Lucky Star casinos in Oklahoma under a cyber attack

Robbing a casino is an incredible challenge that obviously should never be attempted. Many have tried and failed miserably - even with the most concise plans and masterminds on deck. But now is a new era when criminals don’t even need to step foot inside the facility to compromise the casino’s finances. Some hacking and threats are now enough to get a massive payout - even overseas.

The Lucky Star Casino has several locations across Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the Watonga, Canton, Clinton, Concho travel center, and Hammon facility owners were forced to shut down after a cyber attack has threatened and breached the facilities’ mainframe.

At first, the Lucky Star had an internet outage, but it was shortly discovered that there’s a lot more going on as the IT team struggled to reset the system. The ransomware attack intruded the casinos’ IT networks and is now holding the mainframe hostage. What exactly the hackers want in return remains unknown, but it seems to be an easy guess - money.

This unlucky event took place in mid-June of 2021 and left dozens of employees wondering if they would be left jobless for a long time. Although the casino locations plan to open up when the ransomware attack gets resolved, there’s no specific timeframe to help reassure the owners or the workers that the business will get back on track soon. However, the operators of the Lucky Star casinos have high hopes for reopening in the next few days.

This isn’t anything new, considering that ransomware attacks have been more frequent - especially in the past year. Who’s behind the evil works is still under question, but the FBI is working closely to provide the answers. We know that most of these attacks demanded money and nothing but that in return. But will the hackers be happy with the casino locations’ ransom, or do players need to prepare for gaps in their bank accounts?

There’s no information on whether the player’s personal information has been taken advantage of quite yet. However, the casino’s insurance is conducting a 12-month credit monitoring system. Hopefully, that will prevent any mishaps for the guests that recently paid a visit to Star Casinos.

The Star Casino sent personal apologies and suggested that the best way to avoid similar attacks on your personal banking information is to use prepaid cards for gambling whenever available. Using your credit or debit card may lead to identity theft or other scams/fraud.

Although using prepaid cards seems like a perfect solution, it’s only a fix for one of the million issues that could occur now that casinos are becoming more technologically advanced. Hackers are getting better at what they do by the day, and the new high-tech additions to the gambling world are opening more opportunities for all sorts of cyber-attacks. However, there’s no need to panic. Digital ransomware attacks may be awful for operators and employees, but it’s much better than being held at gunpoint.