Roland Thomas, CEO of Innovative Gaming Corporation of America (IGCA), said of his company’s action against Shuffle Master,
“Through an innovative development effort, our engineering and product development teams created a truly component-based gaming machine platform that capitalises on a standardised open source operating system. This approach to the utilisation of components has required substantial creative abilities, invested time and resources. We are compelled to vigorously pursue any violation of the company's proprietary rights to this system, to protect our assets and preserve our ability to distribute the system and to offer royalty-based licenses to others that choose to incorporate this revolutionary application in their own products."
The platform helps display graphics and advertisements on slot machines. IGCA claims that Shuffle Master signed confidentiality agreements with it in 1998 when the two companies were considering joint ventures.
Shuffle Master’s CEO, Joseph Lahti, called the complaint “baseless and without merit,” adding, “frankly, we are surprised and very perplexed by this litigation. We will vigorously defend ourselves and expect to prevail.”