Gaming machine giant International Game Technology (IGT) has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2016, showing a 51% increase year-on-year in consolidated revenues to $1.282 billion.

IGT stated that “strong global lottery growth” especially from North America and Italy alongside “resilient global gaming revenues” saw its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the three-month period swell by 43% to $460 million while its operating income grew from $163 million from the same period last year to hit $188 million this time out.

“We begin 2016 with a solid first quarter, evidenced by good revenue growth with all operating segments contributing to an improvement in profitability,” said Marco Sala, Chief Executive Officer for IGT.

IGT went through a $6.4 billion merger with Italian lottery equipment and management specialist GTech twelve months ago and revealed that its pro forma first-quarter revenues grew by 4% year-on-year while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose by 12%.

“Continuing growth across all regions, especially North America and Italy, propelled our lottery revenues,” said Sala. “Gaming revenues were resilient despite challenging market conditions in North America, our largest gaming market. We remain focused on reenergizing gaming operations and strengthening our global leadership in lotteries. We were successful in securing the Italian Lotto concession, one of our largest contracts and a cornerstone of our Italian operations.”

IGT’s net debt now stands at $7.722 billion, which is up from $2.792 billion for the same period in 2015, while it declared that its attributable net loss stood at $93 million and was reflective of $162 million in primarily non-cash foreign exchange losses.

“The diversity of our product and geographic mix is a key element of our first-quarter results,” said Alberto Fornaro, Chief Financial Officer for IGT. “Revenue growth, disciplined cost management and synergy savings all contributed to sharp profit expansion. Even after large interest payments during the period, we generated significant free cash flow, enabling us to reduce debt in constant currency and further improve our leverage profile.”