Reopening Your Casino? Are Your Systems Ready?

Memorial Day Weekend is the targeted timeframe for many of our nation's casino reopenings. Operations teams have begun the process of planning and identifying what is needed for reopening. These considerations not only focus on operational elements of the casino, such as kiosks, the Cage, and more, but also on ensuring a quality guest experience in light of COVID-19. Unfortunately, fraudsters also want to capitalize on reopenings, targeting casinos and customers through phishing and other attacks.

The industries that Pavilion Payments serves, in addition to gaming, have witnessed phishing attempts increase by 350% since the beginning of 2020. These cyberattacks are designed to exploit teleworking infrastructure and distribute malware. This leads us to believe casinos will be a focus for cybercriminals, given the unprecedented nature of casino reopenings.

To prepare for reopening and ward off fraudsters, we have compiled key recommendations and insights to help mitigate the risk of reopening our COVID-19 Resources for Casinos resource center. A few of these include:

• Reviewing your remote Security Policies and Procedures to ensure all measures are taken, including any change in how you are handling credit card data during this pandemic;
• Ensuring you have strong passwords and access to credit card environments to critical personnel only; and
• Reviewing phishing attack protocols with all your employees, stressing that they use good judgment and report any suspicious activity immediately. 

Security is at the core of everything we do. We look forward to the successful and safe reopening of the gaming industry. These best practices are designed to help guarantee that this goal is realized and that our customers' businesses are protected during this vulnerable time.

For more casino reopening and COVID-19 response information, check out our COVID-19 Resource Center.