BRITISH COLUMBIA’S PLAYNOW.COM JOINS CANADIAN POKER NETWORK

Posted 2/20/11 : Second Canadian province increases liquidity of first regulated poker network in North America
 
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s PlayNow.com i-gaming site has joined the GTechG2-powered Canadian Poker Network – the first regulated poker network in North America – which was launched in December 2010 at Loto Québec’s Espacejeux.com online gambling website.
 
PlayNow.com’s poker fans will now be able to compete against other Canadians on the Espacejeux.com site, increasing overall player liquidity for both organisations, and delivering a wider choice to players.
 
The software for the Canadian Poker Network has been designed to handle over 10,000 concurrent players, and has been thoroughly tested to the highest standards by both TST in the GLI group and the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB) of British Columbia.
 
The network is open only to residents of the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia, Canada.
 
The system is housed in a Montreal based data centre and poker network operations are in the National Operations Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick.
 
Eight poker variants are offered, including Texas Hold’em and Canadian Stud (or Soko) which is played the same way as 5-Card Stud except that there are two extra combinations: a four-card Flush and a four-card Straight.
 
The increased liquidity of the expanded network is likely to boost the number of tournaments on offer – earlier this month a Cdn$250,000 free roll was reportedly very successful.