SMART LOTTO Dev Log #10 — A Korean Lottery App That Disappeared From Korea

Review Rejected the Flutter Rebuild

I submitted version 1.2.0 to App Store review. It came back rejected.

The reason was familiar from episode 3: the reviewer flagged the app as gambling-related and required additional verification.

This time, the specific trigger was different.

The Winning Simulator and Tax Calculator

The new version included two features I'd added for user convenience: a winnings simulator (how much would you receive at different prize tiers?) and a tax calculator (after the 22% withholding, what's the net amount?).

These are purely informational. No money changes hands. No transaction occurs. It's arithmetic.

The reviewer's assessment: these features are associated with gambling activity and must be disclosed appropriately.

The Dilemma: Fight or Comply

I wrote a response: no real-money transactions, no gambling facilitation, purely informational tool. The factual case was clear.

But I've read about developers whose accounts were restricted or flagged after prolonged disputes with App Review. For an indie developer, an account suspension is catastrophic — it takes down every app, every update, everything.

I didn't want to push hard enough to find out where that line was.

Compliance Created a New Problem

I did what the reviewer required: set the age rating to 18+ and checked the gambling content boxes.

Review passed.

Then I checked the app on the Korean App Store.

It wasn't there.

In South Korea, publishing an 18+ app requires a business account with specific certifications, not a personal developer account. My personal account could ship the app globally at 18+, but in South Korea specifically, it was invisible.

Donghaeng Lottery serves South Korean players exclusively. My Korean lottery app was unavailable in Korea.

The Fix

I identified the features that had prompted the age rating requirement and removed them from the iOS build:

if (!Platform.isIOS) ...[
  WinningSimulatorCard(),
  TaxCalculatorCard(),
],

Android users still see these features. iOS users don't. With the features gone from iOS, the age rating reverted to all-ages. Resubmitted.

June 28, 2026, 1:34 AM

Version 1.2.4. Passed review.

Visible in the Korean App Store again. Searchable. Available.

Closing This Series

From the first TestFlight build in December 2020 to version 1.2.4 in June 2026.

Data architecture. App Store rejection over a QR feature. Performance optimization with Dictionary caching. Feature additions from user reviews. Two years of silence. A deprecated API. Lost source code. A complete Flutter rebuild. Google Play's closed testing requirement. An App Store battle over gambling classification.

Every problem got solved. Some took longer than others. A few required accepting things I didn't want to accept.

SMART LOTTO runs on iOS and Android. 4.7 stars. A hundred-plus reviews. People who want to apply data and strategy to their lottery picks keep finding it.

I didn't expect a two-week side project from December 2020 to still be running — and getting better — in 2026.