Gateway Casinos Announce Phased Re-Opening Over This Week

Gateway Casinos and Entertainment announced they will be re-opening their Ontario properties “over the coming days” after a ransomware attack shut down their operations for two weeks.

Gateway Casinos Innisfil was the first to reopen at noon Saturday.

Rob Mitchell, director of communications and public affairs, Eastern Canada, said the company doesn’t have an exact schedule for the reopening of the other 13 sites, but they’ll be opening them “incrementally.”

“We hope to roll all of them out over the next week,” he said.

Damage Done

The cost to their business is unknown, but it’s safe to assume it was substantial. The incident impacted all 14 of their Ontario properties - Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, North Bay, Wasaga Beach, Innisfil, Casino Rama near Orillia, Clinton, Chatham, Hanover, Point Edward, Sarnia, Woodstock, and London.

Mitchell said “third-party experts” worked on addressing the damage caused by the ransomware attack and added that there is no evidence that any personal, employee, vendor, or client information was compromised. Gateway has never gone through anything like this before, he added.

“Of course, we’re looking at all our systems, looking at what we can learn from this, but I can’t get into any detail,” he said. “I am very proud of our response. We aired very definitely on the side of caution. Immediately when this issue was detected, we shut down.”

Mitchell said they collaborated with the AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) and OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation), taking their experience with cybersecurity issues and guidance into account.

Gateway a Big Part of the Local Economy

Gateway Casinos & Entertainment is one of the largest gaming and entertainment companies in Canada, with 28 gaming properties in B.C. and Ontario, and two additional properties in Edmonton, Alberta. The company employs around 7,000 people and has 339 table games (including 30 poker tables), 14,031 slots, 94 food and beverage outlets, and 561 hotel rooms.

Gateway said in a statement that people should visit the property websites and social channels for the most up-to-date information on re-openings.