International Game Technology released its earnings this week, and the best thing that can be said is, they’re not bad, but they’re not great either. IGT is one of those companies that’s trying really hard to do the right thing and with some success, but there’s nothing to really wow shareholders. There doesn’t seem to be some grand future opportunity that could help it achieve qualitative as opposed to incremental growth, if that.

For now, the proper place for IGT in a gaming stock portfolio is for allocation of cash that you don’t know what else to do with in the short to medium term but don’t want just sitting idle. The prospects for capital growth in IGT beyond a few points are slim, considered from both a technical and fundamental standpoint. Technically, shares could be showing a double top pattern. However, the chances of a serious decline in the short term are also slim.

In line with its position as an average, conservative company, even its dividend at 2.8% is just enough to outpace inflation by a few pennies. Everything about IGT is OK. That’s better than where it was before it merged with GTECH when it was in some trouble, but still little stands out that warrants an enthusiastic buy beyond allocation of leftover cash.

Going through its earnings, you get the feeling that everything has to be “explained”. On the surface the numbers don’t look that great. Dig a little bit under the surface with a few accounting terms and circumstance, and they actually look OK. Point by point through the report all the explanations all seem to add up if taken in isolation. But taken holistically, an investor begins to get the feeling that IGT is putting a lot of energy into explaining itself rather than just showing the goods.