MGM Resorts in U.S. go offline as ‘cybersecurity issue’ affects casinos, hotels

A “cybersecurity issue” led to the shutdown of some casino and hotel computer systems at MGM Resorts International properties across the U.S., a company official reported Monday.

The incident began Sunday and the extent of its effect on reservation systems and casino floors in Las Vegas and several U.S. states was not immediately known, company spokesman Brian Ahern told the Associated Press.

The FBI is “aware of the incident,” the bureau said in a statement from its national press office. It characterized the event as “still ongoing” and did not disclose details.

MGM Resorts said in a statement it identified a “cybersecurity issue affecting some of the company’s systems” and that its investigation involved external cybersecurity experts.

The nature of the issue was not described, but the statement said efforts to protect data included “shutting down certain systems.” It said the investigation was continuing.

No further information was provided as of Monday evening. A request for more details sent to MGM Resorts’ press team was not returned to Global News on Monday.

A post on the company website said the site was down. It listed telephone numbers to reach the reservation system and properties.

A post on the company’s BetMGM website in Nevada acknowledged that some customers were unable to log on.

The company has tens of thousands of hotel rooms in Las Vegas at properties including the MGM Grand, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Aria, New York-New York, Park MGM, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and Delano. It also operates the Borgata hotel and casino in Atlantic City, as well as properties in states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Ohio.

Keith Miller, a New York City resident who was in Atlantic City with his wife for a vacation, told Global News the couple was impacted by the outage while staying at the Borgata.

After attempting to switch rooms Monday morning, they were unable to check in to their new suite and were left wandering around the nearby Caesars resort as they waited for the situation to resolve.

“It made for a very nervous day,” he said. “We didn’t know if we were going to have a room for the night.”

He added the Borgata’s slot machines — all of which are digital — were also impacted, with gamers unable to cash out without an attendant’s help. Bars and restaurants were only accepting cash.

Miller said he was finally able to check in late Monday afternoon, and that a “long line” of people were being helped by resort staff, but games, restaurants and ATMs were still affected. He added many more guests had given up and cut their stays short because of the outage.

“A lot of very frustrated people,” he said.

MGM’s properties and operations in China and Macau appeared to be unaffected by the incident.

—With files from Global News