IGT Casinos and Games: Who Owns IGT, MegaJackpots and RTP

IGT casinos are casinos that carry games from IGT (International Game Technology), the maker of Cleopatra, Wolf Run, Wheel of Fortune slots and the Megabucks progressive. IGT’s story starts in 1975, and since 1 July 2025 its gaming and digital business has been privately owned by Apollo funds, combined with Everi and headquartered in Las Vegas. Online, IGT’s games are supplied by IGT PlayDigital to licensed casinos in regulated markets such as seven US states and several Canadian provinces. This page explains who IGT is today, where its online games are legal, how to check a game’s RTP, and why we show no casino list here.

We checked IGT’s, Apollo’s and IGT PlayDigital’s own pages on 8 October 2026. IGT does not publish public RTP sheets for its online slots, so we give you the method for reading the figure in the game rather than copying numbers from third-party sites.

Who IGT is today

The IGT name now belongs to a different company from the one most players knew. Until mid-2025, International Game Technology PLC was a listed group with two halves: lottery, and gaming plus digital. On 1 July 2025, funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management completed the purchase of IGT’s Gaming and Digital business and combined it with Everi Holdings, in a deal Apollo valued at about 6.3 billion US dollars. The combined, privately held company operates under the IGT name, is headquartered in Las Vegas, and keeps the Everi brand in some markets and product lines.

The lottery half stayed with the listed company and was renamed Brightstar Lottery, which began trading as BRSL on 2 July 2025. So if you read about “IGT” lotteries today, that is Brightstar; slot machines, online casino content and the PlayDigital business are the new, private IGT.

Corrections to the old page

Our previous version of this page said “In 2015 IGT merged with Gtech” and “IGT holds UKGC and MGA”. On the merger it was close: GTECH agreed to combine with IGT in July 2014 and completed the deal on 7 April 2015, creating International Game Technology PLC. That company no longer exists in the same form after the 2025 split. The licence claim was too broad to keep: licences are held by specific IGT entities in each market, and the right check is the regulator’s own register for the casino you play at. We also removed the claims of “over 560 games” and “15 international awards”, which we could not source.

A short history of IGT

The thread running through the history is that IGT has always been a machine maker first. Its products defined what a modern casino floor looks like: video poker, linked progressives and licensed brands. Online play is a newer and smaller part of the business, and that shapes how the games behave online.

What IGT is known for

Video poker. IGT and its predecessor helped turn video poker into a standard casino game, starting with the Draw Poker machine at the end of the 1970s. Many of the classic pay tables players still learn come from IGT machines. Our video poker guide shows how to tell a full-pay table from a reduced one.

Wide-area progressives. Megabucks, launched in Nevada in 1986, linked machines across many casinos into one jackpot pool. That model is why IGT jackpots can reach sums no single casino could fund. Online, IGT applies the same idea through MegaJackpots. Our page on progressive slots explains how such pools are funded.

Licensed brands. The Wheel of Fortune slot, launched in 1996 under licence from the TV game show, became one of the most successful slot brands ever made, and IGT has built many follow-ups on it.

Cleopatra. The Cleopatra family, with its Egyptian theme and free spins with a multiplier, is IGT’s best-known video slot and appears both on casino floors and online, including in MegaJackpots versions.

Notable IGT games

Because IGT does not publish public RTP or volatility sheets for its online games, the table describes each game and where it sits in IGT’s catalogue rather than quoting a return figure we cannot source.

MegaJackpots: IGT’s online progressive network

On 13 September 2018 IGT launched MegaJackpots in New Jersey, which it described as the first cross-platform online wide-area progressive in the US. The first games were MegaJackpots Cleopatra and MegaJackpots Siberian Storm, offered through CaesarsCasino.com, HardRockCasino.com, MoheganSunCasino.com and ResortsCasino.com. By October 2021 IGT said New Jersey players could choose from themes including Cleopatra, Golden Goddess, Ocean Belles and Siberian Storm, and in January 2023 it introduced MegaJackpots titles including Cleopatra and Wolf Run in Alberta.

