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Global gaming firm International Game Technology (IGT) and the Virginia Lottery are vibing. The two partners agreed to extend their contract for another three years, making IGT the Virginia Lottery’s platform provider through October 2033.
The lottery’s interim director, Tony R. Russell, said the 23-year partnership between the two parties has helped the Virginia Lottery stay relevant and provide millions to the state’s education system.
The updates IGT will introduce as part of its new contract are slated to go live in October 2025.
New contract will introduce new software, machines, progressive jackpot
Under the terms of the new deal, IGT will make some important improvements to the Virginia Lottery. Primarily, it will replace 5,500 lottery terminals with IGT’s Retailer Pro S2 machines.
The big advantage of the new terminals is that the lottery can update multiple machines at once instead of each machine individually.
The last time IGT announced a machine overhaul this big was in 2016. That’s when the Virginia Lottery received a new fleet of IGT’s Altura Flex terminals.
In addition to the new Retailer Pro S2s, the lottery will launch a progressive jackpot to the lottery’s Print ‘n Play games.
Progressive jackpots are popular in casinos, where a centralized jackpot connected to multiple machines grows incrementally each time someone plays a slot but doesn’t win the progressive jackpot. Progressives act as a way to draw players in through the prospect of winning big.
The final aspect of IGT’s new contract is upgrading the lottery’s central software system. IGT Chief Operating Officer for Global Lottery Jay Gendron said in an IGT news release:
“IGT has worked closely with the Virginia Lottery for more than 20 years to deliver world-class, innovative lottery solutions and services. The upgraded technology being deployed for the Virginia Lottery as part of our latest extension will offer increased flexibility for the Lottery to easily manage its back-end operations.
Additionally, the introduction of a progressive jackpot feature to the Lottery’s Print ‘n Play games will provide players with engaging new experiences.”
How will the IGT contract extension help Virginia Lottery sales?
The new software and machines will likely help the lottery be more efficient on the backend. Introducing a progressive jackpot should, in theory, bring in more customers and retain existing ones.
The combination of those improvements should push Virginia Lottery revenue to record-breaking levels. The lottery broke its fiscal-year sales record in 2023, topping $4 billion for the first time.
If the lottery’s growth continues, the new improvements slated for 2025 could push sales into the neighborhood of $5.5 billion. Russell said: “Since first partnering with the Virginia Lottery in 2000, IGT has helped us responsibly modernize our lottery offerings and drive sales growth for our business.
We look forward to IGT’s enhancements to our system and point-of-sale technology that will ultimately support our mission to generate revenue for Virginia’s K-12 public education.”
