MARCH 3 UPDATE: The Nevada Gaming Control Board has confirmed that they are aware of the incident and are "actively monitoring the situation." However, since it is an ongoing investigation, they have no further comment.
ORIGINAL STORY
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- Two Las Vegas casinos appear to be recovering from a mysterious, days-long computer outage which left casino floors and slot machine chairs empty.
The problems first appeared on social media and on popular twitter accounts such as Las Vegas Locally and Vital Vegas last week.
Posts and videos showed many slot machines indicating a malfunction and digital signs indicated the machines were 'out of service.'
13 Investigates confirms the machines at Binon's Casino and Four Queens appeared to be malfunctioning as of Saturday afternoon.
By Monday, 13 Investigates was able to confirm the slot machines at the properties appeared to be functioning again, although scattered outages were apparent at the Four Queens.
"When it comes to cyber security, it's not if, it's a when and how bad," said Garvin Bushell, president of The Learning Center Las Vegas.
"No matter what you do, the hackers just have to be right one time and as an IT professional, I have to be right every single day and all those attacks are happening on a daily basis," said Bushell.
13 Investigates has asked ownership of the Four Queens and Binion's Casino repeatedly about the apparent computer problem, but a request for comment was not returned.
Bushell says in his experience the length out the outage indicates this was not a simple problem.
"Ransomware is out there and for them to be down from Wednesday to [Monday] it kind of raises from flags," said Bushell.
13 Investigates inquired with the Nevada Gaming Control Board about any active or on-going investigations about the source of the malfunction but a request for comment was not returned after business hours Monday.
In January, the City of Las Vegas announced it fell victim to a "cyber compromise" and revealed they experience breach attempts 279,000 times per month on average.
Authorities with the City of Las Vegas said they do not believe any data was lost in the January compromise.
Cyber security experts tell 13 Investigates these types of incidents appear to be increasing across the globe.
