Call it the gambling industry's dirty little secret. Hackers are sabotaging online casinos with greater regularity, security and gambling experts say, in some cases scamming large sums of money from the gaming companies.
Last week, CryptoLogic, a Canadian software company that develops online casino games, said a hacker had cracked one of its gaming servers, corrupting the play of craps and video slots so that players could not lose.
The company said that for a few hours during the disruption in late August, 140 gamblers racked up winnings of US$1.9 million.
The games were altered so that every roll of the dice in craps turned up doubles and every spin on the slots generated a perfect match, the company said.
"In the case of slots, it was coming out cherries across the board," CryptoLogic spokeswoman Nancy Chan-Palmateer said Monday.
The winners were permitted to keep the money as it is believed they had no hand in the hack attack. CryptoLogic said it is cooperating with investigators. "It is likely the intruder was somebody with inside information of our system," Chan-Palmateer said. CryptoLogic is liable to absorb US$600,000 of the misappropriated winnings, as a US$1.3 million insurance claim will cover the remainder.
