A former Light & Wonder employee has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was requested to falsify the igaming provider’s financial documents, which the company has moved to dismiss.
Former Light & Wonder Head of Casino Studio for North America Antonio Amormino said that VP of Operations Dror Damchinsky had urged the former employee to “generate different numbers for the company’s capital asset reports”.
Key to the claims is the alleged “attempt to present a false picture of the company’s financial condition”.
Amormino pursued complaints internally over the allegations. However, he claimed that these complaints were ignored before his employment with the company was terminated.
The former Light & Wonder employee has now escalated his complaint – claiming he was fired because of his Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) complaint and that Light & Wonder is in violation of the state Whistleblower’s Act in Michigan.
Light & Wonder has moved to dismiss the case, stating that Amormino failed to plead a claim upon which relief can be granted. The motion also detailed that the complaint to OSHA was not covered under the state whistleblower legislation because OSHA does not meet the legislation’s definition of a public body.
It compounds a period of legal disputes for Light & Wonder, with the firm also being the subject of allegations from Aristocrat that it has failed to comply with certain elements of its case.
The filing alleged: “Light & Wonder has made little effort to comply with the Order’s requirements to search for documents reflecting Aristocrat’s trade secrets, and to identify every instance in which Light & Wonder has disclosed those trade secrets, outside the context of Dragon Train. To make matters worse, Light & Wonder did not make a reasonable effort to identify which documents and disclosures actually reflect Aristocrat’s trade secrets.”
Light & Wonder has outlined that key steps have been taken off the back of the case. These include dismissing Emma Charles from the company, who brought over trade secrets from her previous role at Aristocrat.
Aristocrat argues that it is common practice for game developers to export part or all of the math around a successful title to other titles, therefore it is well within bounds for the group to seek work product beyond just Dragon Train.
Light & Wonder has requested that the court provide an extension in order to comply fully with the preliminary injunction but for different reasons than what Aristocrat is alleging.
In a recent financial update, the firm revealed that of its approximately 2,200 units of Dragon Train-themed games, 95% have been removed or converted with another game from its portfolio of game franchises. It anticipates that Dragon Train 2 will be released in the near future.