Gateway Casinos & Entertainment fell victim to a massive cyber attack on April 16, 2023. This forced the brand to shut down all its fourteen casinos in Ontario. It has been ten days, and Gateway is far from reopening a single venue any time soon.
Fortunately for the community and the brand, Gateway could soon begin opening its venues in a phased manner. While a definite timeline has not been shared yet, players and customers can be assured that all 14 Gateway venues will eventually open up following the registration of a successful result of testing the security measures.
As per the online gaming news, Rob Mitchell from Gateway has said that the company has high hopes for opening up all the venues in a phased manner. The spokesperson for the brand has said that they are currently testing their IT systems, following which a decision will be taken about which property should be opened first.
He has said that per the tentative timeline, Gateway will begin opening at least one property later this week. The following timeline will depend on how the testing work goes and when regulatory bodies grant approval. It is to be noted that only 14 venues were affected. The cyber attack did not affect the 15 casinos in British Columbia and two casinos in Alberta. Both, therefore, remain open.
The cyber attack also affected the timeline of Chris de Burgh’s concert along with Quiet Riot, Saturday’s Warrant, and Helix Concert. Chris de Burgh’s concert has been tentatively rescheduled for April 27, 2023. Other events are likely to happen on October 07, 2023. Customers, according to the announcement, can bring the already booked tickets to the rescheduled date and time.
In case they are unable to make it to the event at the new time, then they can claim a refund from the original source of booking. Casino Rama has previously fallen victim to a cyber attack. It dates back to the period between 2006 and 2016 when the venue was operated by Penn National Gaming, which is now known as Penn Entertainment. Allegedly, a hacker breached the system of Casino Rama to compromise the data of around 11,000 customers.
Lawsuits filed by lawyers showed that a maximum of 200,000 people could have been affected. As of May 2019, the Superior Court of Ontario has declined to certify a class action against the brand. The lawsuit represented a $60 million class action on behalf of the plaintiffs.
Gateway Casino took over the brand in 2018. It remains one of the largest gambling companies in the region. Gateway is controlled by Catalyst Capital Group. They recently opened a Gateway casino in Wasaga Beach in November 2022, making it the last casino to be opened by the group. Here is the list of online casinos in Canada in which you might be interested.
Testing of the IT infrastructure is underway, and Gateway looks forward to reopening the venues in a phased manner. More details will be rolled out for the public once it begins to bring back its casinos to life.
