The World Game Protection Conference kicks off Tuesday in Las Vegas and cybersecurity and digital crime will be a focus on Wednesday as the casino industry deals with the fallout of the Wynn Resorts cyberattack.
More than 550 industry professionals are expected to attend the annual conference that started in 2006 and runs through Thursday at the South Point Hotel Casino. It is hosted by Willy Allison and his wife Jo.
Tuesday marks the traditional classroom-setting training sessions dealing with everything from electronic games protection to table games advantage play and surveillance. This year’s training includes a three-hour class on cybersecurity designed to elevate leaders’ understanding of key cyber risk and equip them with insights to build an effective strategy.
Wynn has been hit with class-action lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Nevada, alleging the company didn’t do enough to protect customers’ private information. Wynn has said any stolen data was deleted.
Wynn hasn’t said whether it paid a ransom, but that’s assumed, since the company said they were assured the data was deleted.
The hacking group ShinyHunters said if the ransom money wasn’t sent, it would release files with names, emails, phone numbers, positions, salaries, and other personal information of employees.
That cyberattack follows ones against MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment in the fall of 2023 that severely impacted MGM properties and cost the company $100 million-plus, while Caesars is reported to have paid a $15 million ransom to the hackers.
“We wanted a more technical show,” Allison said. “When MGM and Caesars got whacked for that amount, I thought, that’s pretty significant. That’s a lot of money. There are a lot of scams going on. We think cyber right now in our industry is the No. 1 threat.”
On Wednesday, the first day of the educational sessions on the stage, Chase Cunningham, who goes by Dr. Zero Trust and is a retired Navy chief cryptologist and cybersecurity expert, will discuss strategies for casino operators. It’s part of a packed Wednesday, talking about digital crime and scams in gaming, deepfake impersonations, and nefarious uses of artificial intelligence.
Marc Evans, a cybercrimes and fraud detective and founder of Fraud Hero will take part in a discussion on how fraudsters are using digital weapons to commit scams against casinos.
On Thursday, the conference has its traditional focus on casino crime and will release its top scams of the year as voted on by the attendees. The story on an annual basis is one of the most widely clicked on by CDC Gaming readers.
Other sessions focus on comp fraud in slots and an FBI overview of the security threat landscape that could impact casinos now or in the future. That includes such topics as transnational organized crime, money laundering, loan sharking, human and drug trafficking, and cyber threats.
“The third day is intelligence day, where we talk about the threats to casinos and people that those in the crowd deal with on a day-to-day basis,” Allison said.