Certain apps are repeatedly launching the App Store

Starting a couple of days ago, I have been having an issue with strange behavior in three gay dating apps: Grindr, Jack'd and Scruff. It happened initially in Grindr and then seemed to spread to Jack'd and Scruff.
I am using an iPad 2 with the latest iOS update. My iPad has never been jail broken and I've only ever installed apps from the App Store.
The behavior sometimes occurs as soon as I open the app and other times I can open it and use the app for a couple of minutes before the behavior happens.
The unwanted behavior is that the App Store is launched, prompting me to download one of the following 7 games:
- Midnight Castle - A Hidden Object Game by Big Fish Games
- Evolution: Battle for Utopia by my.com
- Farmville 2: Country Escape by Zynga
- Jungle Heat by my.com
- Cookie Jam by SGN
- Fairway Solitaire HD by Big Fish Games
- King's Empire (Deluxe)
When this happens, I close the App Store and switch back to the app (e.g., Grindr), but as soon as I switch back I am redirected to the App Store for one of the above 7 games in an endless loop. This renders the app unusable.
I have seen some other posts saying this behavior might be related to scripts in banner ads in the apps, but the three apps affected have different banner ads and it is always the same 7 game apps that I'm redirected to.
Does anyone have any ideas what is going on here and how to stop it? I've tried closing and reopening the apps and rebooting the iPad, but this did not have an effect. I stopped using the apps for a couple of days and when I tried again today they were working fine for about an hour or so and then the behavior started again.

Skydiver119 and pjl123, thanks for taking the time to respond, but I really suspect something else may be going on here.
If it was just one app with this behavior, then I would say it's a bad app and stop using it. However, when it starts with three different apps all on the same day, that`s too much coincidence for me. Even if an app developer were somehow in collusion to do something nefarious, it would just be stupid to render the app unusable. That's shooting yourself in the foot.
I know that Apple claims that iOS devices can't get viruses, but this sure feels like a virus to me. It seems to be some kind of "click fraud" (game developers paying someone for number of referrals). I have no idea how the hackers are doing this, but it feels like something running outside the apps that is hijacking them.

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