A wide-area progressive works by taking a small share of every qualifying stake into a shared pool. That share is not available for ordinary wins, so the base-game return of a MegaJackpots version is lower than that of the same game without the jackpot. Pools are set up per market and operator group under each regulator’s rules; a New Jersey pool is not the same pool as one in another state or province.

Video poker: why the pay table matters more than the brand

IGT’s video poker heritage is the best place to see how much small rule changes move the return. In Jacks or Better, the payouts for a full house and a flush define the game. With perfect strategy, the long-run return for common pay tables is:

The machine looks identical in every case; only two numbers on the pay table change, and the return drops by four and a half points from top to bottom. Online video poker at regulated casinos shows the pay table on screen, so you can check it in seconds. The same logic applies to slots, except that a slot hides its maths in the rules screen rather than on the glass.

How a wide-area progressive is funded: an illustration

The numbers below are an illustration, not IGT’s figures, which are set per game and per market. Suppose a linked jackpot game returns 92% in total and 2 points of that go to the jackpot pool. On every 100 dollars staked, 90 dollars are paid back as ordinary wins on average, 2 dollars go into the pool, and 8 dollars are the house’s margin. A player who never hits the jackpot experiences a 90% game. The pool keeps growing until one player, somewhere on the network, collects it.

This is why jackpot versions feel tighter in normal play and why the headline RTP of a jackpot game is not the number most players actually experience. If the jackpot is the reason you play, make sure your stake qualifies for it; if it is not, the non-jackpot version is usually the better deal.

Land-based and online RTP are not the same thing

On a casino floor, the payback of an IGT machine is set by the casino within the limits of state law, and players usually cannot see it. New Jersey, for example, requires slot machines to return at least 83% (N.J.A.C. 13:69E-1.28A). Online games are different: regulated online casinos publish the theoretical return in each game’s rules, so you can check it before you play.

That is why the same IGT title can have several RTPs. A land-based Cleopatra cabinet, an online Cleopatra and a MegaJackpots Cleopatra are different maths configurations. When a review site quotes one RTP for “Cleopatra”, it is describing one version, which may not be the one at your casino.

How to check an IGT game’s RTP at an online casino

1. Open the game at a licensed online casino; use demo mode if it is offered.
2. Open the help or game rules screen, usually through an “i” or menu icon.
3. Find the theoretical return to player. On jackpot versions, the rules usually state whether the figure includes the jackpot contribution.
4. Compare the jackpot and non-jackpot versions of the same theme if the casino offers both. The non-jackpot version normally has the higher base return.
5. If the rules show no RTP at all, play at a licensed casino that does show it./li>

The difference is worth the minute it takes. On 1,000 dollars of total spins, a 96% game has an expected cost of 40 dollars, a 92% game 80 dollars. RTP is a long-run average; any single session can land far from it.

Where IGT’s online games are available

IGT PlayDigital lists its online casino content by jurisdiction. In March 2024 IGT announced that its content was live in all seven US states with regulated online casinos. Its jurisdiction list also includes several Canadian markets.

US law is the key point for American readers. Eight states have legalised online casinos; seven markets are live (NJ, PA, MI, WV, CT, DE, RI); Maine legalised a tribal-only market (LD 1164 became law without the governor’s signature in January 2026, effective 29 July 2026) that has not launched as of October 2026. Outside those states, real-money online casino play is not offered by state-licensed operators.

Why the Brightstar split matters to players

For most players the 2025 split changes little on screen: the games still carry the IGT logo and the same titles are still available. It matters in two ways. First, news and corporate information about IGT’s slots now come from a private company, while results published by Brightstar Lottery cover lotteries, not casino games. Second, the IGT name now sits next to Everi, which brings cash-access and loyalty systems used in land-based casinos, so IGT’s business is broader than slot content alone.

If you see “IGT” on a lottery ticket or a state lottery’s website, that refers to the lottery systems business that became Brightstar. If you see it on a slot, it is the Apollo-owned IGT.

