Closed for four days
Harrington Raceway & Casino in Delaware reopened Saturday after mysterious “technical difficulties” caused the venue to be closed for much of last week, just in time for long-planned New Year’s Eve festivities.
According to Delaware Online, Harrington Raceway CEO Patti Key contacted Delaware Lottery Director Helene Keeley around noon on Tuesday, December 27 to inform her that the casino was going to have to lock up for a while to tackle said technical difficulties.
The casino, however, did not tell the public until mid-afternoon on Thursday, when it posted a message on both its website and its Facebook page.
“Harrington Raceway, Inc. is currently experiencing technical difficulties that are causing a temporary disruption to gaming and computer systems,” said the statement. “We are working diligently to investigate the source of the disruption, confirm its impact on our systems, and restore full functionality to our affected systems as quickly as possible. We have significant resources, including cyber security specialists, devoted to this process and our work to resolve this issue is ongoing.”
Unfortunately, some would-be patrons had no idea that the casino was closed and made lengthy road trips to Harrington.
“When I pulled in here and saw the parking lot was empty, I knew I was in trouble,” Richard Sies told WBOC. “I guess now I’m going to go to Delaware Park, which is about two and a half hours from here.”
Lack of communication rustles feathers
Naturally, most replies to Harrington Raceway’s Facebook post were negative, upset with the casino for delaying the announcement. Some people were also concerned about the need to hire “cyber security specialists,” wondering if there was any reason to worry about the safety of their personal information.
Others were eager to know if they should keep their New Year’s plans intact, which fortunately, they could, as the casino opened just in time on New Year’s Eve.
In response to questions on Facebook, the casino said that any slot dollars that were good December 22-30 will be honored January 3-31. While it would have been nice if people could have used them over the weekend, at least they have the rest of the month to do so. While many customers do drive an hour or two to visit Harrington, it is not typically a destination people will travel extremely long distances for (like Las Vegas), so most people who want to use their slot comps should be able to.
Other than the vague “disruption to gaming and computer systems,” it is unknown what the actual problem was. Delaware Online reports that, according to Department of Safety and Homeland Security spokesperson Arshon Howard, the Delaware Division of Gaming Enforcement is not investigating sort of criminal activity. It sounds like it likely really is just a general systems problem, but a problem enough that the casino could not be run properly until it was fixed.
