British Columbia Online Casino Open Again

Those in British Columbia who want to game online can now do so. Again.

The Playnow.com site, owned by the government in British Columbia, was finally restored to full functioning on Thursday after being down for a month following just one day of business.

When the site was first launched, it was highlighted as an example of what other governments can do in this day and age of online gaming. Instead of allowing residents to play on privately-owned sites and gaining none of the benefit, many see this as a way for governments to restore much-needed monies to the budget while controlling the gaming laws in their area.

Trouble was, the BC site was subject to a major security glitch within hours of its launch in July and it took 34 days for it to be fully restored.

Run by the B.C. Lottery Corporation, the site’s outage cost the company $150,000 a day in lost revenue, according to B.C. Lottery Corp. president Michael Graydon.

Graydon admits that players might be a little concerned at first, but believes the site will go on to bring good money to the province once players regain faith.

Playnow.com allows players – who must be registered users of the site – to gamble up to $9,999 a week on casino games. Some of the available games include roulette, blackjack and slots. Poker is expected to begin shortly.

By July 16, the site had more than 135,000 registered players which is the first that we know of many soon to come online casinos run by governments.