Gaming Machine: How Pokies Work, What a Session Costs and How They’re Regulated in Australia
What counts as a gaming machine in Australia
Gaming machine is the formal term used in Australian state and territory gambling legislation for what most punters call pokies or poker machines. When a licensing document, venue sign or regulator's website refers to a gaming machine, it means the same device you'd feed notes into at the local pub. The term matters because it is the legal category that determines where a machine can operate, who can approve it, and what rules it must follow.
You will also see the abbreviation EGM, short for electronic gaming machine, in regulatory and research material. It covers the same ground. What Australians call a gaming machine is roughly what Americans call a slot machine, though the games, stakes and rules differ between the two markets. A gaming machine in an Australian venue is a physical, networked terminal approved by the state or territory regulator, not a standalone piece of software anyone can install.
Machines are legally found in licensed hotels, registered clubs such as RSLs and leagues clubs, and casinos, with the permitted venues and machine numbers set by each jurisdiction. The ACT and Western Australia take notably different approaches to hotel and club machine numbers compared with New South Wales, which has the largest machine population in the country. Everywhere, gambling is restricted to people aged 18 and over, and venues must check identification where age is in doubt.
One boundary is worth flagging up front. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits online casino-style services, including online pokies, from being offered to Australian residents, and no such service can hold an Australian licence. Offshore websites that offer real-money online versions of these games are licensed, if at all, in overseas jurisdictions, and they sit outside Australian consumer protections. Everything below about regulation applies to physical machines in licensed venues.
How a gaming machine actually works
Every outcome on a gaming machine is decided by a random number generator, a piece of software that cycles through numbers continuously and locks one in the instant you press the button. The spinning reels, animations and sound effects are presentation layered on top of a result that was determined the moment you played. Nothing you do before pressing the button, and nothing that happened on the previous spin, influences what comes next.
Independence is the point most punters underestimate. Each spin is a separate event. A machine that has paid nothing for an hour is not due for a win, and a machine that just paid a feature is not about to go cold. The random number generator has no memory. Chasing a loss on the assumption that the machine owes you one is chasing a pattern that does not exist.
Wins are evaluated along paylines, or on newer games through ways-to-win systems that pay matching symbols on adjacent reels regardless of position. Your stake is usually a bet per line multiplied across however many lines the game runs. A machine set to one cent per line with fifty lines costs fifty cents a spin at minimum, and the button layout often nudges you toward higher multiples. The denomination on the cabinet is not the spin cost; the total bet display is.
Return to player, or RTP, is the long-run statistical percentage of all money turned over that a game is designed to pay back as winnings. A game with a 90 per cent RTP is built to return, on average, 90 cents of every dollar bet across its lifetime, which is millions of spins. Its mirror is the house edge, here 10 per cent. RTP is a design average, not a session promise. Over one evening you might double your money or lose the lot, and both outcomes are entirely consistent with the same RTP.
Volatility describes the shape of the ride around that average. A low-volatility game pays small wins frequently, so your credit balance erodes slowly and steadily. A high-volatility game pays rarely but can pay large amounts, so long dry spells are punctuated by occasional big hits. Two games can share an identical RTP and feel completely different to play, because volatility changes the distribution of outcomes without changing the long-run expectation.
Features such as free spins, multipliers and bonus rounds are already priced into the RTP. They are not extra generosity; they are part of how the game delivers its programmed return, usually concentrated in less frequent, larger events. A game whose RTP leans heavily on its feature round will feel brutal between features, which is a volatility choice, not a sign the machine is broken or rigged.
What a session on a gaming machine can cost
Turn the mechanics into dollars and the picture sharpens. Your expected cost per hour is your stake per spin, multiplied by how many spins you play in that hour, multiplied by the house edge. That product is your expected loss, and it scales with turnover rather than with time alone.
Here is a worked example with clearly hypothetical assumptions, not a description of any actual machine. Suppose you play a game at $2 per spin, at a pace of 500 spins per hour, on a game with a hypothetical 90 per cent RTP, meaning a 10 per cent house edge. Your hourly turnover is $2 times 500, or $1,000. Your expected loss is 10 per cent of that, or $100 per hour. Halve the stake to $1 and the expected cost halves to $50. Slow down to 300 spins an hour and it drops to $60. The arithmetic is linear, which is why the settings you control matter more than any superstition about the machine.
Expected loss is an average, not a guarantee. In any real hour, volatility means you could finish ahead, break roughly even, or lose well beyond the expectation. Over many hours, though, actual results drift toward the expected figure, and the direction is always downward for the player. No setting, system or timing ritual moves the expectation itself.
