British Columbia Lottery Corp. (BCLC) relaunched its controversial PlayNow.com website August 19 after receiving certification and approval from the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
BCLC shut down PlayNow.com July 15 after a computer glitch impacted 134 player accounts, a dozen of which could be viewed by other players.
BCLC located what it considered the root cause of the problem – a default configuration setting installed by the server software provider.
B.C. is the first jurisdiction in North America to offer legal online casino gambling.
“We want to ensure money gambled in B.C. stays in the province to benefit British Columbians,” said Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman in July. “We’re going to redirect that money toward a variety of programs and services that support taxpayers and result in better health care, higher education and improved infrastructure.”
PlayNow.com generated $34 million in revenue for the BCLC in 2009/10, comprising 1% of BCLC’s total revenue. That percentage is expected to rise to 4% of total revenue by 2014.
BCLC has provided gambling products in B.C. for 25 years and has offered an online option since 2004.
BCLC estimates that 140,000 British Columbians have accounts.