Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

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We did that in 2008 also, I think the only reason Apple pulled that app is they expected the sales to be charged back and they were wanting to avoid the possible media circus going on around it. I am betting that in 2021 the story might have a different ending. If I wanted to have a service that would certify someone uber wealthy or old money and display an icon, I bet it could be done.

Nothing stops people from gold plating their iPhones or putting it in a jewel encrusted case - if you drop it better then gems take the blow then your phone, right? I’ve heard stories of überrich kids dropping $36k so they can rule on Clash of Clans, and grade school kids blowing their college funds on smurfberries to get ahead in whatever game uses those, and for the most part Apple is happy to let that happen but will step in with refunds to head off any media frenzy.

Has anyone tried to play Blackjack on an iPhone recently? It is almost impossible to find an app that lets you play any casino games without -buying chips- to play. Who is spending $99.99, $19.99, or $9.99 of real money to gamble X amount of fake money with real reward except being on a scoreboard for a day? If you just want to play just for fun you have to go onto web sites.

> If I wanted to have a service that would certify someone uber wealthy or old money and display an icon, I bet it could be done.

$1000 isn't enough to charge to establish that someone is meaningfully wealthy; the app should have cost $10 million.

I think this is the same concept of establishing wealth as, say, wiping one's own ass with $1 bills.

IIRC the the highest price an app could set at the App Store launch in 2008 was $999 or $999.99.

This was someone putting a drawing in an iPhone app bundle with a funny name and charging the highest price that Apple allowed developers to set.

In other words, art.

It was brilliant. Made even more brilliant when the people who had actually paid for the app went on line, backpedalling, to explain how they had bought it on accident.

If you've got $1000 to blow on a joke, you are more than reasonably comfortable and entering wealthy territory.

$1000 is rent for many people, it's one half to one third of their salary.

What was that Steve Martain movie where he is trying to take a woman to a fancy restaurant, so he is having a meeting with the head chef and the banker, and they keep asking him what he will order from the menu "The Duck!? On your salary?"

Yeah, 1000 is going to weed out a number of people but its not unreachable, should be more for 1000 we'll examine your financial situation and then grant you the ability to display the icon.

Just for an example: https://caviar.global/iphone-12/

> Has anyone tried to play Blackjack on an iPhone recently? It is almost impossible to find an app that lets you play any casino games without -buying chips- to play.

Why would someone spend the time and money to develop an app that is not monetized?

You’d need a server to manage state and that’s an ongoing cost as well. It doesn’t exist because it’s not economical to do so.

You realize you can run code on the iPhone right? There's nothing inherent to blackjack - or any casino game whatsoever - that would necessitate holding remote state (Multiplayer obviously a different story).

I think the chips have to have some value, pressing a reload 10m wallet button will make a pointless gambling game, loose win who care just get more free chips Gambling Games devolve to everyone all in, everyone bluffing

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