MGM Resorts International owns 10 casinos in Las Vegas and seven more across the U.S., and all of them had to shut down parts of their operations beginning Sunday due to an attack on the company’s computer systems.
As of Wednesday morning, the recovery from the cybersecurity breach remained a work in progress, as evidenced by any attempt to access the company’s website resulting in a “currently unavailable” message:
MGM has made no statement regarding who or what was behind the cyber hack. An FBI spokesperson told CNN Monday the bureau was “aware of the incident.”
Slots, ATMs, credit cards, and more
The impact varied from property to property of MGM. Among the problems reported by major outlets or by customers on social media:
- ATMs went down.
- Slot machines became unavailable.
- Sportsbooks were closed at some Las Vegas Strip properties.
- Hotel restaurants could only accept cash payments.
- Digital hotel room keys stopped working.
- Hotel check-ins were performed by hand, with credit card information written down.
- Customers had to use third-party booking sites or call by phone to make reservations.
MGM issued a statement Monday morning, concluding with, “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working diligently to determine the nature and scope of the matter.”
That was followed late Monday evening by a statement indicating progress was being made:
— MGM Resorts (@MGMResortsIntl) September 12, 2023
By Tuesday, credit cards were reportedly again being accepted at some MGM properties.
MGM’s stock price dipped 2.4% Monday and another 1.7% Tuesday, Yahoo! Finance reported.
Cybersecurity an ongoing industry concern
At last October’s G2E conference in Las Vegas, Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings stated during a panel discussion that the “advent of digital” has created challenges that “require a lot of vigilance” by gaming operators.
Following the arrest in May of a hacker who breached mobile sportsbook accounts, Josh Chin, managing partner of Net Force, a member of the Cyber Task Force Security, told Sports Handle that incident “should be a huge wake-up call for everyone, in sports betting and anything else that’s out there. Whether it’s crypto accounts or Amazon, it should be a continuous wake-up call.”
For MGM Resorts specifically, the last major cybersecurity incident occurred in 2019, when some 142 million hotel guests had private information accessed followed a breach of the company’s data.
Photo: Getty Images
