Casino as a web app (PWA): play in the browser instead of an app

Anyone looking for a casino app ends up in the browser with two of the four brands in our data comparison: they have no native app at all, just a website with a web app manifest. Put such a site on your home screen and you get its own icon and a window without an address bar, with no APK file and no App Store.

One user in a forum names a motive for wanting an app: he finds it tedious to open the website through the browser every single time. That is exactly the problem a web app solves: one tap on an icon instead of opening the browser, typing the address or hunting for a bookmark.

Web app, PWA and mobile site: the difference

A mobile site is first of all just a website whose layout adapts to small screens. It runs in a browser tab, with the address bar, tab bar and every browser menu. Frumzi, 5Gringos and Irwin all list the mobile browser; the games run there directly on the website.

A Progressive Web App (PWA) goes one step further. By the common definition it is an app built with web technologies that provides a user experience “like that of a platform-specific app”: one codebase for many devices, installable, in principle able to run offline and in the background, and integrated into the device. Technically this is decided by a small file, the web app manifest. It sets the name, icon, start address and display mode.

The key field in the manifest is called display. If it says standalone, the site opens from the home screen like a standalone native app with no URL bar. The fallback chain is fullscreen, standalone, minimal-ui, browser; if the field is missing, browser applies and the site opens as a normal tab.

In everyday use, web app is the umbrella term. Apple does not use the term PWA publicly, but since 2018 it has supported the technologies that let PWAs be installed and used offline in Safari on iPhone and iPad.

A native app, by contrast, is a separate program: an APK file on Android, an App Store download on iOS. It has to be installed and updated and it takes up storage. One operator's installation guide uses storage as an argument for the web app too: “Save storage space, and play smoothly!”

Add to home screen: Android (Chrome)

On Android a web app is installed through the browser menu. One operator's guide describes the route like this: open the casino site in Chrome, tap the menu in the top right corner (three vertical dots), choose “Install App” from the menu list and confirm.

Whether the site then starts without an address bar depends on the display field in the manifest (see above).

The web app needs no permission for unknown sources, because no APK file lands on the device. Anyone who downloads a casino app for Android as an APK has to allow installation per source, for example for the browser or the file manager, on the system screen “Install unknown apps” on Android 8.0 and later. Developers may host APK files on their own website and offer them via a download link; Google Play Protect scans such apps at install time and checks the device regularly, even if the apps come from other sources.

One example of the APK route is 22Bet. The steps according to goal.com: download the APK from the official site, allow “Unknown Sources”, tap the APK and install it. The figures there are Android 6.0 or later, a processor from 1.2 GHz and an APK size of 55.36 MB, with an “App Size 156 MB” elsewhere that names no platform. Source, size and steps are covered on the page 22Bet APK for Android.

Add to Home Screen: iPhone (Safari)

Real-money apps in the App Store need licences in every location where they are used, must be geo-restricted to those locations and must be free to download. An APK cannot be installed on iOS; even so, one user in a Q&A forum asks how to convert an APK into an IPA. More on the App Store, web apps and why there is no APK on iOS on the page casino app for iPhone.

The route in Safari according to Apple: open the website, tap Share at the bottom and pick “Add to Home Screen” from the list. If the option is missing, “Edit Actions” lets you show it. The same operator guide as above phrases this step as “Choose ‘Add to the Home Screen’ from the menu list”.

When adding the site you can switch on “Open as Web App”. When you then tap the icon, the website opens like an app; the web app can send notifications and is closed like any other app. The icon only appears on the device where it was added, so anyone using both an iPhone and an iPad repeats the step on each device.

Which brands in our data comparison run only in the browser

In the data on the four brands, the operators split into two groups: pure browser casinos with a web app manifest, and casinos that also list an app.

According to LCB and AskGamblers, Frumzi offers no app to download; play happens in the mobile browser, with no installation according to AskGamblers. A search for “frumzi” in the German App Store on 08.10 returned nothing. The operator's website carries a web app manifest with display: standalone and a start address with the parameter utm_medium=pwa. We found no operator guide for adding it to the home screen; the Chrome and Safari steps above still apply. What the manifest contains in detail is set out under Frumzi app.

5Gringos is also a pure browser casino: web for iOS and Android, no app needed, a compatible mobile browser is enough. AskGamblers puts it this way: “No app is required and the casino is compatible on operating systems like iOS”. Here too there is a manifest with display: standalone, and a search for “5gringos” in the German App Store found no entry. How the site lands as an icon on Android and iPhone is shown on the page about the 5Gringos Casino app.

According to AskGamblers and LCB, Irwin has an app for Android, plus the mobile browser. According to the casino's reply on AskGamblers, you scroll down the home page and choose the download icon; whether that is an APK, the reply does not say. On iOS the sources disagree: according to AskGamblers the app is in the App Store, while a search for “irwin casino” in the German App Store on 08.10 returned no result. A web app manifest is not documented for Irwin: no information. All known data on this is on the page Irwin Casino app.

22Bet relies on the native app: on Android as an APK from the official site (steps above), on iOS according to goal.com through the App Store by searching for “22bet” and tapping Get, from iOS 12.0. The search in the German App Store on 08.10, however, found no 22Bet app; goal.com is an Indian edition, so the listing is not confirmed for Germany. There is no information on a 22Bet web app.

For the GGL whitelist the access route makes no difference: none of the brands is listed there, and the list contains no information on apps in any case.

Limits: push, offline, updates

Frumzi's manifest does include a push permission, but the matching sender ID is empty; that is no basis for concluding that notifications will arrive. For 22Bet, goal.com lists push notifications only in the app, not on the mobile website; for Irwin and 5Gringos there is no information.

PWA technology allows offline operation; whether any of the four brands uses an offline cache is not documented: no information. How real-money and play-money offers differ is explained on the page about the real-money casino app.

How to update an app installed via APK is a common forum question; one answer states that the signature must be identical for the update. There is no information on updates for the Frumzi and 5Gringos web apps.

On store rules: PWAs can be listed as an optional distribution channel in Google Play, the Microsoft Store or the Apple App Store, and then all store rules apply. Google Play allows real-money apps only after an application process and with a valid licence for every country in which the app is offered. Even a bare wrapper with a WebView, menu item or button leading to real-money play falls under this rule. For Germany, Google Play does not list online casino games or slots as gambling apps in the first place; only sports betting, horse racing and lotteries are permitted there.