Online Pokies for Real Money in NZ

• Content Map
• How to Play at Real Money Slots?
• Common Types of Online Pokies
• Main Features in Pokies
• Top Online Pokies for Real Money
• The Best Online Slots Software Developers
• RTP & Odds of Winning
• Top 5 Real Money Slots with the Highest RTP
• Top Available Bonuses at Online Pokies
• Best Casinos with Real Money Pokies
• Play Pokies for Real Money vs Free
• Useful Tips to Win in Real Money Slots
• How We Rate the Best Casinos with Pokies?
• Let’s Sum Up

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How to Play at Real Money Slots?

Real money online slots are online versions of slot machines seen all around the moment someone enters a land-based casino. For those who do not know, the term ‘pokies’ is slang for slot games in Australia and New Zealand. It has evolved from the word ‘poker’, which was used to refer to automated gambling games in old times.

You can play online pokies on desktops, tabs, or mobile phones with an internet connection. Players have a set of reels laid with different symbols spinning vertically on their screens.

Mostly every slot game has a pre-set reel layout, 5*3, 6*4, and so on, and a set number of paylines where specific symbols must appear to crack a win. Most online pokies have certain high-paying symbols named the wild and the scatter that generate better payouts when they appear on the payline compared to low-paying symbols. Some real money pokies also have an additional bonus symbol that generates big wins.

Players must stake within the maximum and minimum bet and coin limits of the real money pokies they are playing. The coin value limit specifies the stake you want to put to each payline. Additionally, there is a bet level with which you can further increase your total stake.

Steps to Play:

1. Choose the online casino and the pokie you wish to play
2. Understand the bonus symbols and the payout table
3. Set your bets
4. Hit the spin button

The payouts will be generated automatically with RNG depending on where the symbols land and the game’s payout table.

Common Types of Online Pokies

If you wish to play real online pokies, you will be delighted to know that pokies, too, have evolved much like everything else. Starting from the classic fruit-themed online pokies, players now have online pokies with fantastic themes, 3D graphics, soundtrack, and animations, each imparting their unique aura. Also, the pokie world isn’t unaffected by the mobile revolution as now you can easily pick and play mobile online pokies anywhere and anytime on your mobile devices.

Classic Pokies

Classic pokies are the ancestors of modern-day video slots. Classic pokies in land-based casinos were machines with a lever on the side that needed to be pulled to spin the reels. Classic online pokies in online casinos are visually enhanced to give the same old authentic feel. They typically have fruits and common symbols such as 7s, bells, stars, and bars and have three reels and a maximum of nine paylines. Most classic pokies have three paylines. The background score used in Classic pokies is also basic- you can hear nothing more than beeps, bells, and other such generic sounds.

Fruit Machines

Fruit Machines are similar to the Classic pokies, but with only the fruit symbols on the reels. These machines are known to have originated in the UK to add an element of skill to the Classic pokies since games of chance were illegal back then. And so the fruit machines featured a Hold and Nudge feature in which the players can hold one reel and spin the others or nudge one reel to move one position keeping the other reels constant.

Video Pokies

Video pokies, unlike Classic movies, have much more elaborate sounds, animation, and themed graphics. That is why modern punters are more drawn toward these real money pokies. Video pokies give more of an interactive slot experience than fruit machines or classic slots. Some of these also sport an imaginary handle similar to the classic pokies in brick-n-mortar casinos for players who prefer a retro-themed slot experience. Most video online pokies feature 5, 6, or 7 or colossal reels and offer multiple paylines and bonus features to keep players glued to them.

5-Reel Pokies

5-reel pokies are among the most popular online pokies in New Zealand and the rest of the world. These are online pokies displaying five reels and multiple paylines. These have elaborate sounds depending on the theme and offer intriguing gameplay with exciting features, bonus rounds, multipliers, and progressive jackpots.

7-Reel Pokies

7-reel slots are like 5-reel online pokies, the only difference being seven spinning reels instead of five. There is no distinction between a five or seven reel slot gameplay. However, the gameplay, theme, bonus features, etc., vary from game to game.

Jackpot Pokies

Jackpot pokies are the most hunted variety of real money pokies as these offer millions of dollars as jackpots over and above the regular wins that come by playing slots. A jackpot pokie can offer a fixed mega jackpot set by the casino or a progressive jackpot. Every time the player wagers on a progressive jackpot pokie, a part of the stake goes to the progressive jackpot pool.

Branded Pokies

Online pokies that take themes, symbol names, gameplay, and soundtrack from popular brands from TV, movies, sports, cartoons, etc., are branded pokies. The brand increases the face value of the slot, and you can expect to have great graphics and animations in such online pokies. These slot games have financial support from the brand they endorse, naturally have a better budget and offer relatively immersive gameplay. Some renowned branded online pokies are The Simpsons, Scarface, Batman, Jimi Hendrix, and Jumanji.

