Google Play officially welcomes real-money gambling apps

Online gambling apps are flooding Google’s Android app store after the digital giant officially relaxed its ban on the products.

Last month, UK tech watchers broke the news that Google was preparing to lift its longstanding objections to real-money gambling apps in the Google Play app store. Google has now officially updated its policy center detailing the change and what gambling operators need to do to get their product onto the digital shelves.

For the moment, the gambling apps are only accessible via the Google Play stores in the UK, Ireland and France. Google has apparently chosen these markets as a trial run to determine whether or not their societies implode before rolling out the changes in other gambling-friendly markets.

App applicants will need to meet a number of criteria, including proving they have a valid license to offer gambling services in a market, preventing app use in countries not covered by the license, preventing underage users from gambling, including responsible gambling messages, etc. The apps are also prohibited from using Google payments services, including Google Play In-app Billing.