Deputy Editor
Aristocrat Gaming won its discovery motion against fellow slot manufacturer Light & Wonder, meaning it will get access to the math models behind several of its competitor’s games. A Nevada judge delivered the ruling on Oct. 17.
LNW’s share values have dropped around 25% since the case began in February 2024. The sharpest drop came in September 2024 after a preliminary injunction forcing the removal of LNW’s flagship Dragon Train from the market.
Share values now sit around $75, down from a 52-week high of $113.94, as industry observers speculate on just how much of LNW’s catalog will come under scrutiny. This week’s ruling means that any slots that use the enormously popular “hold and spin” bonus mechanic and were developed after June 2021 are potentially at risk.
LNW has already pulled Jewel of the Dragon and Dragon Train in light of compelling evidence that they use stolen math. The company maintained that its other games are clean in a press release responding to the ruling.
“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,” its statement read.
Case Stems From Employee Who Worked for Both Companies
A mathematician who worked for both companies, Emma Charles, is at the center of the dispute. Aristocrat alleges that Charles, who developed a game called Dragon Link there, then used identical math to develop games for LNW after she began working there subsequent to her Aristocrat employment.
Charles took the LNW job in 2021. Aristocrat says that all hold and spin games developed and released from that point onward are under suspicion.
Charles was dismissed from LNW in 2024 shortly after the preliminary injunction.
The hold and spin slot games she helped develop have become some of the most popular in the industry.
In these games, players trigger the hold and spin bonus in a variety of ways, such as by collecting a certain number of “cash on reels” symbols marked with a numerical payout value. The hold and spin feature typically gives the player a small number of free spins to add additional symbols to the reels, with those spins resetting each time another symbol appears. The symbols thus earned lock in place, hence the “hold and spin” nomenclature. Usually, filling the entire grid during the free spins earns a jackpot, while the player instead collects the combined value of the symbols if they use up their spins without successfully adding any more symbols.
Aristocrat Gets Reversal Following Initially Unfavorable Ruling
The discovery process for the case has been drawn out. Initially, the court sided with LNW, agreeing that Aristocrat had been overly broad and vague in asking for the math to any and all games potentially influenced by the stolen math. Aristocrat subsequently narrowed its request to “the complete mathematical and game design of any L&W game that (a) has a “hold and spin” feature and (b) was developed in whole or in part after June 2021.”
LNW argued that “hold and spin” was still too vaguely defined and maintained that “the unprotected disclosure of Light and Wonder’s internal game development processes to competitors would result in economic or competitive injury.”
However, this time, the judge sided with Aristocrat.
Since hold and spin has become one of the dominant models on the slot market, Aristocrat may now get access to the math behind a significant portion of LNW’s game catalog.
LNW’s presser noted that the next steps in the case come Dec. 15 (fact discovery) and March 16, 2026 (expert discovery). However, based on the time it has taken to get to this point, there may still be a long road ahead unless the two companies propose a settlement.
Image credit: KE4/Flickr (license)
