In the United States and a federal court has reportedly signed off on the $31 million arrangement Australian gaming machines innovator Aristocrat Leisure Limited agreed last May in order to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the Sydney-listed firm was being sued in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington amid allegations that a trio of its social gaming platforms had been offering online games of chance that are prohibited under the western state’s laws. The source explained that the legal actions filed by plaintiffs Cheryl Kater, Suzie Kelly and Manasa Thimmegowda concerned the Epic Diamond Slots, Big Fish Casino and Jackpot Magic Slots services run by the Big Fish Games Incorporated enterprise the Australian company had earlier purchased from Churchill Downs Incorporated for $990 million.

Arbitration answer:

In an attempt to find a solution that did not involve a courtroom and Aristocrat Leisure Limited reportedly entered mediation early last year alongside Churchill Downs Incorporated. The duo purportedly later agreed a deal that was to see them hand over $155 million subject to the approval of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington so as to settle the two lawsuits and any attached indemnity obligations.

Pricey pay-out:

This consent has now reportedly been bestowed with Aristocrat Leisure Limited using a subsequent press release (pdf) to assert that its $31 million portion of this pay-out, which has been fully specified within its financial results for 2020, is to now be placed into a fund to help satisfy the requests of the Washington plaintiffs.

Significant slump:

In related news and Inside Asian Gaming used a subsequent report to detail that American gaming machines behemoth Scientific Games Corporation has released its financial results for 2020 exposing a drop of 19.9% year-on-year in aggregated revenues to $2.72 billion. The Las Vegas-headquartered innovator purportedly furthermore revealed that its associated net profit had sunk by over 560% to stand at a deficit of $548 million.

Scientific Games Corporation reportedly also divulged that its aggregated fourth-quarter revenues had decreased by 11.7% year-on-year to $762 million to take its overall loss for the three-month period up by roughly 127% to $84 million largely due to the continuing coronavirus-related drought in machine sales.

Patient progress:

However, Scientific Games Corporation reportedly sounded an optimistic note in pronouncing that its revenues for the final three months of 2020 were 8.4% higher than the previous quarter with its overall loss having narrowed by approximately $27 million. This was purportedly joined by a revelation that the firm’s consolidated fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization had sequentially improved by over 100% to $244 million as only its land-based gaming segment posted a year-on-year decline in receipts.