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Description of the Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Description of the Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Description of the Business
We are a leading cross-platform global games company with a focus on content and digital markets. Our portfolio of revenue-generating activities in our continuing operations primarily includes supplying game content and gaming machines, CMSs and table game products and services to licensed gaming entities; providing social casino and other mobile games, including casual gaming, to retail customers; and providing a comprehensive suite of digital gaming content, distribution platforms, player account management systems, as well as various other iGaming content and services. We report our results of continuing operations in three business segments—Gaming, SciPlay and iGaming—representing our different products and services.
Effective April 28, 2022, we changed our name to Light & Wonder, Inc. This change is in part due to the sale of the Lottery Business that will continue to use our previous name, Scientific Games, and also to align with our vision of becoming a leading cross-platform global games company.
During the second quarter of 2022, we completed the sale of the Lottery Business and received $5.7 billion in gross cash proceeds. During the third quarter of 2022, we completed the sale of the Sports Betting Business and received $793 million in gross proceeds, consisting of $747 million in gross cash proceeds (adjusted for final closing statement adjustments of $3 million in the fourth quarter of 2022) and $46 million in fair value of Class A common stock of Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (“Endeavor”) (approximately 2.3 million shares). Prior to the Divestitures, our discontinued operations portfolio of revenue-generating activities included providing instant and draw-based lottery products, lottery systems and lottery content and services to lottery operators along with providing sports wagering solutions to various gaming entities.
We have reflected the financial results of the Divested Businesses as discontinued operations in our consolidated statements of operations for all periods presented and the assets and liabilities of these businesses as held for sale in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2021. Refer to Note 2 for further information. Unless otherwise noted, amounts and disclosures included herein relate to our continuing operations.
Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation
The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of L&W, its wholly owned subsidiaries, and those subsidiaries in which we have a controlling financial interest. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.    
Significant Accounting Policies
Additional accounting policy disclosures are provided within the applicable Notes.
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents include all cash balances and highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less. We place our temporary cash investments with high credit quality financial institutions. At times, such investments in U.S. accounts may be in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limit.
Restricted cash
We are required by gaming regulations to maintain sufficient reserves in restricted cash accounts to be used for the purpose of funding payments to WAP jackpot winners. These restricted cash balances are based primarily on the jackpot meters displayed to slot players or for previously won jackpots and vary by jurisdiction. Compliance with maintaining adequate restricted cash balances and complying with appropriate investment guidelines for jackpot funding is periodically reported to gaming authorities.
Minimum guarantees under licensing agreements
We enter into long-term license agreements with third parties in which we are obligated to pay a minimum guaranteed amount of royalties, typically periodically over the life of the contract. These license agreements provide us with access to a portfolio of major brands to be used across our business segments in building our strong brand presence across multiple channels of distributions. We account for the minimum guaranteed obligations within accrued and other long-term liabilities at the onset of the license arrangement and record a corresponding licensed asset within intangible assets, net. The licensed intangible assets related to the minimum guaranteed obligations are amortized over the term of the license agreement with the amortization expense recorded in D&A. The long-term liability related to the minimum guaranteed obligations is reduced as payments are made as required under the license agreement. We assess the recoverability of license agreements whenever events arise or circumstances change that indicate the carrying value of the licensed asset may not be recoverable. Recoverability of the licensed asset and the amount of impairment, if any, are determined using our policy for intangible assets with finite useful lives.
Amortization expense related to these licenses and recorded in D&A for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020 was $34 million, $40 million and $60 million, respectively.
    The following are our total minimum guaranteed obligations for the periods presented:
As of December 31,
 20222021
Current liabilities$27 $35 
Other long-term liabilities78 70 
Total minimum guarantee obligations$105 $105 
Weighted average remaining term (in years)44
The following are our remaining expected future payments of minimum guarantee obligations:
Year Ending December 31,
20232024202520262027After 2027
Expected future payments$27 $28 $29 $11 $10 $— 
Other assets
We capitalize debt issuance costs associated with long-term line-of-credit arrangements and amortize such amounts ratably over the term of the arrangement as an adjustment to interest expense.
We assess the recoverability of our other long-term assets whenever events arise or circumstances change that indicate the carrying value of the asset may not be recoverable.     
Noncontrolling interest
In May 2019, SciPlay completed an initial public offering in which it issued Class A common stock, traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SCPL,” and Class B common stock wholly owned by L&W and, as of December 31, 2022, represented approximately 82.4% of SciPlay’s total outstanding shares of common stock and approximately 97.9% of the combined voting power of both classes of SciPlay’s outstanding common stock. Accordingly, we continue to control shares representing a majority of the combined voting power in SciPlay and continue to have a controlling financial interest in and consolidate SciPlay. The noncontrolling interest share of equity in SciPlay is reflected as noncontrolling interest in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and was $171 million and $150 million as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Advertising costs
The cost of advertising is expensed as incurred and totaled $162 million, $124 million and $123 million in 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
R&D
R&D relates primarily to software product development costs incurred until technological feasibility has been established and costs that do not meet internal-use software capitalization criteria. Employee-related costs associated with product development are included in R&D. Such costs are expensed as incurred.
Foreign currency translation
We have significant operations where the local currency is the functional currency, including our operations in the U.K., Europe, Australia and Canada. Assets and liabilities of foreign operations are translated at period-end rates of exchange and results of operations are translated at the average rates of exchange for the period. Gains or losses resulting from translating the foreign currency financial statements are accumulated as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in stockholders’ equity (deficit). Gains or losses resulting from foreign currency transactions are included in other income (expense), net.
Comprehensive income (loss)
We include and classify in comprehensive income (loss) unrealized gains and losses from our foreign currency translation adjustments and the effective portion of derivative financial instruments designated as hedging instruments. We also include, as it relates to previous activity, net investment non-derivative hedge of our investments in certain of our international subsidiaries and certain gains or losses associated with pension or other post-retirement benefits, including prior service costs or credits and transition assets or obligations.
New Accounting Guidance - Recently Adopted
The FASB issued ASU No. 2021-08, Business Combinations (Topic 805): Accounting for Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities from Contracts with Customers, in October 2021. The new guidance requires that an acquirer recognize and measure contract assets and contract liabilities acquired in a business combination in accordance with revenue recognition guidance. We adopted this standard during the third quarter of 2022 on a retrospective basis for the current fiscal year. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.
New Accounting Guidance - Not Yet Adopted
The FASB issued ASU No. 2020-04 and subsequently ASU No. 2021-01 and ASU No. 2022-06, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848) in March 2020, January 2021 and December 2022, respectively. The new guidance provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contract modifications and hedging relationships, including derivative instruments impacted by changes in the interest rates used for discounting cash flows for computing variable margin settlements, subject to meeting certain criteria, that reference LIBOR or other reference rates expected to be discontinued by June 2023. The ASUs establish certain contract modification principles that entities can apply in other areas that may be affected by reference rate reform and certain elective hedge accounting expedients and exceptions. The ASUs may be applied prospectively. Based on our assessment, we do not expect the adoption of this guidance to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.
We do not expect that any other recently issued accounting guidance will have a significant effect on our consolidated financial statements.