Rivers Casino, the largest generator of casino revenue in Illinois, disclosed Thursday a data breach occurred that may have included the accessing and removal of files containing personal information of employees and customers.

According to the release, the incident appears to have taken place on or around Aug. 12, and Rivers determined on Nov. 3 that those files may have been accessed or removed from its network. It also said that the breach did not extend to any other servers in the casino’s network and “no Betrivers online or mobile gaming platform, operations or systems were compromised or breached.”

Located just outside downtown Chicago near O’Hare International Airport, Rivers Casino has long been the most popular casino in Illinois, though it now faces competition from Bally’s temporary venue downtown. Bally’s opened its temporary casino at Medinah Temple in River North in September and continues to plan for its $1.7 billion permanent casino in the River West neighborhood of the city to open in 2026.

Rivers has accounted for more than 35% of the $1.25 billion in operator revenue in Illinois this year, including 57% of the $301.9 million in table games revenue. It has generated close to $120 million in state taxes in 2023, and an additional $25 million in local tax money.

Additional steps being taken by Rivers

Rivers, according to its statement, “promptly took steps to contain the threat and secure our systems” and also “engaged third-party cybersecurity support to investigate the incident.” Rivers said that there appears to be no evidence of financial fraud or identity theft related to the data breach, but it has reached out to individuals potentially affected to make them aware of the breach, of resources available, and of steps to protect personal information.

In detailing what information was potentially accessed in the breach, Rivers noted that data included:

Name, contact information (such as phone number, email address, and postal address), date of birth, driver’s license or government ID number. For a limited number of customers or Team Members, financial account number, tax identification number, Social Security number, and/or passport number was also affected. The types of impacted information varied by individual. We do not believe customer passwords or payment card information was affected by this issue.

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