Online Pokies (Slots Online): The Best Sites to Play Pokies Online in New Zealand

Online casino players in New Zealand are fond of playing online pokies. In fact, online pokies are the most played games at NZ online casinos. Playing online pokies at top-rated NZ online casinos is a treat as they feature amazing graphics, sound effects, and animations.

If you have never played online pokies before, it is high time you start. Before that, we recommend reading the following guide on playing online pokies for fun and/or real money in New Zealand. Find out how to make the most of your online pokies gaming experience in New Zealand.

How We Choose Pokies Casinos for NZ Players

We take special care while choosing pokies casinos for NZ players. We want our NZ players to enjoy the best pokies in a safe, secure, licensed, and well-regulated online gambling environment. So we spend several days researching each online slots casino. We add an online casino to our list only if it meets the following criteria:

Software Providers– While we have nothing against online casinos that offer games from only one provider, we prefer online casinos that offer thousands of exciting pokies from multiple game vendors such as Playtech, Microgaming, NetEnt, Betsoft, PlayNGo, Playson, NextGen Gaming, and others.

We list only multi-vendor online casinos offering hundreds and thousands of classic slots, multi-line video slots, branded slots, and progressive slots from several game providers.

Fun vs. Real Money– You don’t have to make a deposit right away at any of our recommended online casinos. You can sign up and play the games in the free, fun, demo, or practice modes. Sign up is not even necessary at some of our listed and ranked NZ online casinos for pokies players.
Download vs. Instant Play– The download casino has almost gone out of fashion, but a number of reputed online casinos still allow players to download and install their software client. Most of our recommended casinos, however, are instant play. They allow you to play in-browser without having to download any native app or software client.
Mobile Pokies– With a rising number of NZ online casino players preferring to play on the move, online casinos that are not optimized for mobile play are not worth looking at. For this reason, we recommend only mobile friendly online casinos.
Slots Bonus Offers– You will find plenty of slots promotions and slots-specific bonus offers, free spins packages, and cashback offers at the online casinos in our list.
Online Pokies Tournaments– Another exciting feature of the NZ online casinos we recommend are the online pokies tournament. You can buy-in with cash or slots comps.

Many online pokies tournaments are absolutely free to enter, but offer exciting prizes in the form of bonus cash, free spins, and loyalty points.

Top Software Providers – Best Pokies Developers

The online slots gaming market is flooded with game providers who roll out new pokies incessantly. The best online casinos are those that partner with as many of these providers as possible so that you can enjoy the best slots in the market on a single gaming platform.

Each NZ online casino game provider stands in a class of its own. For example, Betsoft is famous for its selection of 3D online slots, which deliver a cinematic gaming experience; Microgaming is home to the world’s biggest network of progressive online casino games; and NetEnt is known for its small, but high-quality game portfolio of original and branded slots.

We have, therefore, chosen NZ online casinos that offer games from multiple vendors. Thanks to multi-provider online casinos, you don’t have to sign up at multiple online casinos just to play games from a certain provider. You can play games from multiple providers at one online casino.

You will find the best online pokies from the following vendors at top-rated NZ online casinos:

Evolution Gaming
Bally Technologies
NetEnt
Microgaming
IGT
Real Time Gaming (RTG)
Playtech
PlayNGo
Williams Interactive
Yggdrasil
Aristocrat
Quickspin

Types of Pokies

The following is a brief overview of slots or pokies you will find at our recommended NZ online pokies casinos:

Classic Slots– These are simple slots with limited features, three reels, and one payline. Since they have limited bonus features, they deliver the simple slots gaming experience of the past.
5 Reel Slots– Rich in graphics and audio effects, these are visually appealing slots with multiple paylines, lucrative features, and generous payouts.
Multi-line Slots– As the name suggests, these are slots that offer multiple ways to win. At our recommended online pokies sites for NZ players, you can choose slots with 15, 20, 40, 100, and even 243, 1024, or more ways to win. Although the fixed payouts are smaller, players can win a lot of money in special features such as free spins, bonus rounds, and others.
Progressive Slots– These are slots associated with progressive jackpots. Since the value of a progressive jackpot keeps rising with every bet placed on the game, you can become very rich indeed if you win a progressive jackpot slot.

Special Features of Online Pokies

Online pokies enjoy a great deal of popularity because they have the following special features. Usually, you have to activate a special feature by spinning a particular symbol combination. If you do so, you get the opportunity win more prizes.

