Video Poker’s Growth Spurt

Recently, pundits from various corners of the gaming industry were predicting the demise of video poker, pointing to casinos that have at best offered watered-down, higher-hold pay tables, or at worst, have removed the game altogether.

The reality is that the opposite has happened. According to a December report from Archive Market Research, the global video poker machine market has demonstrated steady growth.

 “With a market size of $572.3 million in 2025 and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9 percent projected from 2025 to 2033, the market is poised for significant expansion,” the report said.

Aristocrat, Light & Wonder, Novomatic and other suppliers have released new video poker products, notably as part of Aristocrat’s new bartop units offering slot games, video poker and keno. However, the base video poker games in all these new presentations are games introduced by the company that still dominates the genre, IGT.

It was IGT that essentially created the video poker market, with its original video poker game, Player’s Edge Video Poker—a Jacks-or-better game that came to define video poker. IGT founder Si Redd perfected the game in the 1970s. IGT development teams under then-development chief Bob Bittman later added Bonus Poker and all its derivatives, from Bonus Bonus Poker to Triple Bonus Poker, and wild-card games like Deuces Wild and Joker’s Wild.

The video poker genre achieved a rebirth in IGT’s partnership with Action Gaming and the advent of multi-hand poker games from Triple Play Poker to Hundred Play Poker.

Darnell Johnson, IGT’s vice president, global commercial & product strategy-video poker and ETG, says the growth of video poker is a continuing phenomenon.

“The one development I would call out is the overall awareness and interest in video poker,” Johnson says. “We’ve definitely seen a big increase from 2020 up until now, and we’re not just talking about North America; we’re also talking globally.

 “Video poker outside of North America continues to grow. We just had great shows at G2E last year and at ICE this year, and there was a huge amount of interest from our European and South American customers at both shows. It’s fair to say that we have more multi-hand units in the field today than we have had at any point in our history. So, we’re really excited to see what the future holds.”

Evolving the Genre

IGT clearly steered the evolution of video poker, but that evolution continues, largely in the form of a parade of specialty video poker games that offer bonus features in exchange for an extra per-hand wager—essentially, an ante bet that does not change the RTP of the basic game, which can go up to and above 100 percent in the so-called “full-pay” schedules sought out by thousands of diehard video poker players.

One of the earliest advances, and still among the most popular, is Ultimate X Poker, the first game to apply multipliers to video poker payouts. Another early success was Spin Poker, a combination slot and video poker game.

IGT has continued to develop new twists on video poker. Last year, the company released Wheel of Fortune video poker, incorporating familiar features of IGT’s most legendary slot game. Every year, the company releases several new specialty video poker games, each giving the player multipliers, an extra seven-card poker payoff (5 Card Plus 2 Poker) and other bonus features in exchange for a six-coin or 10-coin-per-hand bet.

“There’s a strategy driving why we’re continuing to provide new product to the marketplace—the market is looking for more innovation,” Johnson says. “Our classic or traditional video poker games continue to serve the market very well, but our new titles are also driving a lot of interest from our customers.

 “We continue to evolve the products that we currently have. One example is Ultimate X Poker, which has been a fantastic game for us for the last 10-plus years. We’re continuing to evolve Ultimate X. We first came out with Ultimate X Bonus Streak. Then we came out with Ultimate X Gold. We’re constantly looking to create new innovative ways to provide entertainment and excitement to players, leveraging some of those classic brands that we currently have today.”

More New Games

IGT continues to add to those classic brands with innovative new specialty video poker games every year. At G2E in October, the company launched Major Multipliers Poker, which uses a dealt-hand bonus trigger. For a 10-credit-per-hand bet, when a player is dealt Jacks or better, two pair or three of a kind, any improvement of the dealt hand on the draw can generate a multiplier up to 100X. This occurs every five hands, on average.

 “The opportunity to get up to a 100X multiplier is something that’s never been seen or introduced in the marketplace before,” says Johnson. “That’s driving a lot of interest and excitement around that particular game.”

Another new game is Bonus Pick Poker. At the beginning of play, five cards are displayed, and the player picks one to reveal a bonus that will be applied on the hand—a wild card, a 2X wild card, or one of three multiplier cards to increase any win up to 10X. In a multi-hand configuration, the enhancement applies to every hand. This occurs every nine hands, on average.

Johnson says Bonus Pick Poker is slated for a March release. Another IGT game coming soon is a new version of Five Star Poker.

 “This is a game theme that’s been out in the marketplace in some fashion over the last couple of years, but we recently made a decision to evolve that game and add on a couple of our other newer multi-hand games but present them in a single-hand format.”

He says several other specialty games previously available only in multi-hand versions also will be introduced in single-hand versions, including Ultimate X Poker and Super Draw 6 Poker. They will begin appearing on an updated version of Five Star Poker that will be available for both the floor and bar areas in casinos, taverns and route locations.

 “Game King is that single-hand offering that we offer to the market today,” Johnson says. “And within Game King, there’s a variety of different game families that our players really enjoy playing, whether that’s Jacks or Better, Double Double, Deuces Wild or whatever format.”

Game packages for the PeakBarTop will likely soon include single-hand specialty games as well. IGT releases a new bartop game package every year.

“It’s been huge,” Johnson says. “Would you enjoy playing Ultimate X with all those multipliers being applied, but playing it in a single-hand format? It’s going to create a lot of interest and a lot of opportunities, and we’re seeing that today from many of our customers and our players. They’ll still be able to play those favorite game families that provide a variety volatility levels based on their personal preferences. Now, we’re able to leverage more bonus feature-rich games such as Ultimate X and Super Times Pay.”

Overall, Johnson says, these specialty games have expanded the video poker market, adding new customers—including many slot players.

“I was talking to some of my development team members a couple of weeks back, and they were reminding me that Ultimate X was one of the very first persistence games that was ever introduced to the video poker marketplace,” he says. “Persistence games have been really popular over the last couple of years. There’s a good correlation between the appeal of a game mechanic to a slot player and its crossover success in a video poker offering.”

“We continue to see that interest grow and thrive with our partners and our customers. We definitely feel that what we’re doing today is growing the market segment, and we believe we have that opportunity not only in North America, but across worldwide markets.” He adds that the growth is spread between floor units and the popular PeakBarTop. “Here in North America, we estimate there’s roughly about 80,000 to 100,000 video poker machines in the market,” Johnson says. “Two-thirds of those are probably most likely on the floor, with the other third positioned more at the bar.”

The most recent bartop packages include more keno games, he says. “We continue to hear from operators and see from players that there is a growing interest in keno,” says Johnson.

In the end, IGT video poker development is fueling the continued evolution of the genre. “We’re focused on continuing to grow our footprint,” Johnson says.

“There have been a lot of conversations over the years regarding what the future of video poker will look like. Our customers continue to share that players want more video poker content. IGT is positioned to drive the next era of video poker innovation and expansion, meeting of the need of our customers and their players along the way.”