Australia's Complete Pokies Guide | DiceDealer.com (original) (raw)

One can hardly talk about casino games without putting Pokies in the mix. In fact, very few casinos would do well without them. They are the top sellers at both online casinos and land-based operations around the world and have made many, many happy gamblers over the years.

It should be no surprise that they are so popular. They are presented as flashy, exciting games with special features and bonus rounds to wow the crowds. On top of that, they are so easy to play and require very little skill.

Read our pokie guide to learn all you need to know about pokies in Australia and find out where you can play all the best ones with ease.

Why are Pokies called Pokies?

Like many words that Straya use, Pokie is a unique term in the casino business that is only used by Aussies and Kiwis to refer to what the rest of the world calls ‘slot machines’. Unlike many other slang words, this is one that isn’t too hard to put together, even though Europeans and Americans may at think at first that Australians are referring to prison when they hear the term.

While opinions are split on where the word originated, it seems to stem from the term ‘poker machine’. A common theory is that in the early days of casinos in Australia, the first electronic games were video poker machines (called pokies). When slots became more popular, they were placed on the same gambling floors as the poker machines and Aussies just decided that it would be easier to class them together and call them all pokies.

For the context of this guide, we are referring to the slot machines variety, which has become so prevalent in the world today.

What Does Pokie Mean?

When we say the word ‘’pokie’’ a long list of questions arises about their identity and how they work. We’ll walk you through these questions and leave you better informed.

What are Pokies?

A pokie is a slot machine gambling device that either has mechanical or video game-like-reels that spin and halt to produce various game outcomes. Each reel is adorned with symbols. It is the goal of the game to line up combinations of these symbols over demarcated paylines on the pokie screen to form wins. Each distinct symbol combination will hold a multiplier value which is usually applied to the size of your stake to produce a payout.

Pokies come in different forms. Physical VLT machines (real-life pokies) can be found on casino floors around Australia and the rest of the word. These machines will either take coins, notes, or casino cards for bets, depending on the establishment.

The other form of pokies can be found online, which can be played directly from any online casino on your desktop computer, cellphone, or tablet. Here, you will top-up your casino account with a deposit via various Aussie-friendly payment options and spend your credits from there.

Important Pokie Terminology

Before we get too carried away with explaining the dynamics of pokies, we must look at some of the common terminology used when dealing with these machines. Understanding these 12 key pokies terms will help you grasp how the machines work and how they benefit you through the passage of play.

These terms will crop up in various places as you read the guide, so make sure you refer back if you haven’t learned them all yet.

Types of Pokies Available

There are thousands of pokie games available to play in the marketplace. The industry has categorised them for convenience sake. While the number of themes is too diverse to exhaustively list them all, the genres stem from fruit games to action games, holiday games to wildlife games, sports games to branded games, and the list goes on.

The list of popular categories of game styles is a little smaller, and each theme can find itself classed in one of these groups. The top 5 are:

With the massive selection of game types and themes out there, there is absolutely no reason why every player will not find a game that they can connect with.

How to Play the Pokies

Playing pokies is an easy affair. The game outcomes are not in your hand but are instead randomly generated by tried and tested RNG (Random Number Generator) software that yields unbiased outcomes on every spins.

All you need to do to get going is:

If you land a winning combination, the machine will multiply the value of the symbol combo by your stake level and award a monetary prize to your bankroll, instantly. This is how simple it is.

Where to Play Pokies?

Australia is Pokie mad, offering various land-based establishments that host these types of machines Bars and Land-based casinos. Here, you can pull up a chair and sit in comfort and zone in on the action in the machine in front of you.

  1. Bars and Pubs

There are hundreds of pubs offering great snacks, drinks, and pokie action. Thanks to Aussie law, low odds games and fruit machines can keep pub goers company and give added opportunities for wins.

Visit some of the top Aussie Pokie Bars:

  1. Casinos

There are several first-class land casinos in OZ. Here are the top 6:

What are the Best Online Pokies in Australia?

There are so many great games available to Australia from remote online casinos that Aussies are spoiled for choice. If we had to narrow the games down to a selection of favourites, we could only do so by game provider. The 5 most influential names in the business include:

Be sure to check out some of the smaller studios like Quickspin, Yggdrasil, Thunderkick, Elk Studios, Habanero Games, Betsoft for more quality pokies that offer excitement with every spin.

Best Paying Pokie Machines

Probably one of the hottest searched terms on the internet is “What are the best paying slots?” We understand the need to play pokies with the highest payouts and we would like to teach you how to find games like this more easily.

The best is to find games with high RTPs of 96% or more, combined with high variance levels. Now and then you may have to forgo the high variance to find a slot that will pay more frequently though.

The 5 games with the highest RTPs are:

While these games are guaranteed to pay out more often than most, they do not offer the biggest wins out there. If you want to play slots for excessively big wins, you must play progressive jackpot games, like:

Where to Play Pokie Tournaments?

Tournaments are an exciting and competitive way of playing pokies. These competitions allow you to line up against other casino members in the quest to outspend them and win more. Players will be ranked on a winner’s board with top participators being able to lay their hands on serious cash prizes, daily, weekly, and sometimes monthly.

Most top online casinos will run tournaments of these sorts from time to time, but you can check out the top 5 contenders:

How to Play Pokies and Win?

Beating pokies is a dream that every gambler has, but the truth is that the dynamics of the game are iron clad and there is no way to manipulate wins. There is no skill involved in determining game outcomes, therefore, no amount of skill or trying will change a thing from one spin to the next.

Of course, the choices you make prior to starting a game could head you towards a better chance of winning. We advise that you give yourself an edge by:

The above tips ensure that you are at least playing a game with a potential for great rewards.

Pokie Strategy

While no strategy guarantees a win, as we have discussed above, there are some things you can do to ensure that you play at your optimum capacity. These things include the following 5 tips:

Every 50 or so spins, up the bet, because you will want to trigger free spins with the highest wager possible to gain the most value for your spins.

Responsible and clever gambling always ups your odds, it just doesn’t guarantee them. Play wise and you’ll find that you will lose less, making the times you win all the sweeter.