A worldwide cyber outage, which has taken much of the world’s infrastructure offline, has also extended its disruptive reach to the online poker industry.
At least, two online poker networks, Partypoker and BetMGM Poker – which also hosts the Borgata Poker brand and uses the Partypoker software – have been impacted, preventing players from logging in and accessing games from their desktop. Partypoker Ontario is also affected by the outage.
Those who are logged in are reporting issues of lag, while for many, the login option has become unavailable. This disruption has impacted only desktop users, with players still able to play from mobile devices.
A Partypoker spokesperson confirmed that this issue is linked to the global outage resulting from a recent update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which has caused widespread disruptions to computer systems around the world.
“Some of our services are impacted by the broader Microsoft issues,” wrote a Partypoker staff on their official Discord server. “We are working on priority to resolve.”
At the time of writing, the Partypoker and BetMGM/Borgata websites are still down, with players unable to log in on their desktop. Other online poker networks, such as PokerStars, GGPoker, and 888poker, have not been impacted.
The outage is not a cyber attack but results from a faulty software update by Texas-based CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks. Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity platform that provides security solutions to businesses, large organizations, government agencies, and critical sectors like airports and banks. A buggy update from CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor is causing conflicts with the Windows system, affecting both businesses and individual users.
Unprecedented Global Outage
The disruption, which began on Friday morning, has affected multiple sectors worldwide. Airlines, television networks, and businesses have all been grappling with the consequences. Many flights have been grounded, causing queues and delays at airports and train stations. TV channels, including Sky News, have been taken off the air.
The outage has also impacted stock exchanges, supermarkets, banking, and healthcare systems globally. Windows users are experiencing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), causing their systems to shut down or restart unexpectedly. Many consider this one of the most significant global IT outages in recent years, affecting numerous services reliant on Microsoft’s infrastructure.
Such a widespread disruption across multiple sectors, including online poker, is unprecedented. Fortunately for players, only a couple of poker networks have been affected so far. The disruption has also impacted land-based casinos and online sportsbooks.
The website DownDetector, which monitors user-reported internet outages, has reported increasing outages affecting several companies, including BetMGM, a leading igaming company in the US, which also offers online poker.
This kind of disruption is rare and almost unheard of. In the past, online poker and gaming have faced widespread DDoS attacks, but those were targeted at specific companies. This technical outage, however, has affected most businesses and was not the result of foul play.
The US cyber security firm has acknowledged the outage and said the issue has been isolated and a fix has been deployed. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also said that the underlying cause for the outage of its 365 apps and services has been fixed. However, both Partypoker and BetMGM are down at the moment.