Gambling Woes in New Jersey: High Addiction Rates, FanDuel’s $20 Million Loss, and Caesars Entertainment’s Data Breach
Problem gambler rate in New Jersey is three times the national rate
New Jersey has the highest rate of gambling addiction, three times the national rate. The study was conducted by Rutgers University and paid for by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE). The study surveyed 3,512 New Jersey residents age 18 and older from December 9, 2020 to April 30, 2021. “We are committed to helping players play responsibly. For some people, this means setting limits to ensure the gaming experience is enjoyable and safe.
For others who struggle with problem gambling, this may mean self-exclusion or seeking additional resources. We encourage both players and operators to maintain a balanced view of gambling,” said David Rebuck, Director of the NJDGE. This is the first report of its kind released since sports betting officially launched in New Jersey in 2021.
FanDuel went broke on its own promotion for the second round of the NFL: losses amounted to $20 million
The bookmaker FanDuel decided to offer its customers an extremely attractive promotion for the second round of the American Football League (NFL), played on September 17. But the benefits of the promotion for clients turned out to be so significant that the bookmaker itself suffered losses from it in the amount of $20 million.
The gist of the proposal was that every NFL team playing at 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 4:25 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) would have to kick at least 1 field goal during their game.
There were 12 matches covered during the promotion period. An increased odds of 200 were offered for the bet played. Betting fans who having learned about this leaned so heavily on the offer that FanDuel had to reduce the odds to 130 even before the start of Sunday matches.
But in the end, this did not help much: field goals were successfully scored in all 12 meetings.
This information was confirmed on Sunday at 6:00 pm ET following the results of the latest game between the Denver Broncos and Washington Commanders. According to The New York Post, such a failure was most likely one of the largest in the history of American betting.
One person reportedly won $318,384 from two bets totaling $1,584 – although that’s almost a drop in the bucket compared to $20 million. At the same time, it is curious that FanDuel’s main competitor in the US betting market, DraftKings, also announced a similar promotion before the tour but with odds of 30 on a positive outcome.
Large casino chain Caesars Entertainment had customer data stolen and the company paid the hackers
Caesars Entertainment, which calls itself the largest casino chain in the United States with the largest loyalty program in the industry, said it suffered a cyber-attack and ended up paying a ransom to hackers to avoid enclosure of customer data. Researchers believe that the Scattered Spider group which recently attacked MGM Resorts could be behind this hack.
The attack was discovered on Sept. 7, 2023, according to documents Caesars Entertainment filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
During the investigation of the incident, it turned out that the attackers successfully stole the database of the company’s loyalty program, which, among other things, contained driver’s license data and social security numbers of customers.It is emphasized that the attack did not affect the company’s operations or work with clients, and everything is working as normal. The incident itself is described as a “social engineering-related attack on an outsourced IT support provider.
To date, we have no evidence that unauthorized individuals obtained any customer passwords or PINs, bank account information, or payment card information,” the company stated, noting that the investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
The documents also mention that the company paid the attackers a ransom to prevent leakage of stolen data. According to the Wall Street Journal, Caesars Entertainment paid the hackers approximately $15,000,000, and the attackers initially demanded twice as much from the company – $30,000,000.
At the same time, Caesars Entertainment admits that it cannot provide any guarantees regarding the further actions of the attackers, and does not exclude the possibility that hackers may still sell or publish stolen customer information online.
“We have taken steps to ensure that the stolen data was deleted by an unauthorized entity, but cannot guarantee the result.
We are monitoring the situation online and [so far] have not found any indication that this data is being disseminated, published [in the public domain] or misused,” the papers read.
Although Caesars Entertainment did not link this attack to any specific hacking group in its report, Bloomberg journalists believe that the incident may be the Scattered Spider group, which other companies designate as 0ktapus (Group-IB), UNC3944 (Mandiant) and Scatter Swine (Okta). According to researchers, this group mainly uses social engineering to hack corporate networks.
Thus, attackers impersonate technical support specialists (to trick users into credentials), use SIM card swapping attacks (to seize control of a desired phone number), as well as phishing and other methods (to bypass multi-factor authentication).
It is believed that the main composition of Scattered Spider are English-speaking teenagers aged 16 to 22 years, and in general the group is very reminiscent of Lapsus$, whose members used similar attack methods and were about the same age.
Interestingly, the same group is associated with the recent attack on MGM Resorts, which owns a chain of hotels, resorts and casinos around the world.
The attack on MGM Resorts occurred last weekend and the incident resulted in the shutdown of many of the company’s computer systems, including the websites of the largest hotels in Las Vegas and New York, reservation systems and some casino services.
