TMCnet News

Casino responds to data breach [St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. :: ]
[May 11, 2014]

Casino responds to data breach [St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. :: ]


(St. Joseph News-Press (MO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 11--The parent company of the St. Jo Frontier Casino said its latest data breach involved food, beverage and retail purchases but did not extend to gambling transactions.

Affinity Gaming, which owns the Frontier Casino along with other gambling facilities in Nevada, Iowa and Colorado, disclosed an "unauthorized intrusion" into its system that processes the credit- and debit-card information of customers. The company did not make representatives available for comment but released a statement expressing confidence that the breach did not involve casino gambling transactions or ATMs at Affinity casinos.



The casino company said hotel, food and beverage and retail purchases were "potentially" impacted. "We take data security very seriously and Affinity Gaming has a best-in-class team on the ground working diligently to address this matter," the company, based in Las Vegas, said in its statement.

It was the second data-security issue in less than a year involving Affinity casinos. Last year, Affinity reported that its credit-card processing system was infected with malware. That issue also was confined to the casino company's restaurants, bars and hotels.


The recent data breach comes at a time when Missouri lawmakers are considering a measure to expand large lines of credit at the state's casinos, including Affinity's facilities in St. Joseph and LaGrange, Mo.

Other companies have dealt with the fallout of well-publicized data breaches. Target's CEO recently stepped down after news that hackers stole millions of customers' credit- and debit-card records before Christmas.

Ed Grewach, general counsel for the Missouri Gaming Commission, said Affinity's latest breach isn't considered a matter for regulators.

"It's a matter for Affinity," Mr. Grewach said.

Affinity has established a toll-free telephone number for customers who have questions about data security. Customers can call (877) 238-2179 for more information. Affinity said no customer data was stolen after the late afternoon of April 28, though a representative on the toll-free line admitted that information from December of 2013 to April of 2014 may have been compromised.

Greg Kozol can be reached at [email protected].

Follow him on Twitter: @gregkozol.

___ (c)2014 the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) Visit the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) at www.newspressnow.com/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]