Staff Writer
Pennsylvania players can now bet through Apple mobile devices because of Rush Street Interactive, the digital arm of casino operator Rush Street Gaming that has found it possible to make a way around Apple App Store’s new guidelines on gambling apps.
On Friday, the operator said its clients can bet using iOS devices due to “an easy and fresh solution” it has incorporated for the region of Pennsylvania.
The digital operation of Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino, the online gambling brand PlaySugarHouse.com is managed by Rush Street Interactive. The venture became Pennsylvania’s first to go live with mobile sports and desktop betting in late May. Online casino games were also launched earlier this week.
However, until recently, due to recent changes implemented by App Store, patrons were not allowed to use iOS devices or phones to put their cash at stake. HTML5 games “found in apps may not be accessible to charitable donations, real currency gambling or lotteries”. As per the App Store’s restructured guidelines for app distributers, “this utility is suitable only for code that can be assessed by Apple and entrenched in the binary.”
The widespread practice of app developers to merely use HTML5’s technology to repackage gambling websites, instead of developing original iOS gambling apps, will come to an end through the changes.
Details about its solution to the App Store issue were made by Rush Street Interactive in its Friday statement. As per the operator, players have to register at the PlaySugarHouse website on their mobile phones. Following which, they will be instructed to download from the App Store, the GeoGuard Location Validator.
Rush Street Interactive will be able to confirm, through this app, that the players who are accessing its gambling site through the mobile browsers, Google Chrome and Safari are indeed local residents of Pennsylvania. Gamblers will be able to wager mobile bets at PlaySugarHouse’s website immediately upon completing the easy setting up process, after downloading the GeoGuard app.
The first state based operation to enable iOS users to gamble through mobile phones is Rush Street Interactive. The online gambling operator said of its latest achievement that they are “excited on being able to offer our patrons with Apple gadgets to go online and play on our unbeatable stage.”
Rush Street Interactive has probably gained a vital competitive edge over other state based mobile and online gambling services through this new approach. To mark the beginning of regulated iGaming in Pennsylvania, Hollywood Casino and Parx Casino also launched their online casinos earlier this week. However, at the moment these two houses don’t belong to the GeoComply solution. Last month Parx Casino also launched its digital sports betting.
The inconvenience caused by the App Store’s amended guidelines to gambling operators has been overturned with GeoComply’s sharp and intelligent solution. iOS users would have been debarred from Pennsylvania’s betting and gaming scene for some time, had the development of an iOS local gambling app gone ahead.
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