On today’s episode of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, host James Ross is joined by SlotBeats’ Senior Journalist, Danny Lee, and SBC Americas Editor Jessica Welman who provide updates on two ongoing legal disputes.

In the show’s first half, Danny digs deeper into Evolution’s claims that Light & Wonder made use of their intellectual property to create a “copycat” of its Lightning Roulette table game. After the break, Jess subs in and explains the lawsuit brought against VGW in Georgia.

To start Danny provides some background on the history between Evolution and Light & Wonder.

In 2021, Light & Wonder, known as Scientific Games at the time, were approached by Evolution to create a land-based version of its Lightning Roulette table game. During the negotiations, Evolution says that it shared confidential data regarding the mathematical makeup of the game.

Negotiation between the pair broke down, however shortly after Light & Wonder released RouletteX and PowerX which Evolution claims are copycat games of Lightning Roulette.  

Evolution are now suing with the aim of gaining compensation for damages and financial losses related to the alleged actions of Light & Wonder, in addition to an injunction to prevent a similar situation from reoccurring.

Danny also explains that this is not the first time this year that Light & Wonder have found themselves in legal trouble with an iGaming supplier. Aristocrat accused Light & Wonder of copying its Dragon Link series of games.

Aristocrat alleges that a former employee, Emma Charles, was hired by Light & Wonder and then used her knowledge to provide Light & Wonder with a title with similar gameplay to Dragon Link.

Light & Wonder are yet to respond to Evolutions allegations however Danny believes that there will be an update from them in the next week or so.

Moving away from iGaming, Jess joins James to discuss a class action lawsuit filed against sweepstake company VGW in Georgia by a woman called Destinty Kennedy.

For the benefit of the podcast’s European audience, and James, Jess starts by explaining what sweepstakes are. 

She says that sweepstakes, commonly known as social casinos, are sites that provide gaming through a dual currency system. A player earns the first type of currency through doing tasks and promotions which then translate to the second currency which can be traded for real money prizes.

Kennedy is claiming that sweepstake sites run by VGW constitute an illegal gambling operation and she is seeking to recoup losses accrued playing on the site.

Similar lawsuits against gaming operators in the past have failed as companies often put an arbitration clause in their terms of service which prevents customers from being able to take them to court.

Jess explains that what makes this case interesting is that Kennedy says she opted out of these clauses meaning that it looks like the suit cannot be sent to arbitration and instead will be put in front of a judge.

Like Light & Wonder, VGW are yet to respond to the lawsuit however Jess says this is to be expected given that lawyers need time to go through the complaint made and file their response.