Following the release of the National Indian Gaming Commission’s (NIGC) Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) report, Jerad Swimmer, Regional Sales Director at Continent 8 Technologies, provides a mid-year report on the state of tribal gaming in 2025.
On July 31, the NIGC published its annual GGR report, highlighting a record-setting $43.9 billion in revenue for FY 2024. This achievement reflects a 4.6% year-over-year increase, representing growth of $2 billion, with data collected from 532 gaming operations run by 243 federally recognized tribes across 29 states. In the NIGC press statement, Acting NIGC Chairwoman Sharon Avery remarked:
“This year’s GGR reflects not only the resilience of the tribal gaming industry, but also the dedication of tribal leadership in preserving and growing this important economic driver for their communities. The continued success of Indian gaming is a testament to the strong tribal governance and the sound regulation that protects the integrity of the industry.”
These figures emphasize the critical economic contribution of tribal gaming, supporting essential initiatives across employment, infrastructure, education and social services within tribal communities. Yet, as the tribal gaming industry’s financial impact continues to expand, so does its exposure to cyber threat actors aiming to benefit from this growth.
Over the past year, the industry has witnessed significant cyber incidents. In April of last year, a tribal casino was forced to suspend its operations following a cyber breach and advised patrons to monitor account activity for potential unauthorized access. In February of this year, one tribe experienced a ransomware attack that disrupted telecommunications and IT systems across multiple tribal entities, including casino operations.
During recent key industry events – including the OIGA Conference and Trade Show, the Indian Gaming Convention and Tradeshow (IGA) and the TribalHub Cybersecurity Summit – our team has also received direct reports of numerous cybersecurity incidents. These events have resulted in a range of financial, operational and reputational impacts for affected organizations. These forums have provided tribal casinos, gaming commissions and government bodies in Indian Country with valuable opportunities to share their cybersecurity challenges and engage with experts on effective threat mitigation strategies.
Given the ongoing and evolving cyber threat landscape, tribal gaming organizations must adopt a proactive cybersecurity posture – operating with an ‘assume breach’ mindset and prioritizing resilience. Robust measures are essential to safeguard infrastructure, player data, critical platforms and preserve tribal sovereignty. Recommended best practices for comprehensive cyber defense include:
As a trusted Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), we partner with tribal gaming organizations – including Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission (TGC), ShowNation, Tachi Palace Casino Resort – to foster a culture of cybersecurity awareness, strengthen organizational security posture and ensure long-term operational resiliency.
Continent 8 provides comprehensive, multi-layered threat prevention, detection and response solutions to secure your tribal organization’s digital assets in the face of evolving cyber threats. For more information on how Continent 8 can support your cybersecurity initiatives, email sales@continent.com or fill out our Contact Us page.
Also, be sure to listen back to our Tribal Talks: Cybersecurity Unlocked podcast series. Each episode delves into new stories, insights gained, best practices and key developments that are shaping the future of tribal casino gaming and cybersecurity.
number of games accessible to B2C operators
transactions per second that need to be secured
critical cybersecurity issues identified
Global iGaming aggregator leverages Continent 8’s Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) cybersecurity services to securely connect B2C operators to over 16,000 games from more than 160 providers.
Alea is an award-winning leader in the field of online gaming, with a decade of experience in the industry. Alea aggregation platform handles over 21,000 transactions per second, with bank-level security, full regulatory coverage and local insights that helps their customers move faster in markets like Brazil, South Africa, Spain and beyond.
Alea is one of the industry’s most rapidly expanding game aggregators. By utilising a single API integration, Alea offers customers access to over 16,000 games from more than 160 providers, simplifying technical complexities and enhancing operational efficiency. The security and reliability of these game APIs and integrations are vital to Alea’s operational integrity.
To address the evolving cybersecurity challenges associated with a rapidly growing network, Alea engaged Continent 8 to conduct a thorough assessment and evaluation of their cybersecurity framework through a comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) service.
Alea’s coding platform comprises over 100 microservices leveraging diverse technologies, databases and queue systems, presenting a significant technical challenge in securing all connections. Additionally, Alea processes over 21,000 requests per second, necessitating the demonstration of successful transaction management. With a complex aggregation platform, Alea aimed to ensure and demonstrate their status as a secure and robust game aggregator provider.
Continent 8, along with its specialised cybersecurity division, C8 Secure, conducted the cybersecurity audit. They employed their Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) service to perform a thorough security evaluation of Alea’s entire digital infrastructure, providing a complete view of their attack surface area.
