LVS Web sites go down, possibly hacked

Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese did not immediately have a comment for The Associated Press about whether the company's sites had been hacked. The websites for a Sands casino in Bethlehem, Pa., and its properties in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, were also down.

The outages affected Las Vegas Sands, Sands China and the sites of their resorts in Las Vegas, Macau, Singapore and Bethlehem, Pa., all of which produced error messages. The blackouts continued into this morning Hong Kong time. The home pages said the sites were "undergoing maintenance".

The Associated Press said the Morning Call, a newspaper in Allentown, Pa., posted screenshots of the sites before they were taken down that showed a picture of Adelson posing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a message condemning the use of weapons of mass destruction. The sites also featured a list of confidential employee information and Social Security numbers, according to AP, citing the Morning Call report.

Bloomberg said corporate spokesman Ron Reese confirmed the outages but offered no comment. Adelson is lobbying in Washington to halt the expansion of Web gambling, which is now legal in three states, and is providing six-figure financing for a group called the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, which yesterday posted an anti-Web gambling ad on Youtube.

The group is reported to be planning a press conference this week to announce support from 39 organizations.