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Android The Almighty Buck Google Software United Kingdom

Google Now Permits Android Apps That Facilitate Gambling With Real Money (betanews.com) 44

Mark Wilson shares a report from BetaNews: Google has relaxed its rules surrounding real-money gambling apps in Google Play -- in some countries, at least. There has been a ban on apps and games that allow users to gamble with real money since 2013, but that has now changed. While there was previously a ban in place due to the difficulty in policing ages and complying with different gambling laws around the world, real-money gambling apps are now permitted in the UK, France and Ireland. The new rules stipulate that developers must submit their gambling apps for a special vetting process, and they must have an IARC content rating. Other rules include a ban on the use of Google payment services, a requirement to display information about responsible gambling, and a requirement to block underage use. The full list of requirements [can be viewed here].
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Google Now Permits Android Apps That Facilitate Gambling With Real Money

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  • For a start that should make it illegal to call it gambling when the odds are specifically, purposefully and corruptly tilted in the houses favour. That is called cheating, when the odds are titled in your favour, your are no longer gambling you are winning, when the odds are tilted against you favour, you are not gambling you are losing.

    I am all for gambling, as long as the odds are equal and fair. The house should have exactly the same odds of losing as the mug punters, otherwise it is a lie and they are

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The house always wins and that is the only way a gambling house can exist.

      If the odds were actually fully equal then the house would on average have no income but would need to pay for the building, furniture, staff, etc. Between mandating this and just declaring them illegal is no real difference.

      What needs to be mandated is that the odds are fully transparent and no actual cheating is going on.

    • by Calydor ( 739835 )

      You have just reduced any and all gambling to flipping a coin.

      Poker? Nah, flip a coin. Roulette? Nope, flip that coin. Blackjack? Hell no, flipping a coin is easier than counting cards.

      And not even that, because flipping a coin there's a tiny, minuscule chance it'll land on the edge.

      I'm not sure what gambling ever did to you, but to the rest of the world, gambling includes known odds and risk-taking.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I'm not sure what gambling ever did to you, but to the rest of the world, gambling includes known odds and risk-taking.

        I think OP really meant that these "gaming" or "gambling" apps really aren't transparent. I mean, let's say we do American roulette. The house advantage is the 0 and 00 spaces on the wheel, but the wheel is generally fairly balanced and the ball is generally going to land in any of the spots with equal frequency.

        But who's to say the electronic version is going to be as fair? Perhaps because

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Dude you seem not to grasp the greed and corruption involved. Theoretically pay out a mathematically demonstrable percentage of all amounts wagered, which must not be less than 75 percent for each wager available for play on the device. http://gaming.nv.gov/modules/s... [nv.gov]. I had to dodge the panther at the bottom of the stairs to get it. (more accurately all searches failed payout, hold rate, maximum, minimum, until I forced the search with '75'). So for each dollar in you lose a quarter but of course the cas

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        So why exactly should one side be allowed to cheat and the other side be banned. Card counters anyone, ohh fuck no, we, the house lie, cheat and steal get idiots drunk so they lose more. Yes, a coin toss on who wins or loses, hey, I'm Australia so that coin toss would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org], can't handle the, then get the fuck out of the kitchen, don't want to gamble, than don't play the fucking game. It is a corruption of government for them to knowingly allow blatant cheating in what should

    • by tsqr ( 808554 )

      For a start that should make it illegal to call it gambling when the odds are specifically, purposefully and corruptly tilted in the houses favour.

      "Specifically and purposefully", of course. That's how casinos can stay in business. See, for example, the green "0" and "00" slots on American roulette wheels that make bets on red or black somewhat less than an even bet, and odds on single numbers 37:1 when the payouts are 35:1. In blackjack, the only house advantage is that the players draw before the dealer, so if the player busts he loses whether or not the dealer busts, rather than it being a push when he and the dealer both bust.

      "Corruptly", not so m

    • For a start that should make it illegal to call it gambling when the odds are specifically, purposefully and corruptly tilted in the houses favour. That is called cheating, when the odds are titled in your favour, your are no longer gambling you are winning, when the odds are tilted against you favour, you are not gambling you are losing.

      So no lottery then? Odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery are about 1:259 Million.

      I don't gamble too often, but when I do, I play Black Jack. It has the best odds and I've also memorized the basic strategy. I only bring the amount of money I can afford to lose. I see it as an entertainment expense.

      I also have a money management system. My gambling chips are on the right, and my winnings go to the left. When the right-hand pile is gone, I take a break & count. If I'm down, I'll stop. If I'm up by

    • Legally, it is called gaming. As in the Nevada Gaming Commission regulates gambling. Your wish already came true sometime last century.
  • Previously those apps were banned to stop governments cracking down on google for being a platform for money laundering. Expect the news media (especially the Murdoch stuff - Fox etc) to make a lot of noise about that since google is their hated rival for advertising cash.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Hopefully UK bookmakers won't drop their mobile sites in favour of going down the app route.

    IMO they rank among the best engineered, no bullsh*t mobile websites out there, in many cases far better than their non-mobile counterparts.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 04, 2017 @05:49AM (#54938945)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • So I go to an online casino. Poker, roulette, etc - against the CPU in some cases.

    Are there any regulations in place to ensure... the odds are fair? How can anyone possibly know if the code is playing by the rules, or if the house is stacking in their favour?

    Always struck me as a potential minefield.

    • Not even that but loads of people have won big prizes then the casinos go "nope, sorry the machine glitched, you ain't getting shit."
    • by alexo ( 9335 )

      Yes, there are, but the stringency of the regulation depends on the jurisdiction.

      Regulatory bodies may demand, among other things:
      - Validation of the mathematical models of the games and the RNG.
      - Vigorous and ongoing 3rd-party testing to ensure compliance.
      - Disclosure of the source code, the build environment and hashes (to ensure that the code that actually runs is the one submitted).
      - Various levels of access to the servers and the servers and the databases.
      - Sending them the details of every hand or spi

    • by Sloppy ( 14984 )

      Are there any regulations in place to ensure... the odds are fair?

      Hopefully not! Why would there be such regulations? It's not supposed to be fair. If it were fair, nobody would do it. Nobody would offer it. There would be no point.

      If you force it to be fair, you're killing it. Making it be fair is a bad thing. If you want to gamble, you need to work to prevent regulations from making it fair. Whoever tries to make it fair, probably has a "gambling is a sin and the lord told me to fight it" agenda.

      Personall

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