Swinomish Casino & Lodge in Anacortes discloses reason behind sudden closure

ANACORTES, Wash. — After a sudden closure on Friday, April 5, the Swinomish Casino & Lodge explained why on Thursday.

Located on Casino Drive in Anacortes, the casino originally posted the closure was due to technical issues. but did not share any more information.

Calls and emails to the casino went unanswered.

KIRO 7 sent a crew to Anacortes Monday, where workers told us they were told not to come in.

“The gaming floor is closed. Food and beverage outlets are closed,” he said. “They haven’t given us any kind of update via email like they usually do.”

Customers were left in the dark too.

“We’re from Seattle and we drove over here for his (boyfriend) birthday. And we tried to go to the Tulip Festival, but it’s really windy so we decided to come check in and it’s not even open,” said Haley Cavanaugh, a customer.

Cavanaugh said she had made reservations before she drove nearly two hours to surprise her boyfriend with a birthday trip to the casino.

“Wouldn’t they tell me it’s canceled or something? So, I’m just very confused,” she said.

“I’m surprised they’re closed and haven’t said anything,” her boyfriend shared.

On Thursday, the casino updated its website with the following statement:

We are investigating a cybersecurity incident that has affected our operations.

The casino and restaurants on our property are all temporarily closed. We will resume our loyalty and rewards program when the casino reopens.

While the lodge and RV park are open, we are only able to honor existing reservations at this time.

Lodge guests impacted by this incident will also receive a refund as appropriate.

We do not yet have an estimate on when our facilities will reopen. We are working as quickly as possible to restore operations and will provide updates on this website and on our Facebook page as our systems come back online.

In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement and leading cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and determine the scope of the issue. If we learn data was impacted by this incident, we will contact affected individuals as soon as possible.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this issue has caused our valued guests, team members, and members of Swinomish community.

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this matter.

Swinomish Casino and Lodge Leadership

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