back to article Apple shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to find gambling in its Chinese App Store

Apple has reportedly kicked off a mass removal of illegal lottery and gambling apps from the China version of its iOS App Store. Multiple reports indicate that the Cupertino phone seller has had to purge roughly 25,000 apps from the localized version of the store it offers on the Chinese mainland. Apple, per usual, did not …

  1. Lord Schwindratzheim

    Top marks

    ...for the Louis Renault homage.

    1. pɹɐʍoɔ snoɯʎuouɐ

      Re: Top marks

      and i bet apple kept its winnings like Louis too.....

  2. Crazy Operations Guy

    "caught in the middle of the escalating trade feud between the US and China."

    Kinda their own fault at this point. The have hundreds of billions of dollars in cash, there is nothing stopping them from using some of it to build a factory in a country that isn't rife with human rights violations led by a pudgy wanna-be dictator. Or China...

  3. Crazy Operations Guy

    Removing Gambling Apps?

    Can we have that here too? I am so tired of seeing ad after ad for yet another bullshit 'slot machine' bit of shovel-ware (And of course the ad is also designed so the exit button is ridiculously easy to miss, so you end up on the store page for the shitty thing)...

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: Removing Gambling Apps?

      And while we're grumbling about gambling...Can we also get rid of damn loot boxes in games. As if buying the game isn't expensive enough.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Removing Gambling Apps?

        "And while we're grumbling about gambling...Can we also get rid of damn loot boxes in games. As if buying the game isn't expensive enough."

        + This article on iOS App store where most games and gambling apps are Free to Play

        = Paying $0 is still too expensive

        What am I reading.

        1. Geoffrey W

          Re: Removing Gambling Apps?

          RE: "= Paying $0 is still too expensive. What am I reading."

          I was a bit OT. Loot boxes can also be found in AAA games, which are most definitely not free.

    2. Pat Harkin
      Trollface

      Re: Removing Gambling Apps?

      "Removing Gambling Apps?"

      Bet you can't...

  4. Mark 85

    Chinese state media had reported the apps were pulled after users claimed they were being scammed out of money.

    First rule of gambling: "The house never loses".

    The second rule: "See rule number 1."

    China shouldn't go after the messenger (Apple in this case) but the ones who are marketing it and profiting from it. But then, Apples the easy target because "not Chinese".

    I wonder if the phones made by Chinese companies for the Chinese market are having this problem?

    1. Geoffrey W

      RE: "The house never loses"

      To go wildly off topic - Trump managed it a couple of times when his Casino's went bankrupt.

    2. BongoJoe

      First rule of gambling: "The house never loses".

      Not so. I have known plenty of bookmakers to go under owing me money.

      Secondly, just because the house 'never' loses it doesn't equate to the wise punter never winning in the longer which is never considered when people reel off this tripe.

      One has to consider the house as being the broker and that one is actually competing against the other punters. So, considering that the house is the broker it should never be the case (but sometimes is) that the house never loses. When one is punting one has to make sure that the odds are in your favour and the other punters' odds aren't.

    3. nijam Silver badge

      > ... users claimed they were being scammed out of money ...

      Err... isn't that what gambling is, actually?

      1. pɹɐʍoɔ snoɯʎuouɐ

        > ... users claimed they were being scammed out of money ...

        Err... isn't that what gambling is, actually?

        not quite.... gambling, if you win, you get paid, scammed out of money is you don't get paid even if you win...

  5. Wellyboot Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Riiiight... we believe you.

    >>Apple has countered that complying with these measures helps the company get leeway from Chinese authorities in other areas, such as allowing artistic expression.<<

    'Approved' artisic expression of course.

    1. keithzg

      Re: Riiiight... we believe you.

      The iconic 1984 commercial seems more and more ironic every year. (And it was already a bit ironic at the time.)

  6. davenewman

    Sensor its service?

    In order to keep its multi-billion dollar China business open, the company has had to take extra measures to monitor and sensor its service.

    How did IoT get mixed up with this?

    1. trydk

      Re: Sensor its service?

      @davenewman: It is their censor sensors, the new AI to automatically rewrite history in Newspeak.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sensor its service?

        It is their censor sensors, the new AI to automatically rewrite history in Newspeak.

        I censure censor sensors

        1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Re: Sensor its service?

          Being psychic, I sense your censure censor sensors

          1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

            Re: Sensor its service?

            Being psychic, I sense your censure censor sensors

            I have been psychic for longer...since yore I sense your censor sensor censure

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    A lost opportunity lost to give some props to Claude Rains...

    We could have used a byline photo of him in his French police captain's uniform. After all, he was the one who was first shocked to find out that there is gambling going on at this establishment.

    (Paris--because I heard somewhere that we'll always have her.)

  8. 89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

    Why not ban Forex Trading Apps?

    Most of those (retail Forex traders) people are just gamblers. I know someone who lost £200,000 and two houses, owes £130,000 to friends but he still can't quit.

    1. Mike Moyle

      Re: Why not ban Forex Trading Apps?

      There are Forex Traders? Those things haven't been made in years; I wouldn't trust them, myself.

      Are they at least MIB or have they been used?

      ...there's REALLY a market for those sorts of things? Ewww...

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