The iPhone and Mobile Gambling

May 18, 2010 | News Category: Casino Software

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At first, Apple had not given permission for online casino betting applications to be used on the iPhone. However, Apple gave Tabcorp approval to offer iPhone users an online casino betting iPhone application. The new online casino application that has receive approval is an official iPhone application. Tabcorp is the second company that has been allowed to offer gambling applications on the iPhone.

Up until now, Apple had not shown any interest in the online gambling industry, and had in fact declined various official agreements and contracts that had been offered to the well-known company. Earlier this year, Betfair was given permission to run an iPhone application that allowed their online gamblers to place their bets via their iPhones.

Mac users usually find that they are somewhat excluded from most online casinos, since the software is usually written for those who use computers with Microsoft operating systems. Although there are a few Mac friendly online casinos, most will only offer their online casino games to Mac users via web browsers, and not in the download format. This is somewhat understandable because the percentage of Mac computer users is quite low, and the software would have to be specially designed in order to use it on both a Mac and a PC.

One has to wonder, however, if this might change. Since Apple has created the iPhone, they have become extremely popular, which means that more and more people are using an Apple product. The question is whether this will spill over into the home computer arena, and perhaps more online casinos and other online gambling sites may choose to make their casinos available to Mac users too.

Now that Mac users, who are fairly likely to carry iPhones, can have access to online casino betting via their mobile devices, it may well help to open up the market for online casino gaming amongst those who choose to use Macs.

Tabcorp is an Australian betting company, which has plans to take things further with an entry into the mobile betting world over the next few months. Tabcorp will be using the iPhone platform to do so, despite the concerns and objections that have been raised in Australia regarding the offering of mobile betting via the iPhone. Concerns regarding underage gambling have been voiced by Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, who would prefer that gambling via the iPhone should be banned.