| Cost driver | Hypothetical assumption used | Effect on expected session cost | What the player can actually change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stake per spin | $2 per spin | Doubling the stake doubles expected loss, from $50 to $100 per hour at the same pace | Choose a lower denomination or fewer lines and multipliers; the total bet display shows the real spin cost |
| Spins per hour | 500 spins per hour | Faster play raises turnover and therefore expected loss in direct proportion | Slow down deliberately: take breaks, avoid rapid-fire button presses, skip auto-play style features where offered |
| Long-run return (RTP) | 90 per cent RTP, a 10 per cent house edge | A higher RTP trims the same small percentage from every dollar turned over; moving from 90 to 92 per cent cuts expected loss from $100 to $80 per hour in this example | Little in practice; RTP is set within an approved range and is rarely displayed on the machine itself |
| Volatility | High-volatility game at the same RTP | No change to expected cost; it only widens the swings, so two sessions with identical expectations can feel completely different on the day | Pick lower-volatility games if you prefer steadier play, accepting smaller maximum wins |
| Session length | One hour | Expected cost accumulates with every hour played; three hours at $100 expected loss per hour is $300 | Set a time limit before starting and leave when it expires, regardless of how the session is going |
Read down the last column and a pattern emerges. The drivers you genuinely control are stake, pace and time. RTP is fixed within whatever range the jurisdiction has approved, and volatility is a property of the game you pick. Punters who want to spend less per visit get further by lowering the bet and slowing down than by hunting for a supposedly looser machine, because the difference between approved RTP settings is small next to the difference between $1 spins and $5 spins.
How gaming machines are regulated across Australia
Regulation of venue-based machines sits with state and territory governments, not the Commonwealth. Each jurisdiction licenses the venues permitted to operate machines, caps how many machines can operate overall or per venue, and approves each individual machine model and game before it can be installed. A game that is approved in one state is not automatically approved in another; manufacturers submit software for testing against each jurisdiction's technical standards.
Minimum RTP floors exist across Australian jurisdictions, commonly in the high-80s to low-90s per cent range, but the exact floor, and whether it differs for clubs, hotels and casinos, varies by state and territory. Maximum bet caps per spin also exist and also vary. These settings are approved parameters, not operator discretion on the day, and machines are monitored and audited against them. If you want the precise figure for your state, the relevant gambling regulator publishes its technical standards and legislation.
Harm-minimisation rules layer on top of the machine standards. Depending on the jurisdiction, these can include mandatory shutdown periods, restrictions on note acceptors and credit play, signage and information requirements, self-exclusion programs run at venue level, and pre-commitment schemes that let a player set binding spend or time limits before a session. The detail differs considerably between states and territories, and schemes are at different stages of rollout, so treat any specific feature as jurisdiction-dependent rather than national.
The federal boundary is the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. It prohibits online casino-style gambling services, including online pokies, from being provided to people in Australia, and no Australian licence exists for them. Australian-licensed online services are limited to wagering on sport and racing, and lotteries, under Northern Territory or state regulation. Offshore casino sites that accept Australian players are licensed, where they are licensed at all, in foreign jurisdictions. Access is not approval: being able to open an account does not make the service legal to offer here, and Australian consumer protections, dispute pathways and harm-minimisation rules do not follow your money offshore.
Setting limits, self-exclusion and support
The cost arithmetic above points to the practical levers. Lower denominations and fewer credits per line cut your turnover per spin. Slower play cuts it per hour. A fixed session budget, decided before you walk in and held in cash rather than on a card you can keep drawing from, caps the total. None of this changes the game's odds; it changes how fast the odds act on your wallet.
- Decide the session spend before you start, and treat it as the price of the entertainment, not as money you might win back.
- Where your jurisdiction offers a pre-commitment or carded-play scheme, use it to set binding spend or time limits rather than relying on willpower mid-session.
- Leave bank cards elsewhere if topping up is your weak point; ATM access inside venues is designed to be convenient for a reason.
- Take breaks on a timer. Pace is a cost driver, and fatigue makes the buttons easier to press.
Self-exclusion from venue machines is run through state and territory programs: you register, and participating venues are required to refuse you entry to gaming areas or remove you from them. It is a genuine barrier, though its strength depends on the scheme's coverage and enforcement in your jurisdiction. BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, is a different tool: it covers Australian-licensed online wagering services such as bookmakers, not machines in pubs and clubs. If your play spans both, you need both.
On money matters, recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxed in Australia because they are not treated as income; the position can differ for someone whose gambling amounts to a business, which is a question for the ATO or an accountant. Winnings and losses do, however, need to be reported to Centrelink where you receive payments, because they can affect your assessed assets and income. Keep records if your play is more than occasional.
If the limits stop working, or you are hiding play from people around you, Gambling Help Online provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day on 1800 858 858, with online counselling and referral to face-to-face services in every state and territory. Reaching out early is cheaper, in every sense, than waiting for the problem to announce itself.
Is a gaming machine the same thing as a pokie?
Yes. Gaming machine is the formal legal term used in state and territory legislation; pokie and poker machine are the everyday names for the same device, and EGM (electronic gaming machine) is the common regulatory abbreviation.
Can a machine be due for a win after a long losing run?
No. Each spin is decided independently by a random number generator with no memory of past results. A losing run changes nothing about the probability of the next spin.
What RTP do Australian gaming machines have to meet?
Minimum RTP floors are set by each state and territory and commonly sit in the high-80s to low-90s per cent, but the exact figure varies by jurisdiction and sometimes by venue type. Check your local regulator's published standards for the current requirement.
Are online pokies legal in Australia?
No Australian licence exists for online casino-style games, and the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits offering them to Australian residents. Offshore sites that accept Australians operate outside local regulation, and Australian consumer protections do not apply to them.
Does BetStop cover pokies in pubs and clubs?
No. BetStop is the National Self-Exclusion Register for Australian-licensed online wagering services. Self-exclusion from venue machines is handled through separate state and territory programs run with venues.
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