IGT games in Canada

Canada regulates gambling province by province. Ontario has an open, licensed iGaming market run through iGaming Ontario and the AGCO, alongside the lottery corporation OLG; most other provinces offer online casino games mainly through their own lottery corporations. IGT PlayDigital lists Ontario (commercial operators and OLG), Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation among its jurisdictions. If you play in Ontario, check that the site is registered with iGaming Ontario; elsewhere, the provincial lottery site is the regulated option.

Safer-play tools at state-licensed casinos

One practical advantage of playing IGT games at a state-licensed US casino is the protection that comes with the licence. Regulated sites must verify your age and location, offer deposit and time limits, and honour state self-exclusion programmes. They also have to resolve complaints under the state regulator’s rules, and you can escalate a dispute to that regulator. None of that applies at an offshore site serving players from outside the legal states.

A warning about offshore “IGT casinos”

Some offshore casinos that accept US players advertise “IGT slots”. IGT’s own jurisdiction list names regulated markets, and an unlicensed site serving a state without legal online casinos is not one of them. Games on such sites may be unauthorised copies or come through unclear routes, the operator answers to no US regulator, and you have no state-level complaint route if a withdrawal is refused. If you are in the US, play only at a casino licensed by your state’s regulator; each state publishes a list of licensed operators.

IGT on the casino floor versus online

Many IGT titles started as cabinets, and the online versions are adaptations rather than copies. On the floor, a game may be offered in several denominations, with different line counts and bet multipliers, and the casino chooses the payback setting from a range the regulator allows. Online, the game is redrawn for a phone or desktop screen, the bet range is set in dollars rather than credits, and the RTP is fixed by the configuration the online casino has licensed.

So a player who knows Cleopatra from a Las Vegas casino should not assume the online game pays the same, or plays at the same pace. Free-spin counts, multipliers and jackpot features can all differ between the cabinet and the online build. The rules screen is the only reliable description of the version in front of you.

Bonuses at state-licensed casinos

US state-licensed casinos often attach deposit matches or bonus spins to popular IGT titles. The regulated market brings clearer terms than offshore sites, but the maths still applies. A 100 dollar bonus with 15x playthrough means 1,500 dollars of wagers; on a 94% game, the expected cost of that play is 90 dollars, most of the bonus. Games also count differently towards playthrough: slots usually count in full, while table games and video poker often count at a reduced rate or not at all. Read the game-weighting table in the promotion terms before you choose what to play.

Jackpot wins during bonus play are normally paid like any other win, but some promotions exclude jackpot games from bonus spins altogether. If a MegaJackpots title is your target, check that it is on the eligible list.

How we checked this page

Corporate and deal facts come from Apollo’s and IGT’s own announcements, the market list from IGT PlayDigital’s jurisdiction page, and the US legal-state summary and helpline from the state legislatures and the National Council on Problem Gambling, all checked on 8 October 2026. We did not copy RTP figures from review sites, because IGT does not publish them for its online games and third-party numbers often describe a different version.

Three myths about IGT slots

“A machine that has not paid for a while is due.” Every spin on a certified slot is independent, produced by a random number generator. A long losing run does not make the next spin more likely to win, online or on the casino floor. The RTP describes the average over millions of spins, not a debt the machine owes you.

“A big jackpot means it is about to drop.” A large MegaJackpots or Megabucks pool only means it has gone a long time without being won. The chance of hitting it on any one spin stays the same however big it grows. Bigger jackpots do attract more players, which is why they are won more often in absolute terms, not because the odds per spin improve.

“The casino loosens or tightens games during the day.” At a regulated online casino, the game’s maths is the certified configuration the operator has installed. Changing it means installing a different, separately approved version, not turning a dial at the weekend. What you can control is choosing a version with a higher RTP, which is what the check steps above are for.

