When money is a involved, some people may avoid them, while others approach them.
On Android, there wasn't that many real-money gaming apps available in the Google Play Store before the 2023 year ended, at least in certain locations, due to Google's policy. The company initially started allowing apps that deal with real money in its store back in 2021, but only if they fall under a game type that's regulated by the government.
This is changing.
The company announced that it's revising its policy to allow more "game types and operators not covered by an existing licensing framework."
This way, the company is literally opening its Play Store to games that aren't that popular or aren't played widely enough for local governments to create laws around them.
According to Google, it has conducted several pilot programs in different parts of the world since 2021 to determine how to support more real-money game operators and game types.
In a blog post, the company said that:
"We’re pleased that this new approach will provide new business opportunities to developers globally while continuing to prioritize user safety. It also enables developers currently participating in RMG pilots in India and Mexico to continue offering their apps on Play."
The date is June 30, starting in India, Mexico and Brazil on June 30.
After that, operators part of its pilot programs can release their current applications - and other types of real-money gaming apps - like any other developer, so long as they're in compliance with local laws.
Google said that it has plans to expand the availability of real-money gaming apps in other regions in the future.
Since gambling is a sensitive matter, Google Play’s existing developer policies supporting user safety, such as requiring age-gating to limit real-money gaming apps experiences to adults and requiring developers use geo-gating to offer these apps only where legal, remain unchanged.
In fact, Google plans to continue to strengthen them.
In addition, Google Play will also continue other key user safety and transparency efforts such as its expanded developer verification mechanisms.
With this policy update, the company is also "evolving our service fee model for RMG to reflect the value Google Play provides and to help sustain the Android and Play ecosystems."
"We are working closely with developers to ensure our new approach reflects the unique economics and various developer earning models of this industry. We will have more to share in the coming months on our new policy and future expansion plans."