The B.C. government's online gambling site was set to re-launch today, after getting the green light from the province's privacy commissioner, but as of 9:30 p.m., it was still offline.
PlayNow.com was taken offline on its debut day, July 15, when 134 users' private information was compromised. A total of 12 people's personal details showed up on the screens of another player.
The B.C. Lottery Corporation was told that it could not re-activate the site until an independent security expert reviewed the privacy breach.
The corporation estimates that it lost about $150,000 per day while the site was out of commission.
A review by Deloitte & Touche, approved by the privacy commissioner on Thursday, found that BCLC had correctly identified and disabled a default setting in the server software that had caused the breach, effectively preventing a repeat.
BCLC President Michael Graydon told reporters that PlayNow.com was supposed to be back online around 7 p.m., and users who registered last month will find their accounts intact.
"The accounts will all be there, and the right amount of money will be waiting for them when they get there," he said.
He also said that the 12 compromised players will have their credit monitored by BCLC for the next year.
Graydon acknowledged that it could be difficult to lure gamblers back to the site after the highly publicized glitch.
"We'll have to work hard to rebuild that trust as we move forward," he said.
Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said Thursday that her office will continue to investigate the security breaches at PlayNow.com, and plans to release a public report in the coming weeks.
Graydon said that he believed the site's new security systems would satisfy any concerns.
"We're very confident that the privacy commissioner....will come back and validate the systems that we have," he said.
What do you think? Will you give PlayNow.com a try? Let us know in our comments section.
