-head battle with Epic Games, who make “Fortnite,” and also created the Unreal gaming engine that powers games made by several other developers. We won’t bore you with the extended details of the debate here because you’ve almost certainly read them elsewhere, but here’s a summary. Epic Games feel that the 30% cut that Apple takes of all payments made through its App Store is excessive. They also feel that by denying users the ability to download apps via any other means, Apple is attempting to control the market. Whether they are or aren’t isn’t for us to say; a court will decide that in the not-too-distant future.
Although Google and its Play Store policies have also incurred Epic’s displeasure, the terms they offer are a little different. They still take a thirty percent cut of all proceeds, but they allow users to download apps from other places if they wish. It’s still desirable for a developer to have an app in the Play Store because that’s where most Android users get their apps from, but Google’s software won’t prevent you from downloading apps using another app store or directly from a website. That’s an important distinction, and it’s not the only one. The contrast in the approach the companies take toward the gambling and casino industry couldn’t be more different. Apple is trying to distance itself from gambling after being sued in America for taking too relaxed an approach. While they’re busy trying to shut the door, Google is opening theirs.
An upcoming change in Google’s Play Store policies will allow gambling, casino, and sports betting apps to be downloaded in the United States of America for the very first time, along with an additional fourteen countries. Until now, such apps have only been available to Android users in the UK, Ireland, France, and Brazil. After the changes are implemented, that number will expand to nineteen. It appears as if Google is about to throw itself headlong into activities that Apple is in the middle of being sued about, and it’s a move that’s taken a lot of people by surprise. If the ability to download apps isn’t geo-locked on a state-by-state basis – which is extremely unlikely because of the difficulties in implementing such a policy – Google would theoretically be at risk of being accused of breaking the same laws Apple stands accused of breaking.
America’s attitude to gambling is extremely complicated and has been made more complicated by the arrival of the internet age and websites that offer online slots. While the country might play host to the world’s best-known gambling paradise in the shape of Las Vegas, it also hosts states that will happily imprison people for gambling on the internet. Operating an online slots website is banned in most states. Even the mere act of accessing an online slots website – regardless of whether it’s hosted in the same state or not – would be enough to land you on the wrong side of the law in some of the more conservative states. In most cases, gambling laws haven’t been rewritten since the creation of online slots and casinos and so are almost obsolete. It’s a legal minefield, which is why so many states have found it difficult to introduce sports betting legislation even though the country’s Supreme Court legalized sports betting almost three years ago. It’s hard to know how American authorities will react to this sudden relaxation of Google’s policies, but they will certainly scrutinize the company and its new terms extensively.
Somewhere within Google’s headquarters, someone must have performed a complex calculation that weighed the financial rewards of welcoming gambling apps against the potential costs and difficulties that any legal action would bring and decided that the company would be up on the deal no matter what happens. It’s probably the strength of interest in the USA when it comes to sports betting that played the most decisive role in that calculation. In sports where it’s permitted, it’s incredibly popular and brings in enormous revenues. If people were able to bet from home through their phones, it would likely make even more money, and Google would take a significant cut of it. Sports betting companies are certainly excited by the news; stocks in companies who will now be able to push their apps through the store rose by between five and ten percent on average in the hours following the announcement. As word spreads, those figures could yet rise higher.
Google’s new terms are expected to kick in on March 1st. That gives betting companies a full month to assess their legal status in the states they want to operate in, decide whether they’re at risk of prosecution, and then apply to Google for permission for their apps to be hosted. This could result in a huge boom period for the industry and a massive windfall for Google, but it also puts daylight between Google and Apple when it comes to what can and can’t happen in their stores. Apple, beset with lawsuits and closed off to competition, is beginning to look like its drawn the wagons around its operations. With its newfound friendliness to casino companies and willingness to allow people to circumvent its app store policies, Google looks like a liberal paradise by comparison. Yet another chapter is being written in the never-ending battle between the two tech giants, and this time it looks like Google will be the one counting the greater profits.
