Safety and security are some of the most important things that can be put in place whenever you play at a casino. One of the biggest reasons for this is the simple fact that your money is involved, so having your personal information and financial details compromised could lead to situations of identity theft and other similar crimes. The Ontario-based Casino Rama is receiving a ton of backlash after hackers pulled player information from their website that contained personal details going back well over a decade.
Details on the Breach
This security breach has been said to have happened in early November, according to sources from Casino Rama. The people who have been hit with this attack include customers, but it also includes vendors and employees as well. Some of the information stretches back to 2004, and it includes both past and present players with the stolen data including financial reports, security reports, emails, debt information, vendor details, personal information for all staff members, credit report inquiries and more. In fact, even the performance reviews of many employees were released in this attack.
The Posting of the Information
After the information was hacked, the person or people who did it released a small amount of the information online with a warning that the rest would follow in 72 hours. They also noted that it was “extremely simple” for them to get the information from Casino Rama because there were “no security systems in place,” leading this casino to get a ton of scrutiny from the press and angry players and employees. The hacker railed on the casino as well for allegedly creating an image “that they take the protection of data and customer information seriously when really they don’t.”
The fact of the matter is that this has shaken confidence in casinos, and even though Casino Rama is land-based, it’s obviously affecting the perception of online gambling as well. This is particularly important as Canada is in the middle of a transition period over their online gambling policies, and a targeted hit like this could set back discussions quite a bit for quite a while.
Incoming Lawsuit
As you might expect, a massive lawsuit to the tune of over CA$50 million has been proposed on behalf of all of the affected parties by a law firm, and a website has been created to allow those who have been affected to sign on as a part of the case. Some people might scoff at this type of thing, but the fact of the matter is that it is the casino’s responsibility to keep this information safe, and they apparently did not since they were hacked. Regardless of whether it was as easy as the hackers claim or not, it still warrants a lawsuit because of the damage that can and most likely will be done to the affected individuals.
The State of Online Gambling in Canada
So here’s the problem for online gamblers in Canada regarding this security breach. For a while now, the provinces have had the power to run their own gambling games online, but they have to be the ones actually running the show. They can’t offer licenses to outside companies, which is the approach that most of the regulatory world suggests. This creates a situation where the government-operated legal Canadian online gambling sites have been pulling very small percentages of all online gamblers from the area with players overwhelmingly preferring to play with foreign sites.
However, there has been a push over the past couple of years to get that changed, which would really be a win-win for both the players and the government. A hack like this one at Casino Rama affects public opinion and may make politicians afraid of putting that information in the hands of other gambling businesses out of a fear of losing face publicly. For now, we’ll have to sit back and see what unfolds over the next couple of months and see how it affects Canadian online gambling laws and regulations.