Pokie Slots [hide]
This blog post is for everyone interested in what pokie slots are and how a pokie slot machine works. Learn about the legality of pokies and if you can play them online.
In internet gambling, pokie slots are what Australians call online slots. Whenever you visit an Australian online casino, by clicking the word “pokies,” you’ll be taken to the slots lobby.
In Australia, Shorter Is Sweeter
Here’s a brief lesson about Australia’s culture.
Other than kangaroos, koalas, and other silly stereotypes, Australians take pride in abbreviating many words. According to Frank Povah’s 2015 edition of The Aussie Slang Dictionary, jargon in Australian English comes from many sides of the world.
Due to its tumultuous and eventful history, the land down under has compiled dialect words from many cultures. Great Britain and indigenous languages are just some of them.
Over the years, the nation started to adapt new vocabulary to their climate. As a result, a new dictionary term came out – to Australianise.
To Australianise is a verb meaning to adjust something to fit the Australian culture.
In turn, now, in the 21st century, Aussies are globally famous for tweaking and playing around with words.
Here are some Aussie slang phrases to make you sound Australian:
- Better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick – lesser of two evils
- Cardy – cardigan
- Deckie – a deckhand on a fishing boat
- Greenie – an environmentalist
- Lolly water – any soft drink
- Postie – mailman
Now, enough of all that ear-basher. That was, in short, how the word “pokie” came to be, which is the topic of this comprehensive article about pokie slots.
Aussies tend to shorten their words to make themselves appear more approachable and friendly. And what more welcoming industry is there if not online gaming?
Join us for a virtual flight to Australia as we talk about pokies online and answer, “What are pokies?”
Are Online Pokies Banned in Australia?
Another crucial question about casino pokies has to do with whether or not they are legal. The short answer is that playing pokie slots in Australia is not illegal.
However, that’s not the entire story.
Nowadays, casinos for pokie slots are governed by The Interactive Gambling Act 2001. In it, it is stated that operators are prohibited from providing internet betting services to Australians.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a local or offshore gaming site; it is illegal to offer interactive gambling to Aussies. Nonetheless, Australian citizens still play online pokies in Australia; how could that be?
Well, the 2001 Gambling Act explicitly forbids providing “an unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service to customers in Australia.” Additionally, it is stated in the legislation that examples include roulette, craps, poker, and online pokies.
What the 2001 Act of Australia clarifies is that offering games of luck is illegal in the country. Moreover, games mixing luck with skills, such as blackjack, are also under the term.
As we go down the interactive betting timeline, the Australian Parliament revisited the Act in 2017. Since 2017, stricter regulations apply to lottery and sports betting wagering.
As no mention of illegal playing is present, the question is open for interpretation. In plain English, you can play online pokies in Australia.
What Are Pokies in Australia?
Alright, it’s high time we addressed the elephant in the room. So, what is a pokie?
As we previously teased, pokies are synonymous with slots, or in some cases, poker machines. By definition, casino pokies are fruit machines – either online or land-based.
In Australia, if you have relevant authorization and licenses, you can have a pokie slot machine in a hotel or a bar.
Let’s take a look at the dictionary entry from the Oxford Languages:
pokie, noun
/ˈpəʊki/
a fruit machine
Pokies have nothing to do with protruding nipples or anything remotely explicit. Instead, pokie slots are what the general public refers to as simply slots.
So, what are pokies, and why are they called pokies?
The word pokie is simply an abbreviation, a diminutive form of the word poker. And truly, sometimes you’ll hear an Aussie say the work and refer to a Hold’em variant. But most commonly, pokie slots are just slots.
As gambling is rapidly shifting onto virtual platforms, it was inevitable that pokies online needed to be invented. Australians, as avid gambling enthusiasts, welcomed the opportunity to play pokies online.
In online gaming, slots are virtual machines playable across rectangular reel grids with paylines. A pokie slot machine can have bonus features, free spins rounds, and multipliers, too. Some feature a progressive jackpot, whilst others have capped jackpots.
