Nevada Limits Aruze After a Brother-in-Law Fight

The Nevada Gaming Commission voted 4-1 on July 24, 2025, to give Aruze Gaming Global a five-year limited license instead of the unlimited one it sought. Commissioner Rosa Solis-Rainey cast the only no. The majority left the slot maker free to build and sell in the state, then tied the paper to a family fight Nevada still could not score.

Empire Technological Group, which does business as Aruze Gaming Global, had asked to drop the clock that came with its 2023 license. What it got was another term limit, a compliance committee, and a $50,000 fund the Control Board can draw without notice. The name that kept coming up was Jay Chun, not a game title.

Jay Chun Is the Name Nevada Kept Asking About

Chun is Frank Feng’s brother-in-law and the chairman and managing director of Paradise Entertainment Limited, the Hong Kong-listed supplier behind LT Game. Feng, who holds 100% of Empire, told regulators he is the only owner who matters. His lawyer, Scott Scherer, said the Control Board had already traced the money and found it came from Feng, his companies, and ordinary third-party financing.

The history is messier than a stock ledger. Chun hired Feng in 2008 as Paradise’s North American representative and later put him in charge of LT Game. Feng formed LT Game International in 2011 as a Paradise distributor, then renamed the vehicle Empire Technological Group in 2013 after a Paradise licensing deal with IGT. Scherer told the Control Board the companies once passed cash back and forth because Chun is married to Feng’s sister. Any Chun funding above $1 million, he said, was repaid.

Solis-Rainey was not buying the cleanup. She said she still could not see a clean split between Empire and Paradise, and she still had questions about money that may have come from Chun. She voted against any license.

I have been concerned about what’s been possibly misrepresented to us, and that’s always been the reason for my discomfort. He may have paid that back, but he still misrepresented where that came from when asked a direct question. I don’t think the applicant before us has been completely forthright with us.

Rosa Solis-Rainey, Nevada Gaming Commission, July 24, 2025 hearing

She added that the no was not a knock on the people building the games, who she said had been doing great work. The distrust sat with the applicant in the chair.

Silver Would Not Call Feng Suitable on Paper Alone

Commissioner Abbi Silver, a former Nevada Supreme Court justice, had read the federal complaint Paradise filed on March 1, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for Nevada. The suit, Paradise Entertainment Limited et al. v. Empire Technological Group Limited et al., case 2:24-cv-00428, before Judge James C. Mahan, accuses Feng and colleagues of taking trade secrets, copying software, and turning a supposed distributor into a rival. Silver would not pretend a pleading was a verdict. She also would not pretend it was noise.

There are serious allegations in this federal complaint. If they are true, than to me Mr. Feng is not suitable, at least not in my opinion. If they are not true, then this is an exercise in futility. It’s hard for us to make that determination based on allegations in a federal complaint. It’s not something I can tell who is right and who is wrong unless discovery bears it out. That’s why a five-year limitation is appropriate with the case because you can’t tell what’s going on.

Abbi Silver, Nevada Gaming Commission, July 24, 2025 hearing

Scherer said Paradise had dropped any claim that it owned Empire, and that Hong Kong filings never showed such ownership. “They can’t have it both ways,” he said. Silver answered that ownership was not her worry. She was worried about the charge that Feng used his post as president of his brother-in-law’s company to stand up a direct competitor, taking people and know-how with him. Scherer called most of the accusations baseless. Silver still wanted a judge, not a gaming commission, to sort that file.

That is the hidden party in this license. Chun does not appear on Empire’s stock. He does appear in the complaint, in the funding questions, and in Solis-Rainey’s no. Nevada licensed Feng. It also licensed the risk that Chun’s story about him might later prove true.

What a Five-Year Cap Costs a Slot Maker

The Control Board had already boxed the company in on July 9, 2025. Staff recommended a five-year term after its investigation. The three members then split on how tight the box should be, and they only lined up after the chair moved.

THE CONTROL BOARD SPLIT

• George Assad: He called Feng extremely suitable, as he had two years earlier, and said any time limit puts a scarlet letter on the company and on Feng.
• Mike Dreitzer: The chair first wanted three years, citing cash strain and “core existential issues” in the federal case, then moved to five so the board could speak with one voice.
• Chandeni Sendall: She asked for five years and said the history made her pause on an unlimited license.

