Fintech giant Paytm on Friday morning tweeted that it’s back on Google Play Store hours after it was removed by Google allegedly violating gambling policies.
“Update: And we’re back!” said Paytm in its tweet.
On Friday, in its blog post, Paytm said that its recently launched ‘Paytm Cricket League’ was found to be in violation of the Play Store policies on gambling.
“We recently launched the ‘Paytm Cricket League’ on our consumer app for users to engage in their passion of cricket and get cashback. The game allows users to get player stickers after each transaction, collect them and receive Paytm Cashback. Today afternoon, we received communication from Google that they are suspending our app because they believe this to be a violation of their Play Store policies on gambling. The Paytm Android app has thus been unlisted from Google’s Play Store and is temporarily unavailable to users for new downloads or updates,” said the company.
“We continue to work with Google to restore the app. We assure all our users that their balances and linked accounts are 100 per cent safe. Our services are fully functional on all existing apps and you can continue enjoying Paytm like before,” added Paytm
The company was stated that it removed the cashback component to adherence with the Google policy.
“While it is clear that all activities on Paytm are completely lawful, we have temporarily removed the cashback component in an effort to meet the Play Store policy requirements,” said the company.
In its blog post, Google said that it does not permit apps that facilitate sports betting and will remove such apps from the Google Play store that allow that.
“We don’t allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting. This includes if an app leads consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes, it is a violation of our policies,” said the blog post.
