Every time Las Vegas Sands releases more information about the hacking of its Web sites, the news just gets worse. Now it turns out that whoever was behind the assault conducted a smash-and-grab raid of personal data. The potential for identity theft is scary indeed. If there’s any upside, it’s that this aspect of the banditry was confined to Sands Bethlehem (as best anyone knows). However, some private corporate data may have been destroyed completely. The extent of the damage is still immeasurable. Sands has been pretty tight-lipped about the whole matter, so Ron Reese‘s most recent statement (“We continue to work diligently with law enforcement officials and internal and external forensic IT experts to recover damaged data, restore lost data and determine the extent of data impacted in Las Vegas, as well as to ensure that the cyber criminals are identified and prosecuted“) has to be considered unwontedly expansive. Thankfully, Sands is offering credit monitoring and anti-identity-theft measures to the affected clientele.
Both the State of California and Bank of America claimed they were lied to by Galaxy Gaming. At least the BofA case had a happy ending for Galaxy, which was recently banned from California. However, while California Judge Catherine Frink found few good things to say about Galaxy, the Arizona Department of Gaming deemed the company “cooperative and candid” during a three-year vetting process. “We will be everywhere” predicts Galaxy spokesman Jonathan Wilcox, who says the company will appeal the Golden State ruling. In the meantime, the company is moving to a big new set of digs in Las Vegas, south of the airport.
Handle at Penn National Gaming‘s Hollywood Casino Bangor fell 21% last year. That’s a tribute to the competitive ability of Churchill Downs‘ Oxford Casino, which Penn rightly feared. Oxford won $58 million while Penn took home $47 million. Oxford also had the much larger revenue base: $677 million to $469 million.
Penn is fighting a two-front battle in Iowa. It seeks to overturn a pair of rulings that could eventually run it out of town. The Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission‘s decision not to renew Penn’s license will be appealed on Wednesday. On Friday, in Polk County District Court, lawyers for Sioux City will explain why they favor transferring the license to Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (currently a-buildin’). Penn hasn’t done anything wrong, mind you: Iowa law requires that every casino partner with a local nonprofit. But Penn fell out with Missouri River Historical Development (which re-partnered with Hard Rock). Although Greater Siouxland Improvement Association has offered to replace MRHD, regulators have not been receptive — or at least non-responsive. We look forward to this week’s legal fireworks.
