500 million iPhones have been sold since the device launched, meaning a large chunk of the developed world’s population is using the familiar white-backed gadget. Including iPad and other mobile gadget sales into the mix, and it is clear that Apple is one of the top providers of mobile hardware and software in the world. What Apple does makes an impression on the entire industry. Yet for some reason it's still not possible to download an iPhone bookmaker app in the United States of America.
Long before the launch of the first iOS device, Steve Jobs was dead-set against the production or availability of any applications that were “adult” in nature. This included pornographic material, apps that allowed illicit activity like online drug sales, and gambling-related material.
Steve Jobs didn’t want that type of material in the App Store because he wanted as many consumers as possible to embrace the concept and rely on the store for their everyday needs. Because mobile gambling has had a rough go of it in American cultural history (and in the history of many other nations around the world), it was explicitly disallowed at the App Store’s genesis.
Another issue for Jobs and company was the sense that simply allowing such apps to exist could be seen as a form of gambling promotion. Beyond any moral issues at hand, this kind of promotion would have certainly caused legal problems for Apple. After all, Internet-based and mobile gambling is still explicitly illegal in some countries, and the promotion of such gambling is just as (or even more) illegal.
This led to a conundrum – how can the leading developer and manufacturer in the industry be against something that’s quite popular around the world? Millions of iPhone owners have no moral issue with gambling and live in countries where such gambling is fully legal. Why can’t there be a middle ground, a place where owners of iOS devices could use their gadgets to access the gambling apps they want to use?
Long before the launch of the first iOS device, Steve Jobs was dead-set against the production or availability of any applications that were “adult” in nature. This included pornographic material, apps that allowed illicit activity like online drug sales, and gambling-related material.
Steve Jobs didn’t want that type of material in the App Store because he wanted as many consumers as possible to embrace the concept and rely on the store for their everyday needs. Because mobile gambling has had a rough go of it in American cultural history (and in the history of many other nations around the world), it was explicitly disallowed at the App Store’s genesis.
Another issue for Jobs and company was the sense that simply allowing such apps to exist could be seen as a form of gambling promotion. Beyond any moral issues at hand, this kind of promotion would have certainly caused legal problems for Apple. After all, Internet-based and mobile gambling is still explicitly illegal in some countries, and the promotion of such gambling is just as (or even more) illegal.
This led to a conundrum – how can the leading developer and manufacturer in the industry be against something that’s quite popular around the world? Millions of iPhone owners have no moral issue with gambling and live in countries where such gambling is fully legal. Why can’t there be a middle ground, a place where owners of iOS devices could use their gadgets to access the gambling apps they want to use?
Such a compromise has been reached. Some iOS users can download and use fully-legal and regulated sports betting apps. A customer’s ability to download sports betting apps for the iPhone or iPad depends entirely on what part of the world that customer lives in. Since different App Stores exist for different countries, and thanks to the addition of geo-location to iOS5, Apple is now able to offer real-money gambling apps to customers for whom those apps are legal. Geo-location makes such apps active in parts of the world where that app is licensed to operate.
There is another option for customers in parts of the world where such apps are not yet available – a loophole that gives iPhone and iPad users easy access to sports betting. As the programming language HTML5 has improved, so have browser-based (or “instant play”) applications for betting of all stripes. The latest feature of online sportsbooks and casinos is the creation of an application that works across all mobile platforms, so that iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone customers can all play through their mobile browsers.
Because these applications work regardless of what country a user is in, customers in countries that formerly had no access to legal iPhone sports bets now have plenty of options. The same is true for casino-style gambling, poker games, and many other forms of online gambling.
There is another option for customers in parts of the world where such apps are not yet available – a loophole that gives iPhone and iPad users easy access to sports betting. As the programming language HTML5 has improved, so have browser-based (or “instant play”) applications for betting of all stripes. The latest feature of online sportsbooks and casinos is the creation of an application that works across all mobile platforms, so that iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone customers can all play through their mobile browsers.
Because these applications work regardless of what country a user is in, customers in countries that formerly had no access to legal iPhone sports bets now have plenty of options. The same is true for casino-style gambling, poker games, and many other forms of online gambling.
