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What exactly are pokies?

2017-03-22 12:50:29

Did you know that there are some unique phrases to describe slot machines in many countries? One such word is “Pokies” and this is originated from Australia and New Zealand. Pokies are, in fact, a short way of describing a poker or fruit machine and Aussies and Kiwis are big fans of these. So much so that Australia has more pokies per capita compared to every country in the world!

Pokies in Australia


To date, there are over 200,000 pokies found all across Australia with a vast majority of them located in New South Wales. These figures are quite staggering when it comes to the amount of pokies in the land of Oz as there is at least 1 pokie machine per 101 Australians! It is estimated that up to 40% of adults in Australia play pokies and that the average person wagers around $380 per year. These numbers are amazing and online casinos are sitting up and taking notice of it by providing as much fun and replay value in their pokies as possible.

The history of the Pokie


The first slot machine or pokie was created in America by Charles Fey all the way back in 1895 and it was simply called Liberty Bell. This game is quite famous as liberty bell symbols can still be seen in pokies and fruit machine today. It was not until 1953 when pokies started to gain some prominence in Australia. This was thanks to an Australian company called Aristocrat who saw some potential in this market and developed their first game “Clubman”, which was created by Joe Heywood. This game was eventually replaced by the more popular title “Clubmaster” in 1955. In 1956, New South Wales legalised gambling machines and this changed the whole landscape of gambling in Australia as pokies slowly began to pop up in quite a few cities.