Wild Symbols– Almost all online pokies have a wild symbol that is capable of substituting for the other symbols on the reels and helping to create winning combinations. Sometimes the wild symbol doubles, triples, or even quadruples the payout of the winning combination it helped to create. Some slots offer extra wild symbols during the free spins round.
Scatter Symbols– You will win cash prizes if you land combinations of scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. You don’t have to line them along a payline to win prizes. Combinations of scatter symbols are capable of unlocking other lucrative features such as bonus rounds and free spins.
Stacked Symbols– In some online pokies, certain symbols appear stacked, covering an entire reel. This increases the slot’s winning potential. If the stacked symbol is a wild, it can boost your winnings in no time. Some online pokies offer stacked symbols only in the free spins round.
Free Spins– If you unlock this feature, you get a bunch of free spins with special features such as multipliers, increasing multipliers, extra wild symbols, and extra scatter symbols. Some online pokies, such as Microgaming’s Thunderstruck II, offer multi-level free spins rounds.

Most online pokies allow you to re-activate the free spins round during a free spin. Simply land some more scatters along the reels and get another bunch of free spins.

Bonus Rounds– Some online pokies have exciting mini-games incorporated into them. While some of these games are lucky wheels, some are mini slots, some are pick-and-choose games, and some are arcade games.
Gamble Feature– The gamble feature gets activated at the end of every paid spin that results in payout. However, it is optional. If you win the gamble game, your winnings will be doubled or quadrupled. If you lose, you will lose all your winnings.
Progressive Jackpots– Progressive jackpots are the most exciting features of online pokies at NZ online casinos. These are jackpots that rise in value with every bet placed on the game. When they are finally won, they are reset to their seed value. Some of the most popular progressive jackpot games are Microgaming’s Mega Moolah and NetEnt’s Divine Fortune.

Online Slots FAQs

Q1: Do I have to download any software to play online pokies?

A: You don’t have to download any software to play pokies as you can play them right in your browser. All the online casinos we recommend offer excellent instant play gaming platforms. You just have to sign up to get started.

Q2: Are online pokies fair and random?

A: All the online pokies at our recommended NZ online casinos are fair and random. They have their games and software tested by independent, third-party auditors such as eCOGRA, Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), and Technical Systems Testing (TST). You can view the test reports whenever you please on the online casino websites.

Q3: Are there any good strategies to win at slots?

A: Not really. No strategy on earth can help you win at slots simply because they are games of pure chance. You just have to be lucky to hit the jackpot.

Q4: Why do most slots have symbols of fruits, sevens, bars, and high-value cards?

A: It is just part of a 100-year-old tradition. Online slots have always had symbols of playing cards, fruits, sevens, and bars.

Q5: Which is the biggest prize won on a slot?

A: Online slots have transformed players into multi-millionaires in just a few spins. For example, in October 2015, a UK soldier won £13,209,300 on Microgaming’s Mega Moolah slot. And on Jan 20, 2013, a Finnish player won £17,861,800 on Mega Fortune at Paf Casino.

Online Pokies Glossary

If you want to play slots at a NZ online casino, you should know certain slots terms. We have put together some of the most common slots terms for your benefit.

Autoplay – A slots feature that enables players to set the game to play on its own for a specific number of spins or till a particular amount has been won or lost.
Max Bet – The maximum amount that players can bet per spin on a particular slot.
Cascading Reels or Tumbling Reels – A feature that makes the symbols in a winning combination vanish so that fresh symbols can fall (cascade or tumble) into the spaces thus created, leading to more wins and more cascades.
Expanding Wild – A wild symbol that is capable of expanding all over the reels and increasing your chances of winning.
Nudge – A feature that permits users to nudge paylines so that they can create a winning combination.
Payout Percentage – The percentage of players’ bet amounts returned to them as winnings.
Pay Table – A table that informs players the exact amount they can win for specific winning combinations.
Variance – The level of risk associated with a pokie. While low variance pokies yield plenty of smaller wins, high variance pokies yield fewer big wins.

Getting Started with Online Pokies in New Zealand – Tips to Win

If you are eager to get started with online pokies in New Zealand, you should first sign up at a high-quality online pokies site. Just choose one of the slots casinos in our list, create an account, and make a deposit to claim a generous slots bonus. You can now start playing pokies online for fun or real money.

As we have previously mentioned, pokies are games of pure chance. You simply cannot use any strategies to improve your odds of winning. You will win only if Lady Luck smiles on you.

However, you can use the following tips to control your online casino bankroll and get the most of your online pokie gaming experience:

Play slots with higher payout percentages or return to player (RTP). The best NZ online casinos publish payout percentages on their website. So you won’t find it difficult to find a slot’s payout percentage. Slots with higher payout percentages yield more wins.
Play low variance slots. While you won’t win big jackpots, you will surely win plenty of smaller prizes.
Don’t stick to slots that are heavily promoted. Instead, do your research and find lesser known slots that are just as good as or even better than the most-played slots.
Bet max as it qualifies you to win the top fixed jackpot or progressive jackpot.
Grab as many free spins and slots bonuses as you can for risk-free opportunities to win real money.
Manage your bankroll well and know exactly when to end your gaming session.