Apple has approved another secret gambling den, disguised as a puzzle game

This morning, I wrote about how the $ 64 billion a year Apple App Store doesn’t catch incredibly obvious $ million scams, because the company doesn’t even bother to audit the most profitable fraud applications and what the developer looks like. Kosta Eleftheriou company applications how to do.

But this isn’t the only type of scam Eleftheriou has discovered in the Apple App Store – it has also found that Apple’s review teams have approved games that turn into secret gambling shelters when they access from certain countries (or via VPN). I wrote about two of them last Thursday as if it were an isolated incident, but now he has found at least two more, suggesting that this may be a trend – including a three-match doubled puzzle game Lucky stars this turns into a casino if you open it in Russia and a game called Vegas pirates which does the same.

In some ways, there are even more glaring examples: while it might be more shocking that a banana-picking game for baby monkeys would turn into a gambling den, these new apps seem to invite extra control. with their gambling-oriented images and claiming to be a Russian news organization was their “developer’s website.”

They’re both gone now.

If you’re looking for a shock value, Eleftheriou also saw this unrelated app the other day:

Apple is testifying before Congress today – and in an incredibly high lawsuit in court against Epic Games next month – about how the App Store protects users, justifying the company’s traditional 30% cut (apparently 64 billion dollars only last year) and should not ‘not be separated. This type of discovery offers the company’s critics a lot of ammunition.