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International Game Technology (IGT) is arguably one of the most important gambling companies operating today. It’s definitely one of the most powerful; with an annual revenue, for 2023, at $4.31 billion, and growth at 2.04%.
For the stock market gamblers, the form of IGT is looking good.
This is the business that brought the world video poker and some of the best progressive jackpot slots. If you’ve ever spun the slots at a casino, scratched an instant win lottery card, or played a progressive jackpot game, online or at the casino, you have almost certainly played an IGT game.
Today, IGT employs more than 10,500 people, with offices in Las Vegas, Reno, London, and Rome. It hasn’t always been like that.
Rewind to the late 1930s and we find ourselves in the company of jukebox entrepreneur William Silas ‘Si’ Redd, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers Marvin and Nannie Redd.
Si Redd would ultimately become one of the most influential people in casino gambling. His ideas and innovations were ground-breaking and game-changing.
As Steve Wynn, Howard Hughes, Benny Binion, and Kirk Kerkorian remodeled the casino exteriors, Si Redd was under the hood rebuilding and reshaping the engine. Si Redd is the man who built IGT.
Pinball & Jukeboxes
Si Redd was a man who lived the American Dream. From the humblest of beginnings, in the poorest of states, Redd was an entrepreneur, happy to get his hands dirty and do the work.
Redd was an average student with a great eye for a business opportunity. His first business set the stage for the future.
Still in his early 20s, Redd saw first-hand how popular the old-fashioned-style pinball machines were. Players would bet money on these bagatelle-style games; whoever scored the most points would win. Some bars also (illegally) paid out winnings on the highest scores.
Also appearing in bars and saloons around the state were early Wurlitzer jukeboxes aka automatic phonographs. Redd spotted an opportunity, when Wurlitzer wanted to unload 150 redundant models.
Redd bought them up, founded his first business – the Northwestern Music Co. – and distributed them in Wisconsin, Iowa, and the suburbs of Chicago.
- By the end of the war, the Redd family had moved to Boston, Massachusetts and established the Redd Distribution Company.
- The company installed all manner of coin-operated machinery, including horse racing games, bingo games, arcade games, shooting games, coffee vending machines, and – of course – jukeboxes.
The Bally Years
It’s 1966. Si Redd is fifty-six years old. He’s contemplating retirement; but every time he slows down, he gets bored. He meets up with Bally.
The business is desperate to distribute its brand-new Money Honey slot machine. It’s the world’s first electromechanical machine and a classic one-arm bandit.
Bally needed someone to get their new slot machine into the only state in America where betting was legal. Bally directors Sam Klein and William O’Donnell had mob connections; this stopped Bally getting a license. Step in Si Redd.
Redd’s reputation as the King of the Coin Ops was secure. Bally wanted him on board. He moved his family to Reno and set up Si Redd’s Bally Distribution.
Redd loved the Big Bertha-style slot machines and this is where he would make his first significant contribution to slots and casino gambling.
- Redd was convinced that the slots needed to be more liberal with jackpots and pay-outs.
- His theory was that the machines should have a 99% pay-out ratio; today known as the Return To Player (RTP).
- This liberal innovation drew millions of people to the slots who would never have normally wasted a coin on one.
The Genius Move
It’s the 1970s. If business is a gamble, then Si Redd is about to roll some big winners. Some bad decisions at Bally, combined with small print mastery, canny clauses, and faith in the future, would take Redd to the next level.
Let’s unpack: Redd was making big money distributing Bally slot machines nationwide. Bally wanted the distribution back and decided to buy Redd out.
Meanwhile, Redd loved the 1970s game Pong. He had been working with a Bally engineer, developing various basic video games, including keno, blackjack, and poker.
Bally was still stuck in the electromechanical world of slots. The company wasn’t interested in microprocessor-powered games.
Redd agreed to give up the slots distribution rights, only if he could retain the rights to the new electronic games. He promised not to compete with Bally on the slots. Bally agreed.
In fact, in an interview, he knew Bally didn’t what they were giving away and that he “saw them coming”.
Video Poker Revolution
Now, Redd has a mountain of ‘buy-out’ bucks and exclusive rights to exploit and distribute his new patented electronic games. He went on to buy a company called Fortune Coin, which were developing video slots, as well as any other companies developing video slots.
The new business was called A-I Supply, Fortune and Casino Services. In 1978, the business was rebranded as SIRCOMA (SI Redd’s COin MAchines).
- Video Poker was an instant hit and felt more like a casino game than a slot.
- Players got two deals of up to five cards.
- They could choose what cards to keep and discard, in the bid to create a winning hand.
