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WHAT MAKES POKIES SO POPULAR?

Video slots are one of the most popular forms of gambling for Australians. These video slots, as the name describes, are on a video screen. If you’re outside of Australia, you’d typically refer to them as slot machines. Today we’re going to look at online slots in particular, and these are called ‘pokies’ and refer to ‘Poker Machines’ in Australia. There are many online pokies sites that players can try their luck at in the hope of striking it rich. These pokie machines can be found in bars and pubs as well as in casinos.

History

You might be wondering why Australians refer to them as ‘pokies’ and not simply, ‘slot machines.’ However, there is no exact reason as to why this name came about. The most likely explanation is that it was merely shorthand and a more natural way to say it. We also don’t know when and where the word pokie came from. However, it has proved to have stuck and thus is the referred to name for slots for people in both New Zealand and Australia.

The name covers both normal slots and video poker slots despite the term pokie hinting at just referring to video poker. There is a range of ways to play pokies in the country, with these being online pokies Australia, or physically in person either in casinos, pubs or clubs.

Although we don’t know when and where the term pokies came from, we do know that poker machines were first introduced to Australians in the region of New South Wales back in 1956 with the rest of the states following suit over the next few decades. If you use the term ‘pokie’ in other gambling cities such as Vegas, Atlantic City or Macau, you might get funny looks. However this won’t be the case down under.

Popularity

The surge in popularity when it comes to pokie machines has also harmed Australia with most of these machines not being located in casinos where players’ habits can be regulated and restricted upon signs of them having a problem.

To put the figures into perspective, there are only 241,000 poker machines worldwide that are located outside of casinos, and 183,000 of these are solely located in Australia in pubs, clubs, and bars. However, on the flip side, these poker machines bring in considerable amounts of revenue for state governments around Australia. For example, pokie machines in clubs and hotels across Australia make an average of over AUD$56,000 every year, that’s more than the average person! The only state that is an exception to that is Western Australia where they are banned apart from in licensed Casinos.

All pokie machines in Australia are planned to secure a return to the owners of the machine. However at the same time also have a percentage that they must pay out. This is also known and referred to as the ‘Return To Player’, and this is roughly around the 87% mark. What this means in the long term is that over many spins a machine with an 87% setting will return 87% of the money gambled back to players over that period.

The RTP percentages on physical pokie machines tend to be a lot lower than that of online pokie slots. However, you can’t expect this RTP on a single session, as we have discovered already, this RTP is reflected over hundreds of thousands, and even potentially millions of spins.

Future

Despite the uproar with the growing addiction to pokie machines in Australia, it is highly unlikely that we will see these banned or outlawed. This is due to two main reasons. The first is that throughout the companies themselves and casinos, thousands of Australians in each state stand to lose their job should they be banned. Secondly, the companies and governments as we’ve mentioned receive a substantial amount of revenue from these machines and so there would be a financial loss in that respect.

What we can expect to see is more regulation surrounding how long players can play on pokie machines and a restriction on the amounts a single player can put into a pokie machine or online in a certain period of this time. This will ensure that there is no loss when it comes to employment or revenue while, at the same time, carrying out the moral responsibility of tackling an issue that is growing by the day in Australia and affecting lives.

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