The operators of PlayNow probably would have been happy to be famous solely for being the first provincial government run online casino in Canada, but no such luck. PlayNow Casino is now also famous for one of the biggest technical glitches in the history of online casinos. The glitch affected less than

 

 

1% of the players in the casino, but it was quite a glitch. A server error allowed players to play with each other’s money and even to see one another’s personal details. Needless to say, this shook the players’ confidence a little bit. The site was shut down as soon as the glitch was spotted, and it remained down for a little over a month. Players went back to playing at independently owned online casinos like JackpotCity Casino for the 35 days that the site was down, and it was estimated that this cost the BC government about 5 million CAD in lost revenue. All of PlayNow’s 140,000 players were given the option to walk away and have their deposits refunded, but most of them did not take this option. This probably means that the casino will be able to recover, provided that there are no further problems. All eyes will surly be on the casino for the next few months, as it’s success or failure will most likely determine the fate of online casinos in other provinces.

Germans who love to gamble online received some help from the ECJ recently. While in the past the court has allowed state monopolies in other countries, Germany’s monopoly has been seen as different. Online gambling laws in Germany were seen as being too inconsistent to serve any purpose other than to drum up business at state run gambling venues. Many, such as the EGBA see that is being a positive thing for independent online casino operators like

 

 

GamblingClub.com but that isn’t strictly true. This ruling did not come about as a result of a change in the ECJ’s position on online gambling. State monopolies on online gambling are still something that the court sees as preferable, they just want to see them done right. The way Germany’s monopoly worked, it was providing all of the revenue generating effects of a monopoly without any of the public protections that come with state monopolies, and are generally used as the entire basis under which these monopolies are established in the first place. Germany is currently at a stand still in terms of gambling legislation. The ban is set to be in effect until the end of 2011, but until then there is no system for licensing independent operators. If the ban was going to go into law after the expiration of the treaty then this wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but as it is Germany is stuck between the two systems. With the ban set to be lifted, Germany will need a new system in place by the start of 2012, but they have failed to move forward on this. The reason for this is presumably because they are expecting to draw up a new ban that will meet with the ECJ’s approval.