A court in Nevada, in the United States, has granted slot machine specialist Aristocrat a “renewed motion to obtain discovery of math models” for certain hold and spin games released by gaming technology supplier Light & Wonder Inc (L&W) since 2021.
The information was disclosed in a Friday press release by Light & Wonder, which said 2021 was the year when Emma Charles joined the company. Ms Charles is a game developer that had previously worked for the Aristocrat brand.
According to Light & Wonder’s statement, the court had “previously denied a similar motion” by Aristocrat.
The announcement was an update related to litigation with Aristocrat Technologies Inc in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, involving Light & Wonder’s “Dragon Train” title.
In September last year, Aristocrat Technologies said it had been granted a preliminary injunction by a U.S. court against Light & Wonder, after alleging the latter’s Dragon Train slot product infringed Aristocrat’s intellectual property.
Aristocrat filed a lawsuit in the U.S. in March 2024 against Light & Wonder, involving Dragon-themed titles offered by the two companies.
Light & Wonder stated in its Friday update: “While we are disappointed with the court’s ruling, we remain confident, based on the expert review we previously disclosed, that there is no evidence of Aristocrat math being used in any commercially released games other than Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon.”
The firm added: “The U.S. litigation process continues with fact discovery set to close on December 15, 2025, and expert discovery closing on March 16, 2026.”
In April this year, Light & Wonder said it had made the decision “to voluntarily stop commercialising and offer to replace” its “Jewel of the Dragon” game.
Light & Wonder said at the time it had “identified certain Aristocrat PAR sheets dated 2015 that appear to have been available to certain members of the Jewel of the Dragon development team”.
PAR sheets are used by suppliers to describe the performance characteristics and settings of a slot machine, and contain information about the game’s payout structure and odds and some of the mechanics of how the machine operates.
Light & Wonder had stated: “Given our identification of these historical Aristocrat PAR sheets, we are expanding the scope of the review we conducted following the preliminary injunction to include all hold and spin games released before mid-2021.”
“We have no reason to believe that the expanded review covering all hold and spin games released before mid-2021 will identify evidence of similar issues,” the company had added in its April announcement.
Light & Wonder said in October last year it had plans to “build out” a new version of Dragon Train.
