Up to now, Google has only Android users in the U.K., Ireland, France, and Brazil to download apps from the Play Store to partake in real money gambling. But starting from this spring, the company will enact a policy update to expand their availability to 15 countries including the United States.
Play Store publishers are asked to pay attention to the Developer Program Policy draft taking effect March 1 where the following new jurisdictions will be able to conduct certain forms of gambling using actual funds:
- Australia: Sports betting, lotteries, Daily Fantasy Sports
- Belgium: Online casino games, sports betting, government-operated lotteries
- Canada: Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries (all must be government-operated)
- Colombia: Online casinos, sports betting, government-operated lotteries
- Denmark: Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, Daily Fantasy Sports
- Finland: Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries (all must be government-operated)
- Germany: Sports betting, government-operated lotteries
- Japan: Government-operated lotteries, Sports betting (betting on horse races, motorboat races, bicycle races, auto-bicycle races, and soccer lottery by government operators only)
- Mexico: Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, Daily Fantasy Sports
- New Zealand: Sports betting, lotteries (all must be government-operated)
- Norway: Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries
- Romania: Online casinos, sports betting, government-operated lotteries
- Spain: Online casino games, sports betting, government-operated lotteries, Daily Fantasy Sports
- Sweden: Online casino games, sports betting, government-operated lotteries
U.S. Android users may also gamble, though the forms of gaming will vary by state. Here's what will be allowed as of March 1:
Online casino
- Delaware
- Nevada (poker only)
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
Sports betting
- Colorado
- District of Columbia (gov't operators)
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Montana (gov't operators)
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- Oregon (gov't operators)
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
Lotteries (state and nationally-contracted)
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Michigan
- New Hampshire
- New York
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Virginia
All independent app publishers must hold proper licenses and follow laws in their jurisdiction among following other requirements in order to become available on the Play Store.
The U.K., Ireland, and France were the first countries permitted to have real money gambling apps back in 2017.
Furthermore, Google has extended some support to so-called Gamified Loyalty Programs where users may make purchases in order to access supplemental benefits or rewards or gain and/or increase their chances at a sweepstakes. Game apps are more tightly restricted as to how they can offer the program — they aren't allowed to have chance-based elements and cannot offer variable rewards.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries to this new policy include Indian publishers — Google acknowledged them in a post on its India blog — as many companies hold contests during festivals and spotlight product launches.
Source: Google