The slot machine operator formerly known as Lucky Bucks is suing members of its former management and their affiliates, seeking the return of approximately $200 million and accusing them of defrauding the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Now known as Arc Gaming and Technologies, Georgia-based Lucky Bucks emerged from bankruptcy in October. The company’s new management filed a lawsuit in state court on Tuesday under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that named nine former high-ranking employees and one contractor as well as a dozen associated entities. The lawsuit alleged Lucky Bucks founder and former owner Anil Damani led a scheme to loot the company. Damani was barred from the company’s operations by a state regulator in June 2020, the lawsuit said. Damani and his lieutenants had Lucky Bucks and its affiliated entities borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from lenders and distributed the proceeds among themselves, the lawsuit said. The mounting debt ultimately pushed the company to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last June, the lawsuit said. Lucky Bucks covered about 345 locations throughout Georgia with about 2,300 slot machines when it filed for bankruptcy. It blamed a sharp decline in revenue in 2022 caused by challenges such as increased local competition and regulatory enforcement. Lucky Bucks handed itself to its lenders in exchange for reducing its debt by more than $500 million under the company’s chapter 11 plan, which was approved in July.
