British Columbia had the first sanctioned online casino in North America.  It was especially an important coup because North America has been against online gambling and many of the Native American casinos have been wary of allowing an online industry.  It seems their worries may be in vain due to an issue with the launch of the BC casino.  Playnow.com has experienced a lot of difficultly since it was released last week.

In the first few hours the online casino had to shut down.  They were receiving too many visitors trying to register that the server couldn’t handle it.  Anyone trying to get on was met with a message stating the site was temporarily off line and that Playnow.com was working to correct the issues.  Now there has been further trouble with the launch.

This first government sanctioned online casino had to admit to a privacy breach.  It seems 134 online accounts were exposed as a result of the issues the site was having.  It seems a glitch occurred in the system which allowed about a dozen gamblers to place bets with other online registered users’ money.

Not only did they have server issues, but they are now admitting the shutdown of the site was due more to the privacy glitch on the site.  The province’s lottery corporation admitted to the issue Tuesday 20 July.  The BC Lottery Corp stated Playnow.com would be re-launched with the issues fixed, but at the moment it will remain offline.  A full investigation must be completed before the site will be allowed back up.  All of the players who could experience repercussions as a result of the issues have been notified.

The entire reason online casinos were being given a trial and test is due to the $100 million British Columbians spend in online gambling per annum.  Off shore online casinos are seeing these winnings.  In fact it helps the UK revenue and economy because many players are seeking out the UK online casino sites.  The Canadian officials were hoping to get some of that revenue for their country to help stimulate the economy.  With an issue of data protection being breached it certainly raises many questions as to the confidence one should place in online casinos.

There will be hefty fines that the online casino has to pay, and even the lottery corporation, in order to get past the breach and the issues it raised.