No end in sight
MGM Resorts International is still struggling to gain control of all of its computer systems since last week’s cyberattack and, as one might guess, it is costing the company money. David Katz (no relation), an equity analyst with Jefferies Group, estimates that MGM is losing from $4.2 million to $8.4 million in revenue and $1 million in cash flow every day.
Jefferies says that typical daily revenue is $42 million and cash flow is $8 million.
Though MGM has regained control of some of its computer systems, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported a plethora of problems that still exist, as the company has yet to pay the ransom to the hackers. Though MGM’s website is up, “no useful functions” are available, including hotel reservations. Customers either need to go old school and call the property or use third-party sites.
Slot machine winnings (for the machines that work) are being paid by employees who come around to each customer with cash. And that can take a while. A waiter at Babette’s Steakhouse at Park MGM told a Review-Journal reporter that the restaurant’s computer system is still messed up and they can’t close out checks. Food items have to be ordered one at a time and parties are not allowed to split checks or payment methods because the systems can’t handle it.
It’s not ALL bad
Jason Koebler of 404 Media went to Las Vegas for a few hours to see things first hand. At MGM Grand, while some gaming machines worked, there was an entire curtained-off section of hacked machines that were out of order. All ordering kiosks at a food court were down. In its place was one credit card machine and cash register at one of the eight food court restaurants.
“Two workers at that one restaurant were taking orders for all eight restaurants.” Koebler writes. “After a customer ordered, another worker would grab a receipt and physically walk it to whatever restaurant the order was from. I watched the same worker walk back and forth over and over again, grabbing slips of paper from a cashier and walking them down the hall to give them to whatever kitchen needed them.”
All orders were written by hand, which doesn’t sound so bad, as that’s how things used to be, but when everything is set up to be computerized, it now means that staff is overworked. The kitchen staff, though, had less work than normal because there weren’t as many orders as usual. So they were actually happy.
Koebler went to three MGM properties – MGM Grand, Aria, and Bellagio – and estimated that about a third of slot machines were out of order. And the ones that were operational could only accept cash and, as mentioned, required manual payouts.
Koebler played some slots and waited 10-15 minutes for someone to come over with a fanny pack and clipboard to help him cash out his $15.70. One Koebler’s slots neighbors had been waiting for 30 minutes.
“This process is terrible for the casino workers, who are the real victims here, but the long waits have seemingly led many customers to simply abandon their slot machines rather than cash out, which has the knock-on effect of rendering the machine temporarily unusable,” Koebler says.
There was one positive out of this: Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, a strip club, was offering free lap dances, free airport pickup, luggage storage, and free platinum VIP membership to anyone who showed proof of an MGM hotel reservation.