July 2 - The President and Chief Executive Officer of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying that the group is considering 'exporting' its PlayNow.com online betting system.
According to Michael Graydon, who was speaking at the Vancouver Board of Trade meeting last week, the move to turn the betting system into a white label product would bring additional revenue to the Canadian province.
"We have expertise that would be valuable to other regulated gambling jurisdictions," said Graydon about the fact that PlayNow.com may be exported. "Launching online gaming is a major capital investment, not to mention the level of expertise that it takes to operate and manage the customer base.
Graydon also said that the BCLC was eyeing plans to take advantage of developing global trends in mobile gambling on devices such as tablets and smart phones.
He explained that the BCLC also had the potential to take on the role of online gambling system vendor to gambling authorities in other Canadian provinces.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation was inspired to turn its gambling model into a product by a similar move by Vantage Airport Group, which turned its airport management systems into marketable products which are now used by many other airports around the world.
A potential first partner for PlayNow's betting system is the Manitoba Lottery Group, which announced recently that it was seriously mulling the idea of using BCLC's system for its planned online gambling site.
While the deal between Manitoba Lotteries and BCLC has not yet been finalized, it is believed that a contract will eventually be signed to have the latter provide Manitoba's new site with a model for online poker and casino games.
The Vice President of e-gaming at BCLC, Rhonda Garvey said: "We're confident that we have experience in a highly regulated market."
The Vancouver Sun quoted Garvey as saying that another advantage of such a partnership would be the strengthening of regulated and secure gambling networks across Canada.
PlayNow.com has a sound reputation as a solid online gambling
platform in Canada, despite a security glitch which almost brought
an end to the site before it even launched.
The glitch, which saw 134 cases of personal information exposure,
resulted in a total shutdown of PlayNow before the Office of
Information and Privacy Commissioner finally deemed the site safe
and secure, and that the BCLC was doing an adequate job in
protecting the privacy of its online gamblers.