Mobile Pokies

Many developers have created online pokies that are fully compatible to play on Apple and Android mobile devices, thanks to the HTML5 technology. These mobile online pokies give the same experience as playing from your desktop or tabs, with the added convenience of playing from anywhere and anytime. You can play mobile pokies by downloading the casino app on your mobile phone or playing directly through the mobile browser. The theme and gameplay of mobile online pokies are all similar to the regular video pokies.

Main Features in Pokies

Before you rush to play online pokies for real money, you should understand the terminology, symbols, bonus games, and how the multipliers work to get a better hold of your game. Knowing about them beforehand is essential to playing and enjoying the real money pokies.

▶ Paylines

This feature is a group of symbols in a vertical, horizontal, zigzag, or any specified pattern that qualifies for a win. Most real money slots qualify wins with symbols from left to the right, whereas some pay in either direction. Players can play with a few active paylines of the total available paylines if they like to stake less, while this might not be an option for some slots. But, more paylines increase the chances of winning.

▶ Minimum and Maximum Bets

Each pokie machine has a specific minimum and maximum bet limit on each spin. The bet amount of a spin is the coin value multiplied by the number of active paylines the player chooses to play with. The coin value is the amount the player wishes to spend per payline and again has a minimum and maximum limit. The minimum bet amount is the minimum coin value multiplied by the active paylines. The maximum bet is obtained similarly by multiplying the maximum coin value by the total number of paylines.

▶ Wilds

Most real money pokies have a specific wild symbol that acts in different ways to enhance the payouts for the player. The wild symbol can be considered as any other symbol to complete the winning combination, except for the game’s scatter symbol. It works in many exciting ways to generate massive multipliers for the players in the best online real money pokies.

• Random Wilds: these wild symbols appear randomly on the reels and complete winning combinations by substituting for other symbols except the scatter symbols.
• Expanding Wilds: these wild symbols expand on the reels, dramatically increasing the winning combinations. The overlaps with other symbols increase with additional wilds, yielding their respective payouts and ultimately increasing that spin’s total payout.
• Stacked Wilds: the stacked wilds appear on top of the other and convert to expanding wilds in the next spin. Depending on the number of wilds in the stack, these can cover the entire reel while expanding or covering a part of the reel.
• Sticky Wilds: sticky wilds generally stick to the reels for a few spins once they appear. These wilds can stack up when more wilds appear in the following spins, but this happens mainly in the bonus rounds.
• Moving Wilds: a moving or a walking wild will move from one reel to another until it falls off the side. It generates winning combinations wherever possible with each spin. Along with this, the player gets free spins until the moving wild stays on the game screen.
• Straight and diagonal Wilds: the straight wild, when it appears, heads straight to reel 3 on the screen. The diagonal wild will appear on reels 2 and 4. When both wilds appear together and meet, a flying symbol is activated, transforming into a symbol that creates the highest possible win for the player.
• Shifting Wilds: the shifting wilds will stick to the game screen for a few spins like Sticky Wilds, but they will keep shifting one position with each spin. Once they reach the corner, they will fall off the screen.
• Transferring Wild: the transferring wilds greatly enhance the payout from the game. As they appear on the first set of reels on the left, which also appear slightly larger, they will keep transferring wild symbols on the remaining reels on the right with each spin.

▶ Scatters

Like the wild symbol, some online pokies also have a particular scatter symbol, which is mainly responsible for creating free spins, multipliers, and entry into mini-games from within the base game. In some slots, scatters can only generate multipliers and do not offer free spins or bonus games. You can check the details of the scatter symbols and their related payouts from the game’s paytable.

The players must land at least three scatter symbols to get free spins. The best thing is they do not have to appear at a specific position on the reels. Most 5-reel, 7-reel, and progressive jackpot slots have scatter symbols while classic slots do not feature them.

▶ Special Symbols

Some online pokies also have special or bonus symbols that pay out based on the paytable. They could also lend entry into a bonus game or appear only during the bonus game and generate mega multipliers, depending on the slot you have chosen to play.

▶ Multiplier

These are bonuses that double up the fun of real money online slots. The wild, scatter, and bonus symbols play their own roles in the gameplay to impart multipliers to the wins. The multiplier information of each game’s symbols is available in the paytable on the game. Some real money pokies also have specific multiplier symbols to multiply the payouts.

▶ Bonus Games

Some real money pokies feature a separate bonus game or multiple mini-games triggered randomly or by landing certain special symbols on the reels in the base game. These bonus games are not played on a reel set-up necessarily. These could be a specific jackpot game that lets players earn the real money slot’s biggest jackpot.

