Online in BC
BC and online casinos
Online gambling in British Columbia is run by the province, through BCLC and its site PlayNow.com. On the home page of this site, a paid link marked Ad points elsewhere: to a private online casino partner.
How the rules work
Gambling in British Columbia is legal only if the provincial government operates it. All commercial gambling there, online too, is run by BCLC, a Crown corporation. B.C. has one legal online gambling site: PlayNow.com, operated by BCLC. Casinos and online gambling share the same minimum age, 19.
The provincial regulator is the Independent Gambling Control Office (IGCO), in that role since April 13, 2026. On August 28, 2026, IGCO named PlayNow.com as the one regulated commercial online gambling site with permission to operate in BC. Other online gambling sites that accept BC players, it said, are operating illegally in BC.
For a player in British Columbia, that leaves one legal online option: PlayNow.com, run by BCLC. No licensed private online market has been announced for the province, and BCLC's February 2026 service plan assumes a continued closed online market.
The home page's paid link
Apart from the home page, no page on this site has a paid link, and Ad is written on each one. The menu holds one, a band below the opening view holds another, and the third sits near the page bottom. Each one opens the site's partner, a single private online casino. PlayNow.com is a different site; the province neither runs this casino nor has granted it a licence. Commission from this partner is income for the site, and the partner can be swapped for another.
BCLC's GameBreak self-exclusion program does not cover private online sites. A person enrolled in GameBreak is excluded from casinos, community gaming centres and PlayNow.com, but not from the partner behind that link. The link is advertising, not a recommendation.
Questions
Can you legally play online casino games in BC?
Only on PlayNow.com, which BCLC runs. In British Columbia, gambling is lawful only when the provincial government operates it, and B.C. has a single legal site for online gambling, PlayNow.com.
At what age can someone gamble?
The minimum gambling age in BC is 19. It applies to casinos and to online gambling.
Who is the gambling regulator in BC?
Since April 13, 2026, the province's gambling regulator has been IGCO, the Independent Gambling Control Office. BCLC is a Crown corporation and operates every form of commercial gambling, online included.