{"id":4821,"date":"2021-08-11T08:30:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=4821"},"modified":"2024-07-05T04:46:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T09:46:42","slug":"why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &#8211; And Not Slots?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever been to Australia or just browsed an\nonline casino site, you\u2019ve probably heard or seen the term \u201cpokie\u201d being thrown\naround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cPokies\u201d is just another name for <a href=\"\/slots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slot machines<\/a>, which is used in Australia and New Zealand. There is no difference between pokies and slots except the name.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Where The Name \u201cPokie\u201d Came From<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The term \u201cpokie\u201d comes from the \u2018pok\u2019 in &#8216;poker machine&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since you might know that Australians love to\nabbreviate everything already &#8211; relative into \u201crellie\u201d, surfer into \u201csurfie\u201d,\nmosquito into \u201cmozzie\u201d, etc. &#8211; it probably makes sense for the long-to-say\n\u2018poker machine\u2019 to be shortened into \u201cpokie\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But why were these machines ever referred to as \u2018poker\nmachines\u2019 despite being more similar to slot machines than video poker games?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can\u2019t be known for sure \u2013 it\u2019s one of those\nthings that seemingly has just \u2018always been\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advertising as far back as you want to look even\nrefers to them as pokies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One theory is that in the early days of Australian casinos (around the 1900s), one of the first games was in fact a poker \u2018machine\u2019, or what they might call <a href=\"\/video-poker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video poker<\/a> elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as soon as slot machines started to gain popularity and be situated next to these machines, it just became easier to refer to all the gaming machines in the room as &#8220;pokies&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The term has obviously stuck and even has carried over to online gambling, where all online slots and video poker games are also called pokies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"\/en-au\/online-pokies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Free online pokies<\/a> tend to be the most popular with players in Australia, as well as casual pokies that are found  in Aussie pubs and clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Other Slot Slang From Around The\nWorld<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While a deck of <a href=\"\/blog\/10-most-amazing-facts-about-playing-cards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cards<\/a> is the same no matter where you go in the world, the much-loved electronic gambling machines have been given other names around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In England slots are sometimes referred to as &#8220;fruit machines&#8221; or &#8220;fruities&#8221;, and a &#8220;puggy&#8221; in Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around the rest of the globe, there are people that love good old-fashioned colloquial slang and call them by the classic name of &#8220;one-armed bandits&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever been to Australia or just browsed an online casino site, you\u2019ve probably heard or seen the term&nbsp;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":28892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &amp; Not Slots? - Where The Name Orginated<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pokies Defintion - Why Are Pokies Called Pokies, Not Slots? What&#039;s with this Australian term for slots? Learn what pokies are &amp; how they got their name.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies - And Not Slots?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn what pokies are &amp; how they got their Aussie nickname.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brooke Keaton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brooke Keaton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brooke Keaton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbf00369f1d443da6368ce43305468d\"},\"headline\":\"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &#8211; And Not Slots?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\"},\"wordCount\":369,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Industry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\",\"name\":\"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies & Not Slots? - Where The Name Orginated\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"Pokies Defintion - Why Are Pokies Called Pokies, Not Slots? What's with this Australian term for slots? Learn what pokies are & how they got their name.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"slots on casino floor\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &#8211; And Not Slots?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Blog\",\"description\":\"Casino.org Online Casino Blog covers the latest news, tips, strategies and in-depth articles about the online casino industry and gambling in general.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/corg-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/corg-logo.png\",\"width\":395,\"height\":130,\"caption\":\"Casino.org\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Casino_Org\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbf00369f1d443da6368ce43305468d\",\"name\":\"Brooke Keaton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d43a586ccfea0f90fe2702577ee40a4e?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d43a586ccfea0f90fe2702577ee40a4e?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brooke Keaton\"},\"description\":\"Former-croupier Brooke has over 10 years of experience in the industry. She covers covers casino, travel, and lifestyle content.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/author\/b-keaton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies & Not Slots? - Where The Name Orginated","description":"Pokies Defintion - Why Are Pokies Called Pokies, Not Slots? What's with this Australian term for slots? Learn what pokies are & how they got their name.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies - And Not Slots?","og_description":"Learn what pokies are & how they got their Aussie nickname.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brooke Keaton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brooke Keaton","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/"},"author":{"name":"Brooke Keaton","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbf00369f1d443da6368ce43305468d"},"headline":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &#8211; And Not Slots?","datePublished":"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/"},"wordCount":369,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg","articleSection":["Industry"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/","name":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies & Not Slots? - Where The Name Orginated","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-11T13:30:07+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-05T09:46:42+00:00","description":"Pokies Defintion - Why Are Pokies Called Pokies, Not Slots? What's with this Australian term for slots? Learn what pokies are & how they got their name.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/christopher-ryan-Ld_NoMgLw8Y-unsplash.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"slots on casino floor"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/why-are-pokies-called-pokies-and-not-slots\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Are Pokies Called Pokies &#8211; And Not Slots?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/","name":"Casino.org Blog","description":"Casino.org Online Casino Blog covers the latest news, tips, strategies and in-depth articles about the online casino industry and gambling in general.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"Casino.org","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/corg-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/corg-logo.png","width":395,"height":130,"caption":"Casino.org"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","https:\/\/x.com\/Casino_Org"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbf00369f1d443da6368ce43305468d","name":"Brooke Keaton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d43a586ccfea0f90fe2702577ee40a4e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d43a586ccfea0f90fe2702577ee40a4e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Brooke Keaton"},"description":"Former-croupier Brooke has over 10 years of experience in the industry. She covers covers casino, travel, and lifestyle content.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/author\/b-keaton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41064,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions\/41064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}