The Internet has become a playground for pokies fanatics, with innovative software emerging constantly and mind blowing games being released every week. Playing pokies online is an experience that offers so much more than playing slots at a land based casino or your local pub – we cover where to play for real money, the best online pokies games for beginners and how to make safe deposits using trusted payment methods.
Best real money online pokies sites
Playing online, the games are much more varied, more innovative and more fun to play, with jackpots that have the ability to change lives. Plus, playing pokies on the Web brings the added benefit of comfort, allowing players to spin for wins from the couch between commercial breaks of their favourite TV shows. Compare that to dragging yourself out on a cold night to hit a pokies lounge and deal with all the noise and high drink prices and I think we have a winner.
Are pokies and slots the same thing?
If you’re visiting this website from anywhere other than Australia or New Zealand, you may be confused as to what we’re talking about when we mention the pokies. “The pokies” is an Aussie slang term for playing the slots – both words mean exactly the same thing. All information across our network using pokies terminology is completely interchangeable with the word slots.
Best AUD online pokies casinos
There is no shortage of incredible online casinos for Aussie and international players to choose from. At PokiesSites.com we’ve done the leg work to bring you only the best, most reputable and secure real money casinos on the market, which offer safe deposits using several different currency options. These sites offer literally hundreds of online pokies games to choose from, including three reel pokies, five reel pokies, video pokies, 243 Ways pokies, 3D pokies, virtual reality pokies, and progressive jackpot pokies.
Our recommended casinos tick all the right boxes. They offer awesome welcome bonuses for new players, have extensive gaming catalogues, use a minimum of 128 Bit SSL security, offer friendly customer support and best of all, have been responsible for creating some huge slots winners. Information and sign-up links for our top-rated online casinos that accept Australian players can be found below.
- Mucho Vegas – A bright and cheerful Mexican themed casino site housing pokies from leading software studios such as BetSoft, Pragmatic Play, iSoftBet and more. Read our Mucho Vegas review.
- Mongoose Casino – One of the few online casinos that offers a no-deposit bonus for new players, Mongoose also offers hundreds of pokies from a range of the top-rated game studios. Read our Mongoose review.
- House of Jack – Hosted by Jack, the smooth talking crocodile, House of Jack is an instant-play casino site with games available from big brands including BetSoft, Play’n Go and Quickspin. Read our House of Jack review.
- Emu Casino – Emu Casino uses our favourite Aussie animal as its mascot, offering a large collection of pokies in a fun and vibrant instant-play casino platform. Read our Emu Casino review.
- Casino-Mate – Recently making the switch from being powered exclusively by Microagming, Casino-Mate now hosts games from a collection of the best software developers with instant-play games available for free or real money play. Read our Casino-Mate review.
- Slots Million – Holds the largest selection of online pokies of any online casino site, with games from 30+ of the leading slot software developers. Read our Slots Million review.
Note: Not all online casinos accept players from all countries and not all currencies are accepted. Our recommended casino tables have been geo-targeted to recognise your location and only recommend safe casino sites that accept players from your region, but you can also read our country guides to learn more about the online slot sites that cater to your area.
Best international casino sites
In addition to the Aussie-friendly casinos above (which also accept international players – just follow our links to see if players from your country are accepted), we also recommend these trusted casino sites for players from other countries:
- Guts Casino – A popular instant-play casino site offering games from big name developers like Microgaming, NetEnt, Quickspin, BetSoft, Play’n Go, Yggdrasil and more, with regular promotions available for registered players. Read our Guts review.
- Rizk Casino – Join Captain Rizk in this action-packed casino site that’s full of game variety and promo offers, with new pokies added regularly. Read our Rizk review.
- 32Red – One of the UK’s leading gambling brands, 32Red is powered exclusively by Microgaming, offering some of the most popular online pokies including big winning progressive jackpots. Read our 32Red review.
- All Slots Casino – Exclusively using the Microgaming software suite, All Slots offers hundreds of online pokies and other table games, with games available via download or instant play. Read our All Slots review.
- G’day Casino – A comprehensive online casino sites with a great welcome bonus for new players, G’day hosts games from big names including NetEnt, BetSoft and many others. Read our G’day Casino review.
- Royal Vegas Casino – One of the longest running casinos on the Web, Royal Vegas offers Microgaming’s comprehensive collection of online slots and table games, with regular promotions for registered players and the option of instant-play or downloadable software. Read our Royal Vegas review here.
Deposit options at online casinos
Players around the world are given a range of secure payment options for depositing money to play pokies with online, just remember to select your local currency (AUD, NZD, USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, etc.) as your currency preference when registering for an account with a casino. The processing times for deposits may vary, but most of the deposit options listed below are available instantly so you don’t have to wait to start spinning those reels. Popular deposit options include:
- Credit & Debit Cards – VISA, MasterCard, Maestro
- Direct Bank Transfers/Wire Transfers – from leading Australian banks
- E-cheques
- Web Wallets – Neteller, Skrill, ecoPayz
- Prepaid cards – Entropay, Paysafecard (now incorporates Ukash)
There may be some differences to the way winning funds can be withdrawn, so refer to your chosen casinos banking page for further details regarding withdraw options. Winnings will usually take from one to three days to hit your account depending on the casinos processing time and your payment method of choice.
