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Gambling App Store ads are showing up next to addiction recovery apps

App Store

Last updated

There are more ads in the App Store, including gambling apps next to kids applications — and worse yet, next to gambling addiction recovery ones.

Developer Marco Arment shared a screenshot of the advertising controls for product pages in the App Store. The tool shows that advertisers can choose to show their ads across all app categories, similar app categories, and other categories.

Apple also provides a demographic filter for the app advertisers to choose a country, gender, or age range for their ads. The ads aren't necessarily targeted at kids, but they could appear connected to kids' apps, at least on accounts not bound by age restrictions or parental controls.

Of course, the demographic filter doesn't do much if the ad buyer doesn't bother with accurate data either on purpose or accidentally.

Although they aren't for gambling, ads appear in product pages for children's apps such as Roblox, Minecraft, and YouTube Kids Although they aren't for gambling, ads appear in product pages for children's apps such as Roblox, Minecraft, and YouTube Kids

Perhaps worse yet, there are gambling apps being attached to listings for gambling addiction apps. AppleInsider has seen several of these.

Apple started testing the new App Store ad placements in July. It expands ad slots to the App Store's Today page, the "You Might Also Like" section in an app's product page, and the Search tab.

On Tuesday, other developers pointed out gambling ads appearing on their app pages. For example, Simon Stovring reported that he'd found that gambling ads appeared on pages for his apps 30% of the time.

Apple's expanded ad placements in the App Store went into effect on October 25. The ads will appear in the respective regional App Stores in all countries where it operates — except China.

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14 Comments

Fred257 6 Years · 283 comments

The government should look into this. Apple, this looks really bad. Whatever psychopath n your company made this decision needs to be publicly fired.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
foregoneconclusion 13 Years · 2939 comments

Yes, the developers are shocked...SHOCKED...to find that gambling operations spend a lot of money on advertising. Give me a break. The United States is flooded with gambling advertising pretty much anywhere you look. Kids who like sports are going to see DraftKings advertising all the time in mainstream broadcasts, just as one example.

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes
mac_dog 17 Years · 1093 comments

Fred257 said:
The government should look into this. Apple, this looks really bad. Whatever psychopath n your company made this decision needs to be publicly fired.

Do you even know what a psychopath is? I highly doubt it. I’d say it’s more like unintended consequences and Apple simply has to clean it up. Fire someone? Sounds like a hysterical reaction. Y’all been watching way too much news. 

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes
jagnut 10 Years · 28 comments

Isn’t it a good thing that addiction recovery ads appear next to gambling apps so that gamblers can get help?

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes
bala1234 7 Years · 170 comments

Nobody in Apple (or any other company involved in advertising) made a decision decided to show gambling ads next to addiction recovery or children's apps .  The simple answer is its complicated. You are dependent on lots of variables for e.g. the advertisers declaring the category of their ad. The Apps being advertised on adding the right flags to their apps and so on.  I am not being an 'apologist' here but some stuff is bound to slip through. Let's wait and see how Apple responds to this...

4 Likes · 0 Dislikes