Assad joined the five-year motion for unanimity even though he thought the limit was unnecessary. “It’s a big thing whether you have a limited license or unlimited license,” he said. “The real question is suitability.”

Scherer had already told the board what the scarlet letter does in a banker’s office. Aruze was trying to refinance debt and raise working capital, and a sunset date makes that paper less attractive. “The limitation makes it less attractive for lenders to step in and provide that working capital,” he said. Feng put a number on the ask. The company wanted $30 million, not for lights-on payroll, he said, but for research, new products, and people who do not come cheap in Las Vegas. He said he would sell real estate and drop the proceeds into the business if he had to.

Commissioner Brian Krolicki voted yes on the five-year deal anyway. “I don’t know how burdensome that five-year restriction is when it comes to fundraising,” he said. He wanted the company to have time to raise the money and still answer to Nevada.

Two Watch Conditions Came With the Yes Votes

The July 24 item was nonrestricted No. 7 at the 10:00 a.m. meeting in Carson City. Empire, at 1106 Palms Airport Drive in Las Vegas, applied as a manufacturer and distributor. Feng applied as director, president, treasurer, and 100% shareholder. Tiehui Qiu applied as director and secretary. The same packet asked the commission to allow a stock option for Jeffrey Evan Harris, the Commerce Casino chief executive, under a simple agreement for future equity dated December 27, 2023.

The hearing is on video. Scherer told the commission the company already had a compliance committee, including people who had worked at the Control Board, and that it had taken no regulatory sanctions.

The limited and conditioned Nevada license the commission posted after the vote matches the board’s recommendation. Solis-Rainey is recorded as the no.

THE JULY 24 LICENSE ORDER

Those two conditions are the price of the yes votes. The committee is supposed to test who the company does business with. The fund lets agents keep looking if Chun, Paradise, or some other related party shows up in the wiring again. Empire had already been down this road. In July 2023, before the Aruze name was even on the door, the commission gave Empire and Feng a two-year limited license. The company had just received manufacturer and distributor gaming licenses under the Play Synergy name, then closed on the Aruze Gaming America slot assets on August 16, 2023, after a June 15 bankruptcy auction.

Slot Sales Climbed While the Company Still Lost Money

Feng’s pitch was that the factory is working even if the license looks tagged. He told the Control Board the two years since 2023 had been quite a journey. He also said the hangover from the old bankruptcy still follows the brand around the floor.

THE FOOTPRINT TAKEN TO CARSON CITY

• Nevada staff: 80 to 90 people in the state, about 350 worldwide, Feng said in July 2025.
• Nevada boxes: More than 500 units placed in more than 50 casinos, and 2,400 units in the state when machines inherited from Aruze Gaming America are counted.
• North America: 2,700 units sold or leased in more than 120 licensed locations.
• World: More than 4,700 units in about 200 locations, licenses in more than 150 jurisdictions, and, Scherer said, no regulatory violations in that run.

Revenue is the other half of that pitch. Two years before the hearing, Feng said, the business did $16 million to $18 million. In 2024, the first full year as Aruze Gaming Global, it did $50 million. He told both the board and the commission he expected more than a 50% increase in 2025. He also said last-month new-game performance had sat at No. 2, behind Aristocrat, and that titles were landing in the top 25 of industry reports.

The commission still had to weigh the other column. The company had operated at a loss since 2022, and it was trying to become profitable while asking investors for $30 million it hoped to finish by the end of 2025. Krolicki called the headcount and the unit counts a great story. He still wanted Nevada’s licensees in a good place. In August 2025, a month after the vote, Feng named Srini Adiraju, a former Scientific Games platform engineer, as chief technology officer. By March 2026 Empire was still advertising finance staff in Las Vegas. The shop did not freeze. It also did not walk out of Carson City with a clean bill.

In Federal Court, the Family Fight Kept Going

Scherer had warned the Control Board the Paradise case was a domestic dispute about control and could run more than five years. A March 2026 order from Judge Mahan shows why that warning still hangs over the July 2030 renewal. The court refused to throw out the trade-secret counts. It did cut some copyright claims. The copyright counts brought by LT Game Inc. and LT Game Limited were dismissed with prejudice. Paradise’s copyright count against two individuals and a logistics affiliate was dismissed without prejudice. Copying claims against Empire and Feng were allowed to go on at that stage. In short, the trade-secret claims were left standing, which is the pile Silver had flagged as a suitability problem if a fact-finder later agrees with Paradise.

The docket did not go quiet after that order. On July 2, 2026, the defendants were still filing a joint motion to seal. Mahan has not, on that record, declared a winner. Chun, for his part, spent the first half of 2026 buying more of Paradise. Share disclosures show his long position rose to 65.36% after purchases totaling about HK$32.88 million (US$4.2 million). He is not on Empire’s cap table. He is still the man whose company is suing the man Nevada just relicensed.

FROM BANKRUPTCY COURT TO A FIVE-YEAR LEASH

1. February 1, 2023: Aruze Gaming America files Chapter 11 in Nevada, case 2:23-bk-10356, before Judge August B. Landis.
2. June 15, 2023: A section 363 auction splits the estate. Empire takes slot and iGaming assets. Interblock takes electronic table-game assets.
3. July 2023: The commission grants Empire and Feng two-year limited licenses. Play Synergy is the name on the paper.
4. August 16, 2023: Empire closes the Aruze asset buy and later files the Aruze Gaming Global fictitious name.
5. March 1, 2024: Paradise and LT Game sue Empire, Feng, and others in federal court in Las Vegas.
6. July 9, 2025: The Control Board recommends five-year limited licenses for Empire, Feng, and Qiu.
7. July 24, 2025: The commission approves that package 4-1, with Solis-Rainey opposed.
8. March 2026: Mahan’s 12(c) order knocks out some copyright claims and keeps the trade-secret case alive.
9. July 2, 2026: The parties are still litigating sealed filings. The next hard Nevada date remains the July 2030 meeting.

Feng told the commission that over the next couple of years the company would be very successful and a proud Nevada company. The order he took home is shorter than that speech. It lets Aruze keep its place on the floor. It also keeps Chun’s complaint, and Solis-Rainey’s distrust, inside the file Nevada will open again in 2030.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Does Aruze Gaming Global’s Nevada License Expire?

The commission’s written disposition does not use a calendar day in 2030. It runs the limited licenses for Empire, Feng, and Qiu until midnight of the July 2030 Nevada Gaming Commission meeting on the day that renewal item is actually heard, so the last hour depends on that month’s agenda, not on July 24.

Where Is Aruze Gaming Global’s Nevada Shop?

The July 2025 agenda lists the manufacturer and distributor at 1106 Palms Airport Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119, the address tied to license files 34596-01 (manufacturer) and 34597-01 (distributor) and to holding account 33934-01.

Who Is Jeffrey Evan Harris in the Aruze File?

Harris is the chief executive and president of Commerce Casino in California. The same July 24 item that relicensed Empire asked the commission to let the company issue him a stock option to buy equity, tied to a simple agreement for future equity dated December 27, 2023. The Control Board had already recommended that piece.

How Long Did Frank Feng Run Paradise’s U.S. Arm?

Judge Mahan’s March 2026 order recites Paradise’s own pleading: Jay Chun hired Feng in 2008 as Paradise’s North American representative, then had him manage LT Game Inc. as president, secretary, and sole director from February 19, 2008, through February 28, 2022. Empire, the order notes, was first incorporated in the British Virgin Islands as LT Game International.

Is Aruze Gaming Global the Same Company That Went Bankrupt?

No. Aruze Gaming America Inc. is the Chapter 11 debtor in case 2:23-bk-10356. Empire bought specified slot and iGaming assets out of that estate and later adopted the Aruze Gaming Global name. The old corporation, the new owner, and Universal Entertainment’s separate Aruze USA unit are not the same legal person, which is why Nevada investigated Feng’s money and Chun’s lawsuit instead of treating the brand as a single unbroken licensee.

The machines can stay plugged in. The relatives who used to share a payroll still have a trial date to argue over, and Nevada put a five-year alarm on the license until that argument is no longer a guess.