Betting sites urge caution after accounts accessed, funds withdrawn

Several companies saw fraudulent activity in recent weeks and online sports betting operators want customers to take precautions.

A small number of betting accounts were accessed by unauthorized users, which led to $300,000 in customer funds being withdrawn in an attack the company believes was caused by login information being stolen from third-party sites

According to The Action Network, at least one customer of DraftKings was locked out of their account on Sunday and had their money taken from their bank account.

Irregular activity with customers' accounts is somethingDraftKings knows about. Paul Liberman, DraftKings co- founder, said in a statement that they believe the login information of these customers was compromised on other websites and then used to access their DraftKings accounts where they used the same login information. There is no evidence that the systems of DraftKings were broken to get this information. We have identified less than $300,000 of customer funds that were affected, and we will make whole any customer that was impacted.

"We strongly encourage customers to use unique passwords for DraftKings and all other sites, and we strongly recommend that customers do not share their passwords with anyone, including third party sites for the purpose of tracking betting information on DraftKings and other betting apps."

A journalist who covers the game industry said on Monday that his DraftKings account was hacked and that there was an attempt to get access to his FanDuel account.

Customers have not been impacted by the increased activity from unauthorized actors attempting to gain access to accounts. The casino said Monday that it had not been affected.

Several professional poker players have reported having unauthorized betting accounts set up in their names with BetMGM and used to withdraw money from their personal checking accounts. Todd Witteles, a well-known poker pro from California, said someone set up a sports betting account with his name in late October in West Virginia, deposited $10,000 out of his checking account to the sports betting account and withdrew a large amount of money on the same day. Up to 50 poker players were affected by a similar issue at BetMGM in late October and early November. The situation is being investigated by BetM GM.

The security of patrons' accounts is of paramount importance to BetMGM. Any impacted patrons are encouraged to contact our customer service department.

It's not clear if the incidents at DraftKings and BetMGM are related.