Best real money pokies online
With hundreds of online slots games available, it’s safe to say that there’s something for all tastes out there. From the pretty and pastel, to the dark and dreary, if you can think of a theme its likely there is now a pokies game for it. Online casinos include pokies based on movies, TV shows, sports, romance, fantasy, historical figures, action heroes and fairy tales.
The best slots come from such leading software developers as Microgaming, NetEnt, Next Gen, NYX Gaming, BetSoft and Play’n Go and use vivid graphics, high quality animation and exciting bonus features. While the game you choose to play comes down entirely to personal choice, we’ve recommended some of these popular titles for newbies to get an idea of the impressive range of online pokies out there.
Note that not all of these pokies will be available depending on the country you’re playing from, as some software developers block their content from certain locations.
Mr Vegas – this BetSoft title is a great way to get into the spirit of online gaming. The animation is so appealing and so very Vegas, full of bright lights, flashy women and the charismatic Mr Vegas character himself. With a selection of free spins and innovative bonus rounds, this is a great game to introduce punters to the exciting possibilities of online pokies.
The Invisible Man – NetEnt collaborated with Universal Studios to bring this 1933 sci-fi film to life in pokies form and the result is awe inspiring. With a chilling intro and graphics of cinematic quality, The Invisible Man is a clear testament to the exciting future of online slots.
Mega Moolah – although there’s nothing overly impressive about the graphics or gameplay here, Mega Moolah is a progressive jackpot slot and one of the most popular pokies on the Internet. It has been responsible for several multi-million dollar winners over the years and continues to attract punters with the chance to win big.
Game of Thrones – bet you never thought it’d be possible to turn this HBO fantasy hit into a pokies game, right? The results of this Microgaming masterpiece is a crisp game that stays true to the ambience of the TV show and although there’s no sign of any of the characters, the iconography is classy and captivating, providing hours of entertainment for any GOT fan.
Steam Tower – this is a new game that deserves a mention due to its revolutionary gameplay format. Pokies players take on the role of a hip steampunk gent in his attempts to save the princess, levelling up further on the steam tower as they spin the reels. Similar to the recently released Castle Builder, these level-up games provide an insight to the future of online pokies.
Jurassic Park – released mid-2014, this game remains a favourite among the online pokies community due to its striking cinematic graphics and innovative bonus rounds that stay true to the blockbuster movie that it came from. The game uses true footage from the movie and includes symbols of the characters played by Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough and Laura Dern.
These games provide just a tiny taste of the huge variety that’s available. Games are available for free play in demo mode so you can click around and try out as many titles as you like before laying down a real money bet. Other popular pokies games include:
- Guns N’ Roses
- Terminator II
- Foxin’ Wins
- Divine Fortune
- Major Millions
- Gonzos Quest
- Cricket Star
- Jack & the Beanstalk
- Starburst
- The Slotfather II
- Psycho
- Jimi Hendrix
- Tomb Raider
- Fire & Steel
- Tornado Farm Escape
- Motorhead
- Paranormal Activity
- Rambo
- Avalon II
- Thunderstruck II
- Girls with Guns
- Immortal Romance
- South Park Reel Chaos
- Playboy
New games are being released constantly, so you never have to wait long for new material with inventive new features to play online.
Is it legal to play pokies online?
Online gambling laws vary hugely between each country. Some countries (like the United Kingdom) have taken the smart approach and regulated the industry to make it safer for players, while others have tried to shut down the industry entirely by banning online gambling. To learn more about the online gambling laws in your country, read our guides and find out whether it is legal for you to play online pokies for real money.
For Australian punters, the laws surrounding online gambling is a question that often comes up, with Aussies unsure about where they stand when it comes to gambling online. The short answer is yes, it is legal to play pokies online for real money. The longer answer is a little more complex.
Surrounding concerns about problem gamblers being exposed to issues that may arise if games could enter their homes, in 2001 the Howard Government introduced the Interactive Gaming Act (IGA). While the IGA didn’t make it illegal for Australian punters to gamble online, it did restrict any Aussie owned online casino from offering its service to players in our country. Specifically, the Act prevented any Australian venue on the Internet from offering ‘real money online interactive gambling services’ to Australian citizens and from advertising ‘real money interactive gambling services’ to Australian citizens.
Essentially, this law restricted casinos from operating within Australia, but did nothing to prevent Aussie players from gambling online at any internationally run, licensed offshore casino. In September 2017, a new law was passed in parliament which aimed to clear up these grey areas once and for all. The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill was introduced, clarifying that no online casino is allowed to service the Australian market unless it has a license from an Australian state or territory to do so (of course, no such license currently exists). While the IGA Amendment Bill makes it clear offshore casino sites are banned from accepting Australian players, there is still nothing in the laws that prohibits Australian residents to play at these sites, and no penalty exists for doing so.
The technicality here is that as long as the gambling venue is licensed by foreign waters and operates under the licensed jurisdiction (which all of our recommended online casinos are) it remains okay for Australians to play pokies online for real money without breaking any local laws. While many of the leading online casino brands have pulled out of the Australian market, there are still several reputable offshore casino operators who have chosen to continue to accept Australian players, including those listed in our casino table at the top of this page.
Whichever country you’re playing from, it is ultimately up to you to fully understand the online gambling laws that apply to you. Read our guides to international gambling laws to learn more.