Inside Gaming: Ladbrokes Experiences a Security Breach, Maryland Examines Adding Table Games

January 26 2010, Michael Friedman

Today's Inside Gaming alerts you to a major breach in security at Ladbrokes, and the possibility of Maryland following a number of other states in attempting to add table games to its casinos.

Ladbrokes Experiences a Security Breach

According Australian website Herald.com, Ladbrokes recently experienced a breach in security that saw punters' home addresses, gambling histories, account numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses stolen. Although looks have been cast at Dinitha Subasinghe, a Sri Lankan-born IT expert and former Ladbrokes consultant, he has denied any involvement. Ladbrokes was made aware of the security breach by Mail Online. The customer files have been passed on to the British data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is investigating the case.

According to Ladbrokes' spokesman Ciaran O’Brien, the company is working diligently to find the culprit. “This is a criminal act and we are working with the police, the ICO and the newspaper to identify and apprehend the culprit,” O'Brien said. “We are in the process of contacting customers to apologize for this breach in security and to reassure them that everything is being done to protect their personal information.”

Maryland Looks To Table Games

Maryland has joined the growing list of states that are considering adding table games for casinos after a commission assigned to award five slot machine licenses reported that this could be a big way to increase profits. According to commission chairman Donald C. Fry, Maryland needs to keep pace with surrounding states -- West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania -- which have moved to legalize table games such as poker. Although there is plenty of time before people can actually hit the felt, this is a big step for a state that only two years ago had serious political battles over licensing slots venues.

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