▶ Cascading Reels

This is a feature in online pokies that works very much like its name. It brings a cascade on the reels and replaces all the symbols with a new set after landing a winning combination. This feature is also termed avalanche, collapsing, swooping, rolling, or tumbling reels by some developers. Players are more drawn towards online pokies offering cascading reels since they anticipate better wins with the change in the entire reel-set up.

▶ Free Spins

This is an in-game feature in most online pokies mainly triggered with the help of scatter symbols. They allow the players to play free rounds on the slot game without staking additional money. The game plays as usual when the free spins feature is in process.

▶ Megaways

Many online pokies sites offer real money slots with megaways with a huge number of offered paylines and naturally have higher chances of wins. In some megaways real money pokies, players cannot change the number of paylines while playing. Megaways slots can be broadly classified as follows:

• 243 Ways to Win: such pokies offer players 243 paylines and generally makes a winning combination with any three similar symbols adjacent on the reels from left to right. However, these are low variance online slots, meaning the wins are more frequent but small.
• 720 Ways to Win: these slot games don’t only pay with winning combinations made from left to right. Instead, wins are made both ways to account for the 720 ways of winning. Similar to 243 ways to win slots, any matching symbols on the reels generate payouts for the player.
• 1024 Ways to Win: with 1024, players can make a combination in almost every direction as long as at least two matching symbols appear on the reels. These real money slots generally offer a higher RTP because you can win a profit even with minimum bets.

Top Online Pokies for Real Money

What attracts players to online gambling pokies is the ease of playing without any complex tactics. Let us round-up on the most popular online pokies that slot lovers are spinning all over.

1. Starburst by Netent. Starburst slot has been a legendary slot ever since it was released in 2012. It features a 5*3 layout with ten paylines and carries the theme of jewels. With expanding star wilds and wins paying from both sides, this pokie game offers an RTP of 96.09%. It offers a mega jackpot of 50,000 coins.
2. Mega Moolah by Microgaming. The slot was released in 2006, themed on an African Savanna featuring a Wheel Spin bonus round. With four progressive jackpots (mini, minor, major, mega), Mega Moolah can’t be left off the charts when talking about the all-time top real money slots. The all-time maximum win being €18,915,872.81 at Grand Mondial Casino in Sep 2018.
3. Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead by Play’N Go. This slot continues to awe pokie players with its subtle Egyptian theme since 2016 and an RTP of 96.21%. It has 5*3 reels and ten paylines and offers a jackpot of up to 25,000 coins. The Book of Dead promises many exciting wins for its players with a randomly expanding symbol during the free spins round.
4. Blood Suckers by Netent. Howling out an RTP of 98%, Blood Suckers is full of vampires, ghouls, and zombies. The players can enter the Vampire slaying bonus round to open up coffins to get hidden surprises with the blood-curdling hammer bonus symbol. The blood-sucking vampire wild lets players win the maximum possible win of 1014.6x their stake.
5. Rainbow Riches Megaways by Barcrest. This slot offers a whopping 117,649 paylines and an RTP of 96% and is laid over a colourful jewel theme lined by a rainbow running over. With buy free spins, an unlimited multiplier, Super Gem Bonus round and Cascading reels in play, this pokie doesn’t let the punter’s thrill rest. The slot was released in 2009 after the original Rainbow Riches was released in 2006.
6. Mega Joker by Netent. With a 99% RTP, this is a high-volatility slot released in 2011 by Netent. The slot is perfect for players who prefer traditional themes. So, you will find the basic fruit symbols on the reels, which are divided into two sections. The game offers a basic mode and a Supermeter mode for premium wins. Alternating the modes can randomly trigger a progressive jackpot.

The Best Online Slots Software Developers

There are many renowned software developers who keep updating the exciting range of online real money slots for gamblers. Listed below are the top online real pokies providers.

	Founded in 1994, Microgaming provides casino and sports betting software and is headquartered in the Isle of Man. It is the first company to develop software for online gambling and now offers around 1200 casino games, including real money online slots, live table games, and multi-player games. The company released the first-ever 3D pokie in 2011.
	This developer is the maker of top online slots like Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest and Night Rider and has around 200 casino games in its pool. The developer is known to produce high RTP slots. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Stockholm.
	Playtech plc was established in 1999 in Estonia. The software provider has created software for multiple games such as Poker, Bingo, scratch cards, arcade, live dealer games and around 250+ online pokies with mobile compatibility. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange.
	A relatively new player, Play’N Go has been around since 2005 and has still made a good mark in the online gambling industry. It has its headquarters in Sweden. The games from this provider are available in a total of 30 languages. Gunslinger and Slinging Spins are the two popular Play’ N Go titles.
	It is an international gambling software company founded by Johann Graf in 1980. Novomatic AG Group has two of their own casinos located in Berlin and Chile. The casino software provider company features over 400 pokie games. Having offices in around 50 countries, the company had a turnover of around EUR 1.8 billion in 2021.

