Chavdar Vasilev is a journalist covering the casino and sports betting market sectors for CasinoBeats. He joined CasinoBeats in May 2025 and reports on industry-shaping stories across the US and beyond, including legislative debates, market...
Read Full BioLight & Wonder (L&W) has filed a formal objection to a Nevada court order requiring it to turn over privileged internal investigation materials, escalating its long-running trade-secrets dispute with rival Aristocrat Technologies.
The objection, filed December 8, contests Magistrate Judge Maximiliano Couvillier’s November 24 ruling that L&W had implicitly waived attorney-client privilege and work-product protection.
NEXT.io, which reviewed the objection, reported that the company argued the court had overreached. L&W told the court that “L&W has unambiguously and expressly disavowed any reliance on the investigation or privileged (or previously privileged) information at trial. Under Ninth Circuit precedent, such disavowals must be honoured and enforced.”
L&W contends the ruling would permit Aristocrat to obtain privileged internal materials even though L&W is not relying on those materials at trial.
Aristocrat has not yet filed a public response to the objection.
Discovery Turmoil: November Emergency Sealing Motion
In November, Aristocrat filed an emergency motion to seal a court order (ECF No. 323) that had inadvertently disclosed portions of its confidential development work.
Aristocrat warned the court that the order “contain[s] references to and reveal[s] aspects of Aristocrat’s trade secret and confidential information.” Also, it was publicly accessible to “anyone, including members of the media, docket scraping services, and Aristocrat’s competitors.”
Aristocrat argued the information “derives substantial economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable.” Also, the disclosure posed “a substantial risk of causing significant and irreversible harm.”
L&W did not oppose the request. The court granted the motion, ordering the order temporarily sealed. The court directed that “anyone who may have accessed the unredacted order must promptly destroy all copies in their possession.”
Public-Availability Defense Underscores L&W’s Position
The objection builds on a broader theme L&W raised in earlier filings: that the materials Aristocrat labels as trade secrets were accessible to anyone.
In reporting by the Australian Financial Review, L&W stated in court that “[p]ut simply, Aristocrat’s trade secrets were never secret.” Also, that its “recent investigation … has revealed that Aristocrat’s alleged trade secrets are publicly available.”
The company argued the information Aristocrat claims is vital to its business “are sitting out in the public.”
According to AFR, L&W purchased Dragon Link and Dragon Cash machines, as well as memory cards, from online marketplaces such as eBay and Facebook. The company said the cards “did not have any encryption,” meaning “anyone could access the game’s maths.”
Aristocrat disputed that claim. A spokesperson told AFR that L&W’s position was “yet another effort to distract attention from the core fact that Light & Wonder has used Aristocrat’s IP.”
L&W’s position runs on parallel tracks: it argues privileged internal-investigation documents should remain protected. That’s even as it claims the information Aristocrat calls “trade secrets” was never truly secret in the first place.
October Ruling on Math-Model Disclosure
The December 8 objection follows an October setback for L&W. Then, Judge Couvillier ordered L&W to provide Aristocrat with “math models” and related design materials for several hold-and-spin games, including Dragon Train. The ruling reversed an earlier June order that had shielded those materials.
The court found the math models were necessary to evaluate Aristocrat’s claim that a former Aristocrat employee, Emma Charles, who later designed L&W’s Dragon Train, used proprietary game mathematics.
After the ruling, L&W maintained confidence that “no evidence of Aristocrat math being used in any commercially released games other than Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon.”
Background
Aristocrat sued in 2024, alleging that L&W misused confidential math models, rules, and design logic from its Dragon Link series. A September 2024 preliminary injunction found it “extremely likely” that L&W misappropriated trade secrets in developing Dragon Train.
L&W withdrew Dragon Train. Additionally, in April 2025, it announced that it would voluntarily cease commercializing the Jewel of the Dragon slot machines. The decision was a result of a second amendment complaint by Aristocrat.
Meanwhile, Charles left L&W shortly after the September 2024 injunction.
Discovery disputes have intensified across both the U.S. and Australia, where parallel proceedings are underway. The December 8 objection signals that L&W is resisting further disclosure of privileged internal-investigation materials.
The subsequent ruling will determine whether L&W’s procedural disavowal shields the company from further disclosure. Alternatively, whether Aristocrat will gain a deeper insight into L&W’s files as the litigation advances.