Choosing an IGT game

Without published volatility figures, use the game’s design as a guide. Jackpot versions (MegaJackpots, Megabucks-style progressives) hold back part of the return for the pool, so the base game pays less and sessions without the jackpot are tighter. Stacked-symbol games such as Golden Goddess and Wolf Run tend to swing between quiet spells and screen-filling wins. If you want playing time on a small budget, choose a non-jackpot version and a modest stake, and read the paytable to see how much of the return sits in the bonus.

Stake size is the other lever. Lowering the bet per spin gives the bonus round more chances to arrive within your budget and smooths the ride, without changing the RTP. On jackpot games, check the qualifying bet first: if the top prize requires a higher stake than you are comfortable with, the jackpot version is the wrong choice for you, because you pay the lower base return without a real shot at the pool.

IGT compared with other studios

IGT’s closest comparison is Novomatic, the other land-based giant that moved its classics online, and in the UK and Europe Playtech is the comparable full-service supplier. For a side-by-side view of the main studios see our gaming software hub, and for the basics our slots guide.

UK players

Only operators licensed by the UK Gambling Commission may offer gambling to people in Great Britain (Gambling Act 2005), and GAMSTOP self-exclusion only covers UKGC-licensed sites. If you find IGT games at a UK casino, check that casino’s licence on the Commission’s public register before you sign up.

Where to play

We only show a casino list on studio pages when the casino’s own site or lobby shows that studio’s games. None of our partner casinos showed IGT games we could verify on 8 October 2026, and none of them accepts US players, so this page has no list. Use a casino licensed in your own state, province or country; our safe casinos guide explains how to check a licence.

Play safely

Legal age comes first: 21+ at US online casinos, 18+ or 19+ in most Canadian provinces, 18+ in the UK. Decide on a budget and set a deposit limit in your account before the first spin. Jackpot games in particular invite “one more go”, so set a time limit as well and stop when either runs out. In the US, free and confidential help is available on 1-800-MY-RESET. Ontario players can reach ConnexOntario on 1-866-531-2600, and in the UK the National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133 (GamCare). Our responsible gambling guide lists self-exclusion schemes by country.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns IGT now?

Since 1 July 2025, IGT’s gaming and digital business has been owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, combined with Everi in a privately held company that operates under the IGT name and is headquartered in Las Vegas. IGT’s former lottery business stayed with the listed company, which is now Brightstar Lottery.

What is Brightstar Lottery?

Brightstar Lottery is the new name of IGT’s global lottery business, the part of the former International Game Technology PLC that was not sold to Apollo. Its shares began trading under the ticker BRSL on 2 July 2025.

Where can I play IGT slots online legally in the US?

At state-licensed online casinos in the states that have legalised and launched online casinos. IGT says its PlayDigital content is live in all seven US iGaming states: Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. Maine has legalised a tribal-only market that has not launched as of October 2026.

What is the RTP of IGT’s Cleopatra slot?

IGT does not publish a single public RTP figure for its online Cleopatra games, and versions differ by market, by bet configuration and by whether a jackpot such as MegaJackpots is attached. Open the game rules at your casino: the theoretical return is printed there.

What is MegaJackpots?

MegaJackpots is IGT’s online wide-area progressive network. It launched in New Jersey on 13 September 2018 with MegaJackpots Cleopatra and MegaJackpots Siberian Storm, and was the first cross-platform online wide-area progressive in the US, according to IGT. More themes and markets have been added since.

Is IGT the same company as Everi?

They are now part of the same group. On 1 July 2025 Apollo-managed funds combined IGT’s gaming and digital business with Everi Holdings in one privately held company that operates under the IGT name, while keeping the Everi brand for some products and markets.

Why do IGT jackpot games feel tighter?

Because part of every qualifying stake funds the jackpot pool, the base game pays back less than the headline RTP suggests. Most players never win the top prize, so their experience is closer to the base-game return. The game rules usually state how the RTP is split.

Did IGT invent video poker?

IGT’s roots go back to the late 1970s, when its predecessor introduced the Draw Poker machine, one of the products that made video poker a casino staple. IGT later became the best-known maker of video poker machines. Our video poker guide explains how to read a pay table.