British Columbia
A security glitch at the new Canadian online casino, PlayNow.com, has meant that the gambling website will remain offline until further notice. The online casino, which is owned by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), launched on 15th July, but was soon shut down after security issues meant that personal details, including credit card numbers, were shared with other players at the casino. At first, a spokesperson for BCLC suggested that the website was taken offline due to a server overload. However, early last week it was revealed that due to a problem with a “data crossover”, the details of 134 users at PlayNow.com were shared with other players, allowing them, in some cases, to wager with someone else’s cash.
Elizabeth Denham, the Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has now ruled that the PlayNow.com casino must remain offline until the issue is fixed. Originally, the BCLC suggested it was hoping to re-launch the online casino last week, but a statement released from the government-owned corporation suggested that they “will not reactivate the website until an independent third-party review of the system is completed.”
If that wasn’t enough for the BCLC to contend with, Paul Gregoire, a security expert, informed CTV News, a television network in Canada, that the corporation could be fined up to $500,000 for revealing credit card information. According to industry insiders, it’s believed that these security problems could have been solved pre-launch, if BCLC consulted with some of the leading online casinos which accept Canadian players.
