BCLC PlayNow Online Casino Marked for Growth
An executive of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has announced that double digit growth rate for the corporation is a phenomenon of the past, and that going forward company growth will likely come from its successful online gambling site, PlayNow Online Casino.
Revenues from the BCLC-owned and operated PlayNow online casino are expected to grow rapidly, despite the fact that they form only a small share of BCLC's total revenue. Tom Williamson, vice-president of financial and corporate services for BCLC, revealed this at a Rotary Club meeting.
He explained the lottery and the land casino scenario. 25 years ago BCLC started with annual revenue of $330 million. Today that amount has gone up to $2.7 billion. The main contribution, about 90%, has come in the last ten years from the land casinos established by BCLC.
Williamson said that saturation levels have been reached in this area of the operations and that the future growth rate would be around 2%. The focus will be on generating profits through making the operations more efficient, rather than depending on growth.
Growth in British Columbia PlayNow Online Casino
He also indicated that online casino gambling was the activity of the future, and that British Columbia was the first Canadian province to launch its online casino. BCLC launched PlayNow online casino in 2010.
Unfortunately there was an initial setback when the site's servers crashed soon after the site went live, and the personal data of a few players was inadvertently leaked. However, BCLC successfully relaunched PlayNow a few months later.
The revenues from PlayNow online casino last year were $42 million, which when compared to the $2.7 billion total revenue of BCLC, it is a drop in the ocean. However, being a relatively new operation, the online casino is facing a high consumer demand and is likely to experience a double digit growth rate. In fact the immediate expectation is of a 50% increase on a year over year basis.
Although PlayNow online casino is competing with private operators, a big factor in its favour is that it is owned by the provincial government and is thus being marketed as a safe and secure online gambling site. The next step for PlayNow is to enter the mobile gaming arena.
BCLC is, however, adopting a cautious approach. To start, purchasers of lottery tickets will be able to check the winning numbers on their mobile handsets, while casino games on smart phones will be introduced down the line.
About the BCLC
Owned by the province of British Columbia, BCLC is a corporation began operations in 1985 at Kamloops. Apart from running the lottery, BCLC operates a chain of land based casinos in British Columbia and an online casino PlayNow.
