One of the biggest corporations in the world, Apple was sued due to the violation of the state law, which bans slot machines and being accused of allowing illegal gambling applications in its apple store. The allegation is very simple. It claims that the giant corporation has distributed the free-play social casino games via its app store.
The main problem and the driving force of the accusation are that the partnership between Apple and the company that is providing the casino games becomes dangerous for the consumers that cause the addiction to the social casino apps and paying for the game from their own credit cards. After the complaint was made officially, Apple stated that they are getting ready for robust compliance under the jurisdiction of the state, where they are operating their business.
ILL-GOTTEN Gains
People, who already have experience with this kind of social casino game, claimant Donald Nelson and Cheree Bibbs made a comment about their case. They state that they have spent at least $15,000 on social casino games, even though the games on the apple store were free, meaning virtual chips that are necessary for starting the game. However, the game encourages the player to spend money on earning more chips before the existing amount runs out. For doing this, the app promises to unlock the next chapters or suggest several other options that might catch the attention of the player.
Those people, who consider themselves to be the victims and declaring Apple’s behavior unlawful and started the case against the ill-gotten gains of Apple.
To make it clear, why Apple would agree on implementing online casino-related apps is that, by description, gambling involves risking something that comes out as a winning result for the player or losing. The case seems to be difficult to find the right side, and the situation is even worsened because of the allegations regarding allowing crypto-related games in its apple store and it was possible for people to use their own amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum for online gambling. At a glance, it might seem difficult to understand why this could make the case more difficult, but in this case, we should take the state into regulations into consideration. Even though bitcoin or ethereum gamblings are part of the online casino games, they have separated regulations and under the law of the state of California, bitcoin or ethereum online gamblings are not legal. As it makes the situation two times more controversial while violating two laws.
California Game Industry
There were a lot of cases in California when the companies have faced various lawsuits against illegal gambling and many cases were not completed until the strict decision after the federal appeals. In Washington, there was a case of Big Fish Casino games when the owners were claimed to have completed illegal actions because of operating their games in the states where online gambling was prohibited, despite its original location.
California, as well as Washington, is home to the world’s most famous video games and these types of actions might cause troubles for not only the companies who are involved but for the operation of other companies in the future.
Conclusion
Finally, to summarize, the main allegations Apple was facing, in this case, is not unique and there were many other cases like this and in most cases, companies had to pay a huge amount of money for the plaintiffs. The case is a little bit surprising because we are talking about the regulation of the state, which is a home for the video games itself but here is a huge difference. Apple was alleged for allowing casino games, which users believe to be very risky and might affect the mindset of the player, as well as two players, were encouraged to pay extra for the special offers. As a result, some people appeared to be vulnerable towards this kind of marketing from the game developers and are alleging Apple for allowing this game to be reachable for its clients. The practice shows that this kinds of actions are affecting the face of the company and the positive outcome must be very important for the world’s one of the biggest companies.