The VAPT service from Continent 8 and C8 Secure enabled Alea to safeguard their API, code and services against vulnerabilities such as broken authentications, cross-site scripting (XSS), sensitive data exposure and SQL injection. As a result, the cybersecurity audit identified no critical issues within their aggregation platform.
The comprehensive VAPT assessment allowed Alea to detect potential internal and external IT vulnerabilities, enabling them to prioritise and implement security improvements to reduce risk exposure, thereby assuring their customers of a secure and reliable platform.
Patrick Gardner, Chief Security Officer at Continent 8, presenting Eduard Fumás, Chief Technology Officer at Alea, with their VAPT completion certificate.
Eduard Fumás, Chief Technology Officer at Alea said, “At Alea, security is at the core of everything we do. Our commitment to creating a secure, robust and scalable API solution sets a new standard in the iGaming industry, where data protection and system integrity are critical. Partnering with Continent 8 has been an important step for us in proactively safeguarding our platform and reinforcing the trust our partners place in us. This collaboration ensures that we continue to deliver a reliable, secure API experience to our clients. We’re proud to work with a partner that shares our dedication to cybersecurity excellence.”
Patrick Gardner, Chief Security Officer at Continent 8 said, “Alea’s three principles of security, scalability and robustness resonate with Continent 8. Given the number of APIs Alea is using, their proactive approach to assessing their business and guaranteeing security for its partners is imperative.
“It’s great to be supporting Alea; we encourage all businesses in this industry to take the cybersecurity threat seriously.”
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) service enables the independent gaming commission to test IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities
Continent 8 Technologies, the leading provider of managed hosting, connectivity, cloud and cybersecurity solutions for the tribal gaming industry, supports Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission (TGC) with its proven Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services.
The Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission is the independent tribal gaming regulatory authority established in 1993 under Chapter 16 of the Cherokee Code of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).Charged with the duty to ensure fairness and integrity of the gaming activities within its facilities, the commission enlisted Continent 8, and its cybersecurity division, C8 Secure, to conduct pen testing.
The VAPT service provides a comprehensive security assessment of an organizations infrastructure and applications. Often mandated by regulation, it helps organizations measure the real-world effectiveness of their security controls and incident response capabilities. Additionally, the service provides actionable insights, including prioritized recommendations and industry best practices to address identified vulnerabilities and strengthen overall cybersecurity posture.
Emra Arkansas, Executive Director at Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission said: We are sincerely grateful to Continent 8, especially Patrick Gardner, Anthony Engel and Jerad Swimmer, for their partnership and recognition of our ongoing cybersecurity initiatives. The Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission remains firmly committed to protecting not only our critical infrastructure but also the sovereignty that underpins our regulatory authority. In an era of growing cyber threats, safeguarding Tribal IT systems is more than a technical priority, it is a sovereign responsibility. With Continent 8s trusted expertise, we are proud to set a higher standard for cybersecurity in Indian Country, ensuring our operations remain secure, resilient and self-determined.
Patrick Gardner, Chief Security Officer at Continent 8 said:In response to todays evolving cyber threat landscape, the Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission is working to establish a new standard in cybersecurity and we are proud to support this important initiative. Their proactive efforts to safeguard critical infrastructure reflect a deep and ongoing investment in cybersecurity resilience.”
Jerad Swimmer, Regional Sales Director at Continent 8 added: “It was a pleasure collaborating with the Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission in conducting a comprehensive evaluation of their IT infrastructure. Their team has shown a tremendous awareness of the escalating cybersecurity challenges within the tribal gaming sector. It is encouraging to see both enterprises and regulatory authorities actively enhancing their cybersecurity measures.”
For more information on how Continent 8 can support your cybersecurity initiatives or to schedule a no-obligation Cybersecurity Readiness Consultation, contact Regional Sales Director, Jerad Swimmer, at jerad.swimmer@continent8.com.
We are attending OIGA 2024, from 12-14 August, in Oklahoma.
The 2024 OIGA Conference and Trade Show, will be held in Oklahoma City, OK and will draw nearly 3,000 vendors, visitors and guest speakers to Oklahoma City to celebrate and advance the Gaming industry.
We will be exhibiting, drop by our Stand 1033 to discover the power of Continent 8 first-hand! We’ll be showcasing our award-winning, multi-layered cybersecurity solutions, designed to support the tribal and gaming industry.
Jerad Swimmer (Regional Sales Director), Jamie Garcia (Regional Sales Director) and Tony Engel (Principal Solutions Architect – Secure) will be available at the Stand throughout the show to discuss your needs.
Get in touch via jerad.swimmer@continent8.com or jamie.garcia@continent8.com or complete the form here.