British Columbia's embattled lottery corporation has promised the province's privacy watchdog that it won't reactivate its controversial online casino until the commissioner is satisfied that users' private information will be protected.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham announced Tuesday that she has "obtained a commitment" from the lottery corporation that it will not reopen its PlayNow.com website until an independent review is complete.

Denham launched an investigation into the lottery corporation last week after a breach of privacy was reported to her office on July 16.

She said in a written statement Tuesday a third-party review of the PlayNow.com system is already underway, though she did not specify when that review might be complete.

Denham turned down an interview request because the investigation into the lottery corporation is ongoing.

B.C. became the first jurisdiction in North America to offer legal, casino-style gaming online when it launched the revamped PlayNow.com site nearly two weeks ago.

But the website was plagued with problems from the very beginning.

The lottery corporation initially said it crashed on the first day because of overwhelming demand, though it later admitted it shut PlayNow.com down because of a glitch that caused users to inadvertently switch accounts.

The glitch allowed dozens of gamblers to place bets with other users' money.

BCLC has completed its assessment of the glitch that compromised 134 user accounts, and says that "a high traffic load combined with...a defect in the error handling logic," is to blame. For more information on the company's findings, click here.

As the lottery corporation worked to try and fix the system, a federal agency that tracks money laundering announced last week that more than $650,000 in fines were being issued against B.C. Lottery.

Rich Coleman, B.C.'s minister responsible for gaming, chalked up the fines to administrative errors and said he had full confidence in lottery corporation chief executive officer Michael Graydon.

But a spokesman for the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada said fines are only levied after a chronic failure to comply with requirements to report large money transactions.

The lottery corporation has also been hit with two recent lawsuits over a so-called self-exclusion program aimed at keeping problem gamblers out of casinos.

Victoria resident Michael Lee filed one suit, claiming he was allowed in a casino whenever he wanted despite the program, until he finally won a $42,000 jackpot.

Lee said he was refused his prize money and is now heading to court to try and get it back.

The lottery corporation is also being sued by a Vancouver-area woman who says she was allowed to gamble away $330,000 even though she was also in the self-exclusion program.