Pokie machines in New Zealand are part of the strictly controlled Gambling industry of New Zealand. The department of Internal Affairs is in charge of making sure that a portion of public gambling revenues is returned to the community in order to fund social projects, urban renewal and a variety of other projects. The majority of the gambling industry in New Zealand is run by state-owned institutions.
Pokie machines were introduced to New Zealand in 1987 and have been mostly operated by charitable organizations and are found in bars and hotels. In 2008 the total revenue generated by gambling in New Zealand totaled NZ$10.096 billion. Of this total sum, roughly NZ$9.158 billion was returned to players in prize money. Pokie Machines account for almost 50% of gambling expenditure in New Zealand.
Since 2008 though, there has been a decrease in gambling expenditure as well as a decrease in the total number of machines operating in venues. As per records of 2008 there were 19 479 pokie machines operating in 1501 venues under 384 licenses.
Player Safety And Pokie Machines
In July 2009 legislation was introduced that requires all pokie machines to include Player Information Displays. These screens must include information on how much players have wagered, how much they have lost and how long they have been playing. These displays also need to suggest breaks to players.
The Online Pokie Machine Market
Online pokie machines have played a large role in changing the poke landscape in New Zealand. Players no longer need to go to hotels or bars to play pokie machines. You can now download software that allows you to play pokie games in the comfort of your own home or on the move. These games are based on real pokie machines that you can find in public, but many more are original poke games. Almost all these games can be played with real money or with free money. Due to current international gambling laws, these online poke machines are totally legal, along with real money wagering. The reason for this is because the servers hosting these games are located in disparate countries; so technically they are not casinos located on land in New Zealand.
The Downsides of Online Pokie Play
Auckland, Hamilton and Queensland are home to three of the biggest Casinos in New Zealand, so for many people online Pokie machines are the perfect answer. Many sites like Spin Palace, Casino.com, Jackpot City, Royal Vegas and many others offer pokie machines to play online for real or play money.
The biggest downside though of online pokie machines are the fact that even though they are regulated and not allowed to operate without gaming licenses, there is no regulation that requires these sites to take part in any charitable causes. Using real Pokie machines in a physical location in New Zealand essentially assure not just that the machine will have a fair pay out rate enforced by the government, but players will know that a percentage of their losses will be used to fund a variety of charitable projects in their community and across the entire country.