British Colombia Launches First Online Casino In Canada

The province of British Colombia in Canada has launched the first online casino in North America. It is illegal to own and operate an online casino from the United States and Mexico, but provincial
governments in Canada are now able to offer legal online casino gambling to Canadian citizens.

PlayNow.com is the new online casino that is using the Openbet casino software. This casino is being operated by the British Colombia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and they have already registered 140,000 new players from the provinces in Canada. The revenue from this new online casino will be used to fund educational programs as well as essential Canadian services.

BCLC plans to launched an online poker room later this year to accomodate online poker players throughout Canada. Canadians will be able to play at a legal online poker room that only accepts players from Canada. While this is a great opportunity for Canadians to gamble legally over the Internet, some Canadian players will still continue to play at online casinos hosted offshore.