Gaming technology supplier Light & Wonder Inc (L&W) says it has made the decision “to voluntarily stop commercialising and offer to replace” its “Jewel of the Dragon” game, in a bid “to minimise any confusion and potential disruption” to its customers.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in an update related to litigation with slot machine specialist Aristocrat Technologies Inc in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, involving Light & Wonder’s “Dragon Train” title.
In September, 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.
“On March 14, 2025, Aristocrat filed a second amended complaint with the District Court of Nevada, adding a trade secret misappropriation claim against Jewel of the Dragon,” stated Light & Wonder.
“We intend to respond to the second amended complaint by April 11, 2025,” it added.
Light & Wonder said Aristocrat had “for the first time made a trade secret misappropriation claim on Jewel of the Dragon”.
Wednesday’s statement added: “In light of this claim, we made the decision to voluntarily stop commercialising and offer to replace Jewel of the Dragon to minimise any confusion and potential disruption to our customers.”
Light & Wonder noted: “We are seeking to ensure our customers are not affected by the ongoing legal process.”
It added: “The success we had in rapidly replacing the Dragon Train units, and the strong game performance of our broader portfolio, give us confidence that this is the best course of action for our customers at this point as we continue to build great games.”
The gaming supplier said Jewel of the Dragon’s premium installed base footprint was “less than 1 percent of the total premium installed base in North America, with approximately 150 premium leased units”.
In Wednesday’s statement, Light & Wonder said 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”.
According to the announcement, 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.
Review of hold and spin games
“These PAR sheets have been historically provided to customers to allow them to meet regulatory requirements and to understand their own exposure as it relates to the likelihood of large but infrequent award amounts,” explained Light & Wonder.
“Because PAR sheets have been so widely distributed, it has historically been common for PAR sheets from industry players, including L&W, to end up in the hands of competitors,” it added.
The firm 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,” it added.
The company said it plans to give an update to the market on the expanded review as part of its first-quarter 2025 results briefing.
On Wednesday, Light & Wonder also noted that Aristocrat had “raised new issues” in the latest complaint, which Light & Wonder said it intends “to vigorously defend against”.
According to Light & Wonder’s announcement, Aristocrat said in the updated complaint that replacement games for Dragon Train, including social game “Dragon Train Grand Central”, “would ‘reap the benefits’ of trade secret misappropriation even if none of the claimed trade secrets are used in such games”.
Light & Wonder stated: “We have been and will continue to be transparent with the courts and Aristocrat on the process to ensure that new games do not contain any of Aristocrat’s claimed trade secrets or confidential information.”
“We followed that process with our new social game, Dragon Train Grand Central. We provided the math to Aristocrat in advance of the launch of the game,” said the company.
It added: “Aristocrat has made no claim with respect to the Dragon Train Grand Central math, and we are confident the same will be true for our Dragon Train replacement land-based game that is in development.”
Light & Wonder said in October last year it had plans to “build out” a new version of Dragon Train.
Light & Wonder observed in the latest announcement that its decision to stop commercialising and offer to remove Jewel of the Dragon was “not expected to have a material effect” on the group’s revenue.
It would also not affect Light & Wonder’s “commitment to delivering” on its US$1.4 billion targeted consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) and targeted adjusted net profit after tax and before amortisation (NPATA) between US$565 million and US$635 million for 2025.
“These financial targets are affirmed without any contribution from the proposed acquisition of Grover Gaming’s Charitable business, which we expect to close during the second quarter this year,” stated Light & Wonder.
