Playnow Review

Playnow.com is operated by the British Columbia Lottery Commission (BCLC) and is available to residents of British Columbia and Manitoba.  At this point, it’s the state of the art in lottery operated online gambling platforms offering just about every gaming option imaginable.  In addition to lottery games, players can enjoy sports betting, casino games, bingo, poker and keno.

The Playnow website is bright, well designed and easy to use.  The full menu of games is accessible from any screen so you’re never more than a click away from the action.  The same is true for online help and customer service—there’s a ‘live chat’ button at the bottom of every page along with other contact options including telephone and email.  Payment processing is also simple as the Playnow site accepts bank transfers and major credit cards.  While there’s many advantages of playing with a site run by the BCLC, generous bonuses are not one of them.  There are a few promo offers but none are particularly impressive and include a lot of ‘match play’ wagers.

Lottery Games

While many Canadian provincial and US state lottery websites serve as little more than an informational and advertising resource, Playnow offers the full range of lottery games for play online.  You can buy lottery tickets online for all of the provincial games as well as the two national lottery games in Canada—LottoMax and Lotto 649.   Lottery subscriptions are also available so players never need to worry about missing a daily drawing.  One of the reasons that the BCLC offers such a robust online platform is that British Columbia is one of only two provinces that doesn’t allow video lottery terminals (VLTs) in restaurants and bars.

Sports Betting

While every Canadian province has sports betting run by the provincial lottery commission there’s one huge caveat—single game betting is not permitted.  This will hopefully change in the near future—in fact, the Playnow site has a page dedicated to explaining the current legal situation and advising players on how to make their opinion known to lawmakers.  There is currently legislation (C-290) in the Canadian parliament that would legalize single event sports betting.

The Playnow site offers extensive sports betting options within that limitation, however, and provides their own unique wagering platform separate from the ‘Sports Action’ games that can be played at lottery retailers.  The variety of bet types and sports covered is impressive given the ‘no single event betting’ limitation and includes live betting and futures betting.

Casino Games

Playnow’s casino gaming options not only rival those of the biggest land based casinos—they far exceed them in terms of variety of games offered.  There are dozens of slot machine games including progressives, free spin slots and the ‘chain reaction’ games that have become very popular in recent years.   All of the table games you’d expect in a first rate casino can be found here along with scratch cards, arcade type games such as pachinko and video poker.  The video poker offerings are the only disappointing component of the Playnow casino offerings with few options.  Notably absent are some of the most popular video poker variants including ‘Deuces Wild’.

Conclusion

Hard to find fault with the Playnow website and it is easily the best of the provincial lottery online gaming sites.  Sports betting enthusiasts will have to deal with the ‘no single event’ wagering but that’s a Federal mandate and not the fault of the BCLC.  The sparse video poker offerings are one of the few areas where the game selection options fall short.  For every other gambling interest, however, the Playnow site is a great option for residents of British Columbia and Manitoba.

Bonus: $100 Sign Up Bonus

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