How it started
History
The company produced their first machine in 1953 and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1996. The company was founded by Leonard Ainsworth, whose family maintains a substantial stake in the company. Ainsworth is now chairman of a different gambling company, Ainsworth Game Technology. Aristocrat is licensed to distribute slot machines and other gambling products in over 200 jurisdictions (note that many countries, including Australia, have a number of different gambling-license jurisdictions).
Aristocrat's CEO blamed the US subprime mortgage crisis for poor financial results in 2008, despite competing companies experiencing record growth in the same period. As a result of the expected drop in revenue, the CEO enacted sweeping budget cuts, including large-scale retrenchments of staff from all areas of the business. For the 12 months to December 2009, the company reported a net loss of A$157.8 million.
In 2011, Aristocrat reached an agreement with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis to provide equipment and games for Alberta's video lottery terminal network.
In July 2014, Aristocrat agreed to buy gambling machine provider Video Gaming Technologies for about US$1.28 billion to triple its North American business amid falling profit in Australia.
On 10 August 2017, the company acquired mobile game developer Plarium for $500 million to enter into mobile gambling.
From Wikipedia’s article on Aristocrat Leisure, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2