Feb. 11–Sands casino owner Sheldon Adelson has not been shy about voicing his political views, and critics of those views appeared to send a message Tuesday to the nation’s 11th-richest man.

Hackers apparently took over the websites of Las Vegas Sands, releasing the personal information of some of its workers, including those employed at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Websites run by the world’s largest gambling company appeared to have been hacked just after noon, showing anyone visiting the Las Vegas Sands casino Web pages a scrolling list of personal information that included employee Social Security numbers, emails and job titles.

The websites were shut down by the company by 12:45 p.m.

It’s unclear how many of the company’s nearly 50,000 worldwide employees were in the scroll, but the list running on the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem local Web page appeared to include only employees working in Bethlehem. Other casino websites run by Las Vegas Sands experienced a similar breach.

And when employees realized it, panic set in for some of them.

“It’s freaking me out,” said Joshua Cesanek, a “cage cashier” at the Bethlehem casino. “I can monitor my bank account and credit cards, but how do I monitor my Social Security number? Am I going to have to worry about this for years?”

Las Vegas Sands is the owner of the Sands Bethlehem, whose casino, hotel and shopping mall attract more than 8 million people to Bethlehem each year.

As of Tuesday evening, the websites for all of Sands’ global casinos — in Bethlehem, Las Vegas, Singapore and Macau, China — remained down, as Sands staff tried to figure out who did what and why. Sands officials also said the hacking includes some internal office websites, which enabled the hackers to access the employee records.

The company’s email accounts also appeared to be affected.

“Company-operated websites have been hacked, as have some office productivity systems in the U.S.,” Sands Corp. spokesman Ron Reese said in a written statement. “The company is working closely with the appropriate law enforcement agencies to determine who initiated the hacking activity.

“In addition,” Reese said, “the company is using its IT experts to assess the damage and return the systems to full operations.”

The FBI declined to comment.

Adelson has been an outspoken political player on many issues. Two years ago, he pledged as much as $100 million in donations to Republican candidates for president, and last fall he suggested a nuclear strike in the Iranian desert if necessary to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Adelson, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes magazine to be more than $37 billion, has been a longtime supporter of Israel. He remains a key political player who has met several times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The website hacking appears to be referring to his support of Israel. It featured a line stating “Damn A, don’t let your tongue cut your throat. Encouraging the use of weapons of mass destruction, under any conditions, is a crime.”

People trying to access the Sands websites during the breach instead got a map of the world showing where Sands casinos are located, with flickering flames marking its casinos in the U.S. It included a photo of Adelson standing shoulder to shoulder with Netanyahu.

The short statement appeared to be signed by the “Anti WMD team.”

Some questioned whether the website breach was related to Adelson’s latest mission — to have Internet gambling banned nationwide. Adelson has argued that allowing people to gamble by computer from their homes is ripe for abuse because the Internet can’t prevent children, intoxicated people and addicted players from gambling.

For now, Sands officials weren’t sure what motivated the hacking.

“More information will be provided once we have definitely determined what occurred,” Reese said.

matthew.assad@mcall.com

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