Len Ainsworth, the affable Australian who has launched two successful slot manufacturing companies, turned 90 July 11.
Ainsworth built his first slot machine in 1953, while working in his family’s dental equipment company. He parlayed that into Aristocrat Leisure Industries, which remains one of the top slot-makers today.
After leaving Aristocrat in 1994, he launched Ainsworth Game Technology a year later. The company, which Ainsworth still heads as executive chairman, has captured a 35 percent share of its home Australian market, as well as big shares of markets in Asia and elsewhere and, most recently, making inroads in the North American market. Ainsworth stock has risen 145 percent in the past year, making Len Ainsworth a billionaire all over again.
Asked by the Australian publication BRW how he was going to spend his birthday, the indefatigable Ainsworth replied, “At work! I’m going to go to work in the normal fashion, but tomorrow night I’m having a bit of a party.”
The publication reported that the “bit of a party” included around 400 guests.
