Remember These Worlds From the Pokies Glossary
Pokies are the most popular form of gambling in Australia. Punters flock to live and online casinos to try their luck on these machines. The games tend to be simple to make them accessible to more players, but the glossary of pokies terms can be confusing to newcomers.
Learning the terms and phrases of pokies’ glossary helps you talk to other players about the games. This leads to discussions about strategy, the best pokies payouts, and much more. None of the phrases in the pokies glossary are confusing, they all make sense. Here are the most common words to commit to memory.
Pokies Glossary 101
The world pokies is the first name you come across. Aussies call these electronic games pokies because it is short for poker machines. The name is a little strange because no poker is played, but that is what they are called.
Our British cousins call pokies fruit machines or slots. They are sometimes called bandits, too, in reference to one-armed bandits, a doff of the cap to manual pokies of yesteryear.
Reels is another word straight from the most basic pokies glossary. The reels are the spinning part of the machine, the parts with all the symbols on them. Most pokies have three or five reels, but some many more. Seeing a pokies machine described as a 5×3 layout means there are five reels with three rows on them.
Your stake is the total cost of making the machine spin. Online pokies have a wide range of bet amounts to choose from. They range from pennies right up to $100 and more. Having a wide range of bet amounts gives online pokies an advantage over their live counterparts. This is especially true if you have a limited bankroll and are on a tighter budget.
Paylines, or winlines, are another common word to add to your pokies glossary. Old pokies used to have a single winline. Matching symbols had to land on a single line to award a win. More modern machines have many more paylines, sometimes into the thousands if you play Megaways games.
Other Common Pokies Words and Phrases
Pokies have an extensive glossary for the different symbols and features of the machine. A wild, for example, is a special symbol that helps you win. Wilds substitute for other symbols and create winning combinations. Some games have more than one wild, but they rarely substitute for scatter symbols.
Wilds can have special editions of themselves, including expanding wilds. Expanding wilds are rare but are pretty cool because they expand to fill an entire row or reel. They potentially lead to more winning combinations.
Sticky wilds remain in place for more than one spin. In fact, sticky is a glossary term used to describe any symbols that remain stuck in place for more than one spin.
Jumping wilds are growing in popularity. They are similar to sticky wilds except they move position around the layout after each spin.
Scatters are symbols represented by the game’s logo or a special character linked to the game’s theme. They almost always trigger the games special features and bonus rounds. Each pokie is different, but the industry standard is to have three scatters on the board to start a feature.
Those bonus features come in many different shapes and sizes. Free spins is the most common, and are exactly what they sound like. The machine gives you a predetermined number of free spins.
Re-spins are similar except you only get one spin, as a general rule. Pokies software developers combined a re-spin with sticky symbols to give you a better chance of enjoying a win.
Final Additions
Pokies publishers are not in the business to confuse you. They want as many people as possible to play their games. They have their own glossary of pokies terms, but they are usually self-explanatory.
For example, the paytable is a table showing what you win if certain symbols land on a payline. Autoplay is another common term. This is an inbuilt programme that automatically spins the reels for you. It is possible to make the autoplay feature stop when you win/lose a certain amount of money, or if the bonus round triggers.
Do not be put off by the various terms and pokies-related words you read and hear. A quick search of this site, or Google, will always show up what those phrases mean.