- It was the perfect game for the nervous casino visitor; too self-conscious to step up to a real blackjack or poker table
SIRCOMA was selling the games to casinos at $12,000 a piece. Slots cost only $2,000.
For Redd, business had never been better, while Bally was kicking itself. Video Poker was a sensation, and dominated at the casino. Redd hit the jackpot and a gaming giant was about to be born.
If you fancy having a go at the game, you can learn video poker strategy with our guide.
Making IGT History
In 1981, Redd took SIRCOMA public; having renamed his business International Gaming Technology (IGT), a year earlier.
The video poker and slots revolution was underway. Before the game hit the casinos of Las Vegas, traditional slots accounted for 40% of revenue. Today, it sits at about 75% nationwide.
Bally tried to hit back with a color version of video poker in 1981. Redd sued, got an injunction and $2.5 million in damages.
When the agreement between Bally and Redd did finally terminate, Bally discovered that IGT had been busy developing new slots. IGT came in swinging and spinning. Bally had no chance. They were no longer the market leaders.
IGT would innovate and absorb the competition in the coming years. In 1984, IGT acquired Electronic Data Technologies; a company specializing in player tracking. The technology was the foundation of the player reward programs so ubiquitous today.
Megabucks = Mega Bucks
If video poker was the making of IGT, the next innovation would be its crowning achievement. In 1986, Si Redd celebrated his 75th birthday and took on the role of president and CEO at IGT.
It’s also the year that the world’s first progressive slot machine went live. You can see the current best online slots for real money in the US here.
- Megabucks was a progressive slot that used phone lines to connect more than 30 Nevada casinos, hosting the game, to a giant computer at the IGT offices in Las Vegas.
- The linked jackpot would increase rapidly – progressively – as players spun the reels in every connected casino.
- In the first year, there was only one jackpot winner. IGT revamped the game to enable more frequent – but smaller – jackpots.
- The slot was a huge success, drawing crowds with the promise of a life-changing jackpot win.
At the end of the year, Redd sold his controlling interest in IGT and took the chairman’s role at rival lottery ticket manufacturer Syntech International, Inc. Redd was still a player.
IGT Spinning to Success
By 1988, IGT had secured 60% of the Nevada slots market and 25% of the international market, with machines in Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Monte Carlo.
By 1991, IGT controlled more than half the total North American market. The growth of Native American-operated and riverboat casinos drove the business forward.
- It was in 1991, at the age of 79, that Si Redd resigned from the IGT board on health concerns.
- Two years later, got approval from gaming regulators to run a hotel casino in Mesquite and start a new slot machine company.
- By 2000, IGT was achieving more than $1 billion in annual sales.
New innovations included ticket in/ticket out slots, the Wheel of Fortune slots, and significant inroads into the online slots market, by acquisition.
In 2003, Si Redd died at age 92 in his Solana Beach home, in California. He was the man who looked at the machines and said: “I saw the opportunity.”
Two years prior to his death he was still doing deals. He had sold his 1,000 room Mesquite Hotel – Si Redd’s Oasis – for a reported £31 million. A businessman to the very end.
IGT Today
For the next 20 years, IGT continued to acquire and expand. Its core strengths being lottery, gaming, and digital platforms.
Already dominant in the world of hardware gaming, IGT is focused on the online gaming sector, with a portfolio of award-winning omni-channel content and technology offerings.
In July 2024, IGT announced that its gaming and digital business was to be acquired by Apollo Global Management, in a cash transaction worth $6.3 billion.
IGT was already in the process of merging with casino tech giants Everi. Now both businesses will partner with Apollo in a ‘positive evolution’, according to IGT CEO Vince Sadusky.
IGT is a gaming behemoth; created by a man who loved technology and innovation. From the humble jukebox, to a billion-dollar business, Si Redd is IGT; a bona fide visionary.
It’s sad that when you search for his name on the official IGT website, there are no results.
Maybe, in the next stage of this giant’s evolution, they will remember the man who made it all possible. The Slot Machine King is dead. Long live the Slot Machine King.
References
- https://eu.rgj.com/story/money/business/2014/07/16/timeline-igt-years/12728037/ (Reno Gazette Journal)
- https://lasvegassun.com/news/2001/jun/25/payback-gaming-pioneer-redd-looks-back-on-a-lifeti/ (Las Vegas Sun)
- https://kettlemag.co.uk/william-si-redd-the-king-of-the-slots/ (Kettle Mag)
- https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-19-me-redd19-story.html (LA Times)
- https://lasvegassun.com/news/2001/jun/07/casino-sale-okd-despite-monopoly-concerns/ (Las Vegas Sun)
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/international-game-technology (Encyclopedia.com)
