If you’re in Australia, except for Western Australia, the chances are you’ll have encountered a pokie recently. A staple of pubs, clubs, and casinos, pokies are an engrained aspect of Aussie culture and have been for at least a couple of decades.
Pokies have been common since the 1950s and were first regulated in 1956 in New South Wales. In the 1990s, all other states except Western Australia regulated pokie use, which is when the pokie boom took off nationwide. Nowadays, you’ll find just under 200,000 pokies around the country, with the most significant percentage in NSW.
On this page, we’ll be diving into the origins of pokes in Australia, looking at what gamblers did before pokies arrived, how pokies became popular in the country, and much more.
Table of Contents
Early Gambling in Australia
Gambling has been a hugely popular pastime in Australia for many years. As with most countries, sports betting was initially the most popular way to gamble, with sports-mad Aussies betting on everything from football to cricket. But horse racing was the most popular sport with gamblers and is still incredibly popular in the country today.
Aside from sports betting, gambling was largely an underground activity in Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Chinese clubhouses, where games such as Fan Tan could be played, were found in some major cities, with regular reports of them being raided by police.
In the late 19th century, a man called Charles Fey invented the slot machine in the US. He created the Liberty Bell, the first slot with an automatic payout system. It had playing card suits as symbols, like a card game – this is where the Australian colloquialism ‘pokie’ would come from. These machines started making their way to Australia in the early 20th century.
The Rise of Pokies in Australia
While pokies started filtering into Australia in the early 1900s, it wasn’t until the 1950s that they began becoming popular. This was when the government of New South Wales became the first state to licence and regulate pokies, legalizing them and earning taxation from the money they earned.
The first pokies to become popular in NSW were those made by the Australian company Aristocrat, which is still around today. They created the Clubman slot, which became a staple in venues throughout the country, before manufacturing the Clubmaster, the original game’s sequel. Aristocrat came to dominate the Australian pokie market, plus exported pokies – or slot machines, as they’re called elsewhere – throughout the world.
The initial legislation to legalize pokies in NSW was the Betting and Gaming (Poker Machines) Taxation Act. Every other state, bar Western Australia, has since legalized pokies, all keen to profit from the tax revenue they bring.
The Evolution of Pokies
Pokies were pretty rudimentary games when they were first introduced into Australian venues. They used basic mechanics to power the reels and dispense prizes, with each game generally having three spinning reels and up to five paylines. Jackpots were small compared to those found today, and the games had no bonuses or features.
A huge step came in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the first video pokies were designed, manufactured, and distributed. These games didn’t use physical reels but instead showed the reels on a digital screen. Over time, new bonuses and features were added to video slots, increasing their complexity and boosting excitement. These innovative new machines further enhanced the popularity of pokies in Australia.
Then came the online era of gambling, which began in the mid-1990s but really became popular in the early 2000s. Online pokies come in a vast array of shapes and sizes and offer many exciting features to enjoy. But online casinos, as well as online pokies, haven’t yet been legalized in Australia. That hasn’t stopped most from playing, as several offshore casinos accept Aussie players.
Controversies Surrounding Pokies
There has, of course, been much controversy surrounding pokies in Australia, as the country has some of the highest losses per head anywhere in the world. Overall, Australians lose around $25 billion per year to legal gambling, with pokies contributing a large percentage of this. With this much being lost, it’s not surprising to find that Australia has significant issues with problem gambling
There is government regulation of gambling in Australia, but this has done little to limit the problems gambling can bring. They have moved to stem the growth of online casino gaming simply by not legalizing it, but this hasn’t prevented Aussies from getting online and playing offshore. The lack of regulation means the country is missing out on the opportunity to earn tax income from legal online pokies and other games.
Nowadays, there is considerable support for an overhaul of gambling, and particularly pokies, in Australia, especially from those who don’t engage in much gambling. In NSW, Dominic Perrottet has promised that all pokies will soon be cashless, allowing players to set limits easily. At the same time, Tasmania will soon force players to set limits before they can start playing pokies. There’s also significant pressure in Victoria to overhaul laws surrounding pokies.
But getting meaningful reform through is always going to be tough. The pokie industry is hugely influential in the country, and they’ll fight any new legislation that could impact the amount of money they make through pokies in pubs, clubs, and casinos.
Conclusion
As can be seen, pokies have a long history in Australia. They’ve impacted the country in many ways, from increasing state governments’ revenue to causing high levels of problem gambling in some parts of the country. To ensure pokies continue to offer enjoyment to Australians and that the most vulnerable are protected from the dangers of pokies, the only option is meaningful reform of the Australian gambling landscape and increased promotion of responsible gambling.
