Pokie Machines
The term pokie machines refers to a machine that has more than three reels which will spin when the 'spin' button on the pokie machine is pushed.
Pokie Machines are also well know as 'slot machines' in the USA, 'Fruit Machines' or 'Fruities' in the UK, 'the slots' in Canada and 'the pokies' or 'pokies' in Australia. If you know anymore we would love to hear them!
The first types of pokie machines were called 'one arm bandits'. This is due to the fact that there was a lever on the side of the pokie machine which you would pull to spin the reels. This was obviously changed for a button as the slot machines developed. The word bandit came from the fact that the machine generally left you with no money like a bandit in a robbery. Some of the most modern pokie machines have both the lever and the spin button. This is more of an attraction than a necessity.
Inside the pokie machine there is currency detector, this will check the coin to determine whether it is real or fake. If the coin is real the credit will then display on the machine, however if it is fake the coin will be spat out by the machine.
How to win on the pokies - Wins are based on the outcome of symbols displayed on the screen when the reels stop spinning. Depending on how many reels the pokie machine has will determine how many outcomes or results there can be. For example a 3 reeled pokie machine will have less possible outcomes than a 5 reel pokie machine.
The pokies make up for around 70% of most casinos profit and are by far the most popular games at the casinos.
The most common types of symbols used on a pokie machine are fruits. However there are a lot of slot machines out there and they feature symbols such as simple shapes, numbers, letters, hearts, bells, diamonds, some new pokie machines feature such as the marvel pokies feature your favourite cartoon pokie symbols.
Most wins on the pokies will either give the player a certain amount of money or could be a pokie machine with free spins, giving the player multiple spins which are often more likely to produce a win. They are known as 'win spins'.
The most common types of pokie machines include video poker machines, multiline pokie machines, 3 reel pokie machines, 5 reel pokie machines, progressive pokie machines and now even 3D pokie machines.
The pokie pay table is normally displayed on the front of the machine in clear view. This is most common with the older machines. The newer pokies such as video pokies require you to press a 'pay table' button to view the different outcomes that will win you money.
Pokie machines have always (until recently) used revolving mechanical reels to display the outcome of the spin. Due to the fact that a mechanical device was used it was simpler for slot machines to use 3 reels rather than 5 reels and this soon became the most common type of machine. The problem with this was the limited number of outcomes the machine would be able to produce as the machine was only cubic. This meant for example a machine with 3 reels and a total of 10 symbols could only display a possible 1000 different results. This meant manufacturers were restricted to the amount of jackpot money they could offer knowing a jackpot could be hit every 1000 spins. It wasn’t until a virtual reel using a random number generator was invented until casinos could offer the huge progressive jackpots on the pokies that they offer today.
