Truth be told, calling slots ‘pokies’ has been a habit for Australians for far longer than the Internet has ever even existed. Australians have always given things nicknames and if you think about it, there’s barbie, which is short for barbeque, dunny, which is slang for toilet, arvo for afternoon, and of course, Aussie for Australian. How then did they take the term slots and come up with pokies?
In American slots are called slots and online pokies are a term that no one has really even heard of. The English also stick with slots, or they make call them fruit machines or fruities, but certainly never online pokies. Pokies is purely Australian and it’s also a term that’s been adopted by neighbouring New Zealand.
Slots being called slots is pretty obvious- money is inserted into a slot in order to play the game. Or it was before these games went online. Even as games changed considerably and became more hi tech they have remained as slots, and online pokies have never entered into the equation, unless you are Down Under that is!
‘I’m off to the pub to play pokies’ certainly rolls off the tongue, as does ‘I’m staying in to play online real money pokies tonight and win some dosh’! But why do Aussies call slots pokies? Well, it seems that the name is short for poker machine, which then was shortened to pokies. The problem arises though, is that no one is quite sure why. Was it because the original games featured poker card symbols on them? Or because there were originally poker style games available in pubs and saloons, so poker machines referred more to a casino game than to a specific style of play? Poker games rather than level pull slots were around in Australia long before the traditional style slots emerged, so its more than likely that this is where the name pokies was derived from, and its stuck!
By going online, pokies became more popular than ever. Many consider that online pokies are practically an Australian national pastime, and that the games are everyone’s favourite hobby. Gambling online in Australia is also legal, and there are hundreds of casinos catering to the gaming market Down Under.
Today, you’ll find online pokies in just about very incantation, and there are classic reel games based on the original versions, state of the art, sophisticated video pokies that burst with bonus features, special effects, tiered levels and special symbols, and mega spin games where more than one set of reels spins at once. Then there are the progressive jackpot online pokies that feature growing prize pools that swell with every real money bet placed, often paying out over a million dollars to one lucky player.
It seems that no matter what type of pokies you prefer, you’ll be able to find it on the web and the fact that these games are based on chance and can payout at random, makes them all the more enticing and incredibly exciting.
Online pokies, poker machines, slots, fruities, one-armed bandits or whatever you chose to call them, they all offer the same level of action, entertainment and potential jackpot payouts.