Historically, one-armed bandits have been one of the favorite casino games ever. Fuelled purely by luck, slots attract millions of gamers to pull their lever or click Spin.
Free Pokies
They say nothing worth having comes easily. Thus, the maxim applies to playing casino pokies. To get really good at pokies online, you should test them often.
Free pokies give you a unique chance to experience pokies online free of charge. It is as simple as that – you play for free to your heart’s desire.
The playing configuration of free pokies looks exactly like the real money pokie gameplay. You receive a reel grid with a specified number of paylines or winning ways.
In iGaming, whenever a slot has up to 50 ways, they are referred to as paylines. If that number of lines exceeds 50, we typically call them ways to win or winnings ways.
Furthermore, paylines can be either fixed or adjustable. In the latter case, players need to enter the menu to modify how many lines they would like to play.
Other than that, features don’t depend on the number of paylines. For aligning a specific symbol on specific reels, you get certain free spins. All rules can be found in the paytable guide or in our game reviews.
In free pokies, you don’t wager any real money. On the contrary, you play with the casino’s fictive money and can lose nothing.
Free pokies are there to show how it feels playing pokies online. Then, when you’re ready and confident in your skills, you can move on to the real deal.
Finally, there are free pokies apps to download online or you can play them via your web browser. Alternatively, you can search for free play pokies or demo mode slots for the same service.
How Do You Always Win on the Pokies?
Some casino experts believe you should bet the maximum on all paylines. What’s more, they even go on to say that that’s the only way to win on a pokie machine.
However, we don’t agree.
According to our top slot tips, you should find the pokie that works best for your style of playing. It is not as simple as placing the biggest bet possible. In that case, everyone would be winning multi-digit jackpots every day. And in fact, we don’t.
Huge jackpots are rare, and that’s because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Winning at pokies is a coin toss. You cannot always win on a pokie machine. But a good first step to take is to look at the best pokie casinos.
Is There a Trick to Pokies?
However, here are some helpful tips for playing pokie slots:
- Set your betting limits & stick to them.
- Don’t overspend.
- High denomination pokies usually pay more.
- To win the jackpot, you need to place the max bet.
- However, placing the max bet doesn’t guarantee a win.
At the end of the day, it’s wise to remember that pokies online largely rely on chance. After all, these are RNG-powered slot machines with random outcomes. In simple terms, the results in pokie slots cannot be predetermined.
Can I Play Online Pokies in Australia?
💡 Fun fact – Australians gamble more than any other nation on the planet.
Statistically, around 80% of adults in Australia gamble either online or in-person. Namely, 4% of all adults play pokie slots every week.
If we look at the latest statistics on gambling in Australia, we can see impressive results. Namely, the total electronic gaming machine (pokies) expenditure went from $12.136 billion to $12.520 billion year-on-year. This is a whopping 3.2% increase.
Additionally, the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation reported a 6.5% rise in Australian total casino expenditure for the period 2017-2018.
The fact is that a large portion of gambling in Australia takes place on pokie slots. And as a race we are moving onto digital gaming, pokies online are growing in popularity.
Accordingly, casinos for pokie slots are increasing in number, giving Aussies more options. When choosing top casinos for pokies, it’s clever to look at licenses above all. We’re talking in-depth about the best pokie casinos in the next paragraph.
Best Casinos for Pokie Slots
We’ve established that interactive gambling is immensely popular in Australia. Moreover, we are now clear on what pokie slots are and how they work. Finally, we should determine where to play pokies online.
Here are the best 5 pokies slots online casinos:
Rank |
Aussie Casino |
Best for |
| ❶ | Black Diamond | Casino promotions |
| ❷ | BitStarz | Cryptocurrency |
| ❸ | Playamo | Biggest game portfolio |
| ❹ | FairGo | 24/7 customer support |
| ❺ | Casino Chan | Lavish bonuses |
Top casinos for pokies offer Australian players a premium online gambling experience. Naturally, pokie casinos operate around the clock and cater to rewarding bonus games and free spins.
To make the best of your internet gambling and casino pokies, follow our guidelines. Lastly, we hope this article was of help answering the question “what are pokies” in detail.
