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If you’re heading to the land down under, there’s a word you may hear tossed about at the best online casinos NZ, Pokies.
It’s a shortened term to denote Poker slots. While there are now various Poker slot machines, video slots and slot-styled mobile games which are very different to the early Poker slots that many associate the term with, this makes no difference now to the word’s popularity. Find out a bit more about it before you hit a fabulous casino like SlotsMagic to spin some reels.
Where Does the Word Come From?
The first theory is that it was first used in the early 1990s, in reference to Poker machine slots when there wasn’t as large a variety as there is today. Coupled with the fact that Poker machines and slots were often placed beside each other on casino floors, with no clear distinction between the games, many people got confused between the two. Which is why the term pokies may have originated.
The second theory is that because gamblers had to insert a coin into the slot machines, the coin would be Poked in. Then, once the player had won any kind of significant windfall, the machine would have the silver coins cascade down and out in a large, showy way along with the bells and whistles to denote a win.
But, due to mechanisms wearing down over time, these machines were sometimes delayed when it came to this process. And over-eager players would stick their pointer finger into the withdrawal slot and ‘poke’ the machine.
These days, everyone knows that Pokies means slots and that the two terms are interchangeable. Keep this in mind when you’re reading a review of the next best online casino NZ! When you read about the great pokies, it’s great news if you’re a slots fan.
Players at many of the best online casinos NZ like to call all slot machines pokies, and slots are what most overseas operators call their versions of the same games.
So the main difference between slots and pokies really is just the name. For each, you need to insert a coin, or play with online credits at SlotsMagic, for example, to spin the reels. And then you rely on inbuilt RNG technology to spin and provide the random numbers or symbols which may or may not net you a win.
Now you know what pokies are, why don’t you go and enjoy some?