NGOs sue Apple in Brazil for R$ 300 million over casino app with no age verification

Four Brazilian NGOs have filed suit against Apple, seeking R$ 300 million in moral damages and the removal of casino apps from the App Store unless they can verify users’ ages. For high-risk payments teams, the detail that matters is simple: the case targets in-app purchase flows, not just app distribution.

1. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday (30/7) in the São Paulo court system and names the app “Casino Roulette: Roulettist”, which the plaintiffs say is available on the App Store with no age-check mechanism.
2. The claim was brought by the Associação Nacional dos Centros de Defesa da Criança e do Adolescente, Educafro, the Centro Santo Dias de Direitos Humanos, and Visão Mundial. Alongside the R$ 300 million claim, they want Apple to suspend all casino apps in its store until it proves it has adopted an effective age-verification system.
3. According to the filing, the lack of age control allows children to download the app, buy credits, and place bets without restriction. The plaintiffs say those data were notarized and submitted to the court as evidence.
4. The organizations argue that Apple bears direct responsibility because it intermediates the purchase of in-game credits without verifying who is making the payment. In other words, the fight is over the payment rail inside the app as much as the app itself.
5. The filing says the app mirrors features typical of gambling products: successive bets, intermittent rewards, expectation of a win, near-miss effects, and repeated-payment prompts tied to instant digital payments. To support the claim, the group cites recent decisions by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court and the ECA Digital (the Digital Child and Adolescent Statute), which entered into force in 2026.

Apple had not commented by the time of publication, and the app’s defense could not be located. For PSPs, acquirers, and marketplace operators, the practical lesson is that age verification and payment verification are now being treated as linked control points, not separate compliance boxes.