British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has announced the addition of online casino games to PlayNow.com, a British Columbia gambling website, powered on OpenBet's betting technology platform.
David Loveday, CEO of OpenBet, said: "This is an important step forward in the development of the North American gaming market, a market which offers huge potential."
"We want to ensure money gambled in British Columbia stays in the province to benefit British Columbians," said Minister of Housing and Social Development, Rich Coleman. "We’re going to redirect that money towards a variety of programmes and services that support taxpayers and result in better health care, higher education and improved infrastructure," he continued.
Globally, online gambling is a US$20bn industry. British Columbia’s share of this global market is estimated to be $100m a year that was going to illegal, offshore gambling sites. The amount of money wagered online each year is presently increasing at approximately 11 per cent annually.
PlayNow.com players can now access the online games launched today in five categories - casino, bingo, sports, lottery and games. PlayNow.com generated $34m in revenue for BCLC in 2009/10, comprising one per cent of BCLC’s total revenue. This number is expected to increase to four per cent of total revenue by 2014 and result in approximately $100m in additional revenue.
