{"id":169837,"date":"2021-04-07T05:01:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T12:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=169837"},"modified":"2021-04-07T10:40:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T17:40:50","slug":"riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/","title":{"rendered":"Riverboat Casinos Sue Scientific Games Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Midwest riverboat casinos are suing Scientific Games (SG) over claims the gaming supply giant fraudulently monopolized the market in automated card shufflers. The suit claims they did so by strangling competition with \u201csham lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_169838\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-169838\" data-style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-169838 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg\" alt=\"Scientific Games\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen-142x107.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-169838\"class=\"text-description\">Signage for the Casino Queen Marquette, pictured above. The casino is docked on the Mississippi River in Marquette, Iowa. (Image: <em>KCRG<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Casino Queen, of East St Louis, Ill., which trades as DraftKings at Casino Queen, and Casino Queen Marquette, of Marquette, Iowa, are both docked on the Mississippi River. They allege SG\u2019s behavior allowed it to set prices without fear of being undercut.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The lawsuit argues direct purchasers of shufflers, like the plaintiffs, have been damaged financially as a result, and seeks appropriate financial relief. It wants other operators to join the class-action lawsuit against SG and demands a jury trial.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The suit also names SG subsidiaries Bally Technologies and Bally Gaming as defendants.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Multimillion SG Settlement <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In 2018, a federal judge ordered SG to pay $315 million to Shuffletech, a manufacturer that SG forced out of the market with legal threats, despite allegedly knowing that its patents were invalid and unenforceable. The settlement was reduced to $151.5 million on appeal.<\/p>\n<p>SG was found to have misled the patent office and to have engaged in \u201csham patent litigation against any competitor that dared to market competitive card shufflers,\u201d according to the judge in that case.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The Casino Queen suit notes that many gaming facilities have no option but to purchase SG\u2019s machines, because shuffling by hand is illegal in many jurisdictions. But operators are forced to pay \u201csupracompetitive prices\u201d because of the SG monopoly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>The market in automated card shufflers is valued at approximately $100 million per year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SG controls an effective 100 percent share of the market, according to the suit. But this has not been achieved by \u201csuperior acumen, innovation, skill, foresight, or industry, or by the proper functioning of the market,\u201d but by \u201cpurposeful abuse of the patent system and the judicial process.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>No Alternatives for Card Shufflers\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThere are no reasonable substitutes or alternatives for automatic card shufflers for casino table games that use physical playing cards, meaning that demand is inelastic for these products. Inelastic demand means that increases in price result in limited declines in quantity sold in the market,\u201d continues the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The lawsuit lists several rivals who have been driven out of the market by the defendants\u2019 so-called sham litigation. In some cases, the defendants acquired their rivals\u2019 assets at a discount after they had been weakened by legal action.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SG acquired its automated shuffling technology when it bought out Bally Technology in 2014 for $5.1 billion. A year earlier, Bally had acquired SHFL Entertainment, which invented the Shuffle Master machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Midwest riverboat casinos are suing Scientific Games (SG) over claims the gaming supply giant fraudulently monopolized the market in automated card shufflers. The suit claims they did so by strangling competition with \u201csham lawsuits.\u201d Casino Queen, of East St Louis, Ill., which trades as DraftKings at Casino Queen, and Casino Queen Marquette, of Marquette, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":169838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-07T12:01:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-07T17:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/\",\"name\":\"Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-07T12:01:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-07T17:40:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Signage for the Casino Queen Marquette, which is docked on the Mississippi River in Marquette, Iowa. (Image: KCRG)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legal\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Riverboat Casinos Sue Scientific Games Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly","description":"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly","og_description":"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-04-07T12:01:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-07T17:40:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/","name":"Scientific Games Sued by Riverboats Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-07T12:01:14+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-07T17:40:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Casino Queen riverboats sue Scientific Games and Bally Technologies over automatic card shuffler monopoly attained through sham lawsuits.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/casino-queen.jpg","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"Signage for the Casino Queen Marquette, which is docked on the Mississippi River in Marquette, Iowa. (Image: KCRG)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/riverboat-casinos-sue-scientific-games-over-illegal-shuffler-monopoly\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legal","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Riverboat Casinos Sue Scientific Games Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Shuffler Monopoly"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}