A small, defunct gaming equipment developer won a big $20 million victory in Clark County District Court against the Caesars Enterprise Service subsidiary.
A Clark County jury has awarded a small defunct gaming equipment company a $20 million verdict from Caesars Entertainment for interfering with its ability to take its products to a large market.
Sam Johnson, the Atlanta-based principal of Tipping Point Gaming LLC, said in an interview that he thought he had an ideal partner when he struck a multiyear deal in 2014 with the Caesars Enterprise Service LLC subsidiary of what is now the Reno-based casino giant. Johnson said he had 60 patents associated with his products.
Tipping Point produced a slot-machine side-bet variation product similar to popular table-game side bets and partnered with Caesars for it to be the proving ground for other Tipping Point-produced systems.
Side bets are additional wagers that can be made through the course of a game.
“We went all in with Caesars as we were developing this product and relied on them to deploy it to help us make a market,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Caesars was so enthused with Tipping Point that it offered to buy out Johnson in 2016, a prospect he was excited about.
But the relationship soured when Caesars accused Tipping Point of failing to secure the right to use licensed intellectual property in its products.
Caesars Enterprise Services filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit in Clark County District Court against Tipping Point in 2018. Tipping Point then countersued Caesars.
A Clark County judge ruled in Caesars’ favor, but Tipping Point appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court and won a retrial when the high court remanded the case back to Clark County in June 2024.
On April 11, the jury agreed to award Tipping Point $15 million in compensatory damages based on evidence that Caesars intentionally interfered with a transaction involving Tipping Point’s Planet Bingo transaction. The jury also awarded $5 million in punitive damages.
A representative of Caesars said it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation and that Clark County District Court Judge Joe Hardy Jr. has not yet certified the judgment.
But Tipping Point, which went out of business during COVID-19 shutdowns, and Johnson are celebrating the judgment, characterizing it as winning a David-and-Goliath clash.
“We finally got our day in court for the jury to decide and that’s how our system works,” Johnson said. “I was pleased that we did prevail on the interference claim that Caesars purposely and maliciously interfered with Tipping Point’s prospective business and in finding Caesars liable for punitive damages as well.”
Johnson believes Tipping Point offered game-changing technology for the gaming industry that was never delivered.
“We would have definitely transformed the industry,” he said. “However, once Caesars intentionally tainted Tipping Point’s intellectual property, instead of Caesars being the market-maker Tipping Point relied on, Caesars prevented a market from ever being made. I’m thankful though that Caesars’ interference with the success of Tipping Point, their vendor, was finally vindicated by the jury. However, due to the lengthy and expensive litigation brought on by Caesars, I lost the opportunity to see this vision through.”
