Ontario: Gateway Casinos' properties to remain closed after a cybersecurity incident

Gateway Casinos and Entertainment locations will remain closed for “the coming days” after a cybersecurity incident over the weekend halted its operations in Ontario, The Star reported. 

The company operates a handful of properties in Ontario including Casino Rama, which will remain closed until further notice. However, the facility’s Hotel, Spa, Weirs restaurant and St. Germain’s restaurant will remain open. 

In a statement, Gateway Casinos posted to its Instagram stated the company does  “not have any information indicating that this incident involves any compromise of personal data.”

The company said that it has “retained third-party cyber professionals” who they say are working to restore the service. No date has been provided as to when the casinos may reopen. 

This comes as a string of high-profile cyber attacks have hit, including recently one that knocked out Quebec’s power utility’s website and mobile application. 

The first year of regulated iGaming and online sports betting in Ontario has been a resounding success, with figures showing CAD 35.6 billion ($26.4 billion) in total wagers and total gaming revenue of CAD 1.4 billion ($1.04 billion), placing the Canadian province among the top five iGaming jurisdictions in North America.

However, as per data from geolocation and fraud detection services company GeoComply, the newly regulated market has also attracted unwanted attention from fraudsters and betting attempts from outside the province.

Aggregate data from GeoComply’s services to its Ontario operator customers since the regulated market launch in April 2022 reveals that: 

• Over 744,000 users have attempted to log in 19.9 million times to Ontario operators from around the world;
• Over 54,000 users from within the US have attempted to log in 305,000 times to Ontario operators from south of the border;
• Over 3.3 million location spoofing attempts into Ontario operators have occurred from around the world.