Guideline 5.3, Gaming, Gambling and Lotteries

A 5.3 rejection means your app runs a contest, a gambling feature or a lottery, and something Apple requires around it is missing: the official rules, a licence, geo-restriction, or the fact that a real-money gaming app must be free to download.

It is one of the more mechanical rejections in the guidelines. There is a checklist, and if you meet it you pass, but two of the items involve lawyers, so it is rarely a same-day fix.

How it is usually worded

The header reads Guideline 5.3 - Legal - Gaming, Gambling, and Lotteries, often with a sub-number. Typical bodies:

• "Your app includes a sweepstakes or contest, but the official rules are not available in the app."
• "Your app includes real money gaming features but is not free on the App Store."
• "Your app offers gambling content without evidence of the required licences in the regions where it is available."

What it covers

Three different things share one guideline number, which is why the rejections read so differently from each other.

Contests and sweepstakes. If your app runs one, you must be the sponsor, the official rules must be presented inside the app, and Apple may not be a sponsor or involved in any way. That last point catches marketing copy more than code: "win an iPhone" implies Apple's involvement to a reviewer even when you bought the prize yourself.

Real-money gaming: sports betting, casino games, poker, horse racing, anything where a customer stakes money and can win money. You need the necessary licences and permissions in every location where the app is used, the app must be geo-restricted to exactly those locations, and it must be free on the App Store.

Lotteries. Consideration, chance and a prize together make a lottery, and lotteries carry their own licensing requirements in most jurisdictions. An in-app "raffle" funded by ticket sales is a lottery whatever you call it in the UI.

Loot boxes are a different guideline

If your rejection is about randomised rewards bought with real money, look again at the header. The odds disclosure requirement lives in 3.1.1 In-App Purchase, not 5.3: apps offering loot boxes or other mechanisms providing randomised virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of each item type to customers before purchase.

The practical consequence: a gacha game gets 3.1.1 for missing odds, and 5.3 only if the mechanic touches real money on the way out, a cash-out, a secondary market, or currency redeemable for something of monetary value. Prize crane games and "skill" tournaments with entry fees and cash prizes sit right on that line.

Why it triggers

• A giveaway with no official rules screen, or rules that live only on your website.
• Rules that do not name the sponsor, the eligibility region, the entry period, the odds of winning, or how winners are selected and notified.
• "Enter to win an iPad", a prize that implies Apple sponsorship.
• A casino-style app with in-app purchase chips that can be converted to cash or goods.
• A free-play casino or slots app with an age rating below the level Apple expects for simulated gambling.
• A fantasy sports or prediction app with no licence detail supplied and no geo-restriction.
• Availability in every territory, because you never restricted the App Store availability list.
• A paid download or a subscription on a real-money gaming app.
• Skill-based tournaments with entry fees, where the app never establishes whether the jurisdiction treats them as gambling.

How to fix it, in order

1. Work out which of the three you are. Contest, real-money gaming, or lottery. The remedies do not overlap.
2. Put the official rules in the app. Full text, reachable without an account, before entry. Sponsor, eligibility, region, dates, how to enter, odds of winning, prize value, winner selection and notification, and a clear statement that Apple is not a sponsor and is not involved.
3. Strip Apple from the prize. Cash, credit or your own product instead of Apple hardware, or you are arguing about implied sponsorship you do not need to have.
4. Restrict availability to your licensed territories. In App Store Connect, set the availability list to exactly the countries you hold permissions for, then geo-restrict in the app as well, because the two do not have to agree and reviewers test from where they sit.
5. Make the download free if there is real-money gaming, and remove any paid unlock of gambling functionality.
6. Do not sell gambling credit through in-app purchase. Funds for real-money play are handled by your own licensed payment flow, not StoreKit.
7. Get the age rating right, including the simulated gambling answers in the questionnaire. Under-rating a gambling app invites a second rejection after you clear the first.
8. Attach the licences. Regulator, licence number, territory, expiry, as a document in Resolution Center, not a sentence claiming they exist.
9. Write reviewer notes that name the jurisdiction. Say which regulator, which territories, and how the app enforces the boundary.

What to send back

Contest:

Thank you for the review. The full official rules are now presented in the app before entry, under Promotions → Official Rules, and are reachable without signing in. They identify [company] as the sole sponsor, state eligibility and the entry period, the odds of winning, prize value and winner selection, and confirm that Apple is not a sponsor and is not involved in any way. The prize has been changed to store credit.

Real-money gaming:

Thank you. The app is now free on the App Store with no paid unlocks. Availability is restricted to [territories], matching the licences held: [regulator, licence number, expiry], copies attached. The app additionally verifies location at launch and blocks real-money play outside those territories. Funds are handled through our licensed payment provider, not in-app purchase.

The honest part

Two of these steps are legal work, not development work. Where the app is legitimately licensed the rejection clears on evidence; where the licence does not yet exist, no amount of App Review correspondence substitutes for it.

Source: Apple, App Store Review Guidelines, 5.3 (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#gaming-gambling-and-lotteries)

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