RTP & Odds of Winning

All the real money online pokies are assigned a certain RTP or Return to Player percentage based on the past returns generated by the players. Most slot games offer between 92%-97% RTP, which signifies that historically for every $100 spent by the players, $92-$97 was earned back as a payout.

The odds of winning are merely the total possible winning chances divided by the total likely losing chances. Low variance real money slots generally have better odds since the chances of winning are high, but the win amount is less than high volatility slots, which have fewer winning chances but offer great wins.

Top 5 Real Money Slots with the Highest RTP

There are many real money slots that offer around up to 99% RTP. The top slots with the best RTPs available in New Zealand online casinos are as follows:

Top Available Bonuses at Online Pokies

When you play slots online for real money, you don’t have to bet with real cash every time; instead, there are a plethora of bonuses offered that you can use to try out different real money online pokies at the casino. Following are the available offers you can watch out for while hunting for a casino with the best bonus.

• Welcome Bonus. This bonus is mostly offered as a package and is a percentage match up of the player’s first few deposits capped up to a certain limit.
• No Deposit Bonus. The casinos offering a no deposit bonus let the players register at the site and avail of this bonus on real money online pokies without depositing any money.
• Free Play. It lets you try out online pokies without registering or depositing any money. Many casinos offer free or demo play on slot games.
• Free Spins. The bonus spins are provided on particular real money slot games as part of the welcome package along with the match-up offer. Many developers also run free spin offers on individual slot games.

Best Casinos with Real Money Pokies

Many top casinos offer a great online pokies range with great RTPs and low minimum deposit requirements. Here is a look at the best casinos with their popular real money online pokies:

Play Pokies for Real Money vs Free

Useful Tips to Win in Real Money Slots

It is essential to use some tips while playing slots for money to get the best of your stakes. First and foremost is always setting a budget while entering any casino site. You have to choose the online pokies you want to play wisely by researching the bonus games, the number of paylines available, the special symbols with high payouts, and understanding the game’s variance well before playing it.

You can also try your hand at a few demo games to understand how to fix coin and bet value with bonus credits and how the different features of the slot game work before spending real money. You can check out the ‘popular’ slots section of the casino website to find out the best pokies to play for a start.

How We Rate the Best Casinos with Pokies?

If you are overwhelmed with the range of best pokies online and do not know where to start, we can help you zero down on the casino by sharing our expert recommendations. We consider various factors, such as the promotions offered, licensing and safety, returns offered to the players, and low deposit casino requirements, to help you find the best site to play online slots for real money.

Real money Play and Demo Play

Casinos offering demo play are always beneficial for the players to understand the game well before making real money bets. We rate casinos offering free play higher in our reviews.

Promotional Offers

Players never mind promotional offers; the more a casino offers, the better it is. We also review the online pokies offered in various promotional offers and their offered RTPs.

Safety

The casino site our players choose should be regulated by top licensing authorities and should be independently audited to confirm fair gaming. We also ensure the casinos use the latest SSL and TLS encryptions to protect the players’ confidential data. Also, the casinos should follow safe gambling norms per the guidelines from regulatory authorities such as Gambling Commission.

Mobile Compatibility

With the mobile age, mobile compatibility is quintessential to staying connected to your game whenever and wherever. We rate casinos offering games with Android and Apple smartphone compatibility and have mobile apps, better than those who don’t.

Return to player

We understand winning payouts is the ultimate objective of our players while playing casino games, so we thoroughly examine the offered returns to the player on different online pokies that the casino provider offers.

Customer Support

24/7 customer support is required to cater to players in different time zones. Casinos offering phone support are always better for quick resolution of queries, while they must have a live chat and an email option for players’ ease.

Let’s Sum Up

So what’s next in online slots? A recent announcement by Raw iGaming indicates that the developers are planning to level up the online slots experience, something beyond the standard reel structure.

But, while that happens, you can pick your device and get down playing the best online slots for real money. You can choose a theme of your interest or try out branded online pokies to get the best of online casino gaming. If you think you need too much of a strategy or reading to do before playing real money slots, you now know that you don’t!

Try out a few demo online pokies, and you are good to go; remember to start with low bets first! You never know when you will become a pokie pro and go on to participate in online casino Pokie tournaments.

Posted by: Bohdan B.
Digital Marketing Specialist

Previously, Bohdan has administrated websites in a variety of highly competitive niches, providing and promoting reliable information to users. Based on his interests and experience, Bohdan now works at Gamblorium and along with a team of experts analyses the fast-growing New Zealand online casino market, covering the most important factors.