The Board of Australian slot machine supplier Ainsworth Game Technology (AGT) says it will review the role of its CEO, Harald Neumann, after the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) recommended he withdraw his application for license renewal in the state.
Failure to be licensed in Nevada, home of critically important gambling hub Las Vegas, would likely render Neumann’s position untenable given that the United States remains AGT’s number one market.
In a filing, AGT said a meeting before the NGCB was held on Wednesday – part of a requirement for officers to be relicensed every five years – at which Neumann’s application “was referred back to NGCB staff, including a recommendation that Mr Neumann withdraw his application”.
AGT Chairman Danny Gladstone added, “The Board is undertaking a review of Mr Neumann’s role following the outcome of the NGCB’s meeting and will provide further details to the market once this review is completed.”
No reason for the recommendation was provided, however it comes after Australian media outlets recently reported on an ongoing investigation into Neumann in his home country of Austria in relation to alleged bribery and illicit political funding during his time as CEO of Austrian gaming giant Novomatic.
Specifically, the investigations include allegations that Novomatic offered donations to the right-wing Austrian People’s Party in return for assistance in a case against the company in Italy.
Austria’s Public Prosecutions Office stated in 2021 that the investigations were “based on the suspicion that a responsible person at a gambling company offered donations to a political party in return for support from officials of the Republic of Austria in a tax claim case abroad which is threatening the company.”
Neumann is alleged to be that “responsible person” although he has denied all allegations.
AGT also issued a statement in June claiming that it did not previously feel obliged to inform the market of bribery allegations aired against Neumann by media outlets back in Austria prior to his appointment as AGT CEO in 2001 because those allegations were not supported by “factual evidence”.
The fact that the case surfaced in Australia earlier this year was also notable given that AGT had only months earlier announced a plan to enter a Scheme of Agreement with Novomatic – which owns a controlling 52.9% stake in the company – for Novomatic to acquire all outstanding AGT shares as part of an AU$158.6 million (US$102 million) takeover agreement.
That plan was publicly opposed by a bloc of shareholders that included Kjerulf Ainsworth – the sixth son of company founder Len Ainsworth and AGT’s second largest individual shareholder with a 12% stake.
Novomatic later abandoned the Scheme of Arrangement and launched an unconditional takeover bid instead that has since seen it lift its stake in AGT above 60%.
Notably, the Chairman of the NGCB, Mike Dreitzer, was previously President of Ainsworth Americas. He was appointed to head the Nevada regulator in June.
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