Speaking in a meeting of Kamloops Rotary, Tom Williamson, incumbent vice-president of the lottery corporation for financial and corporate services, revealed that when the BCLC was established some 25 years ago, it generated a total annual revenue amounting to 330 million Canadian dollars.

Today, BCLC’s annual business is pegged at Cdn$2.7 billion, driven largely by the momentum of its decade-long expansion of the company’s land-based casino business, which was pursued relentlessly with the strong support by the provincial government.

Going against the established norms, the company has aggressively pursued its projects that are expected to give BCLC strong traction in its online casino gaming venture, which was officially launched when Playnow.com broke ground in 2010. After going through some birth pains, the online casino enterprise eventually gained momentum and capped its coming out performance with a record annual revenue of around Cdn$1.1 billion last year.

“We are on target and I am confident that we can easily hit our first quarter target of Cdn$70 million,” a confident Williamson declared recently. “If we compare this amount with $2.7 billion, this is just a small slice of the company’s business portfolio. However, that small business, which is driven by strong consumer demand, is projected to post double-digit growth in the coming years.”

Mobile gaming is another expansion option, but the company is taking it one step at a time, Williamson explained. The technology hub of the BCLC, which is manned by some 470 employees, is headquartered in the city.

The initial mobile application offerings by the enterprise will be under the service category, and this will provide opportunities so that users can monitor and verify the winning lottery ticket numbers. The company is slated to introduce applications for online casino games for smartphones, Williamson added.

Despite the remarkable numbers being posted by online gambling, he revealed that the sizable portion of British Columbia’s gambling demographics point to the 30 years and up bracket and those who still have strong preference for lottery retailers and brick and mortar casinos. Williamson admitted that online gambling still has a lot of territory to cover.

Posted on: February 23, 2012

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