Can't Use Sports Betting App on My iPhone From PA

What the Hell?  I'm being bombarded with sportsbook ads while here in Pennsylvania yet I'm prevented from loading the sports betting app onto my iPhone.  What's the deal?

New reqs announced by iPhone have resulted in PA sportsbooks thinking twice about offering their apps on their devices.

The new guidelines state the following:

“HTML5 games distributed in apps may not provide access to real money gaming, lotteries, or charitable donations, and may not support digital commerce. This functionality is only appropriate for code that’s embedded in the binary and can be reviewed by Apple. This guideline is now enforced for new apps. Existing apps must follow this guideline by September 3, 2019.”

Herein lies the problem, 95% of all sportsbook products are wrapped, and if you don't know what the term "wrapped" means (we are with you here) all you really need to know is that nearly every sportsbook and online casino app on the market today does not conform with the new iPhone requirements.  Furthermore, it will likely take at least 12 months to do so. 

This essentially eliminates a solid edge in-state licensed sportsbooks had on the competition offshore.

Calvin McAlee of LineUps.com suggests this could be a much bigger deal than just some months long delay in revamping a gambling company's app platform.

Unless Apple drops its percentage down for real money gaming apps (and significantly), we may not see any real money gambling sites on iOS.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com