Online Pokies

If you enjoy online casinos, odds are you have come across pokies before. These games offer countless diversity owing to the different experiences they bring. Pokies come in many shapes and sizes, but all of them are straightforward to play. Press the spin button, and watch the reels start spinning!

Pokies are also known as online slots. Regardless of how you call them, they offer countless hours of entertainment to players. Join us for an in-depth dive into the world of pokies. We discuss the peculiar name of these games, the best casinos, and where we can find free online pokies.

Why Are Pokies Called Pokies?

What is the difference between pokies and online slots? We went looking and quickly found the answer: nothing. Pokies is a regional name that comes from Australia.

The name stuck, and it remains the way for players to refer to slot games in the land down under. The term spread outside of Australia a little bit, mainly because saying pokie is really fun! However, the term slot stuck around in the rest of the world.

Where Does “Pokie” Come From?

The word’s origin comes from the ‘pok’ in ‘poker machine.’ In the older days, real-world casinos offered poker machines and slot machines.

The two games no doubt looked similar to each other at first glance. They were both machines with a game loaded into them. We can see a couple of people referring