The case of Epic Games vs. Apple: There was an online casino masquerading as a children's game in the App Store

Imagine installing a game on your iPhone or iPad that looks completely innocent at first glance. This is already according to the name, for example Jungle Runner 2k21, which refers to the classic genre "runner". But no, it is a hidden online casino game that also bypasses Apple's in-app purchase system. And that's a problem. In the last few months, developer Kosta has been revealing Eleftheria on your Twitter account the number of apps and games available in App Store, which are not quite right. The latest title is a game aimed at children over the age of 4 that claimed to be just a fun running game. But those who run it from a Turkish IP address (or VPN) will find that it is actually an online casino with its own payment system. Free spins today but they are no longer available in it.

The developer uses shady ads to attract unsuspecting users, pretending the app was featured on CNN Turk. pic.twitter.com/zbuddS8Jrf

- Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) April 15, 2021

Before the game was out App Store removed, it was available worldwide, even Apple approved several updates to it. But for everyone else, it worked perfectly correctly, even though according to Kosta, it was designed very simply and practically couldn't entertain anyone much. But this whole case will surely have an appropriate outcome.

Maybe a road to hell 

This is also a dispute Apple s Epic GAMES, which in its title Fortnite similarly "smuggled" a microtransaction system bypassing Apple. This was done here as well, because real money gambling is not allowed in the App Store (e.g. Android is more benevolent here and its users can enjoy gambling apps and real money games from March 1st already in almost 20 countries of the world).

Since the app is free and the App Store is "a place you can trust" according to Apple, most people at this point will just go ahead and download it. What is there to lose? pic.twitter.com/pyQaHJsUOS

- Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) April 15, 2021

But here it is primarily a monopoly Apple, which the one with his shop App Store has. The already ongoing process has shown that Apple may not be paying as much attention to app approval as it should, which only confirms this. After all, the developer himself filed a lawsuit against Apple in this regard. With the number of applications that in App Store you will find, this will definitely not be an exception, and it is very likely that a similar circumvention system is used by more developers who want to make a lot of extra money with it. Moreover, it looks very simple. 

Perhaps a user-friendly step 

But is it good? Tim himself Cook stated that if custom "stores" allow developers to become z App Store one big flea market. So wouldn't it be better to hold on App Store strictly under its control, but allow developers another distribution channel that Apple can distance itself from and the user takes all responsibility for using it? On Android, for example, you can also install content outside of Google Play. Of course there is room for various security threats, but how long has Android been with us and everything still works (relatively well)? After all, Epic on Android his Fortnite distributes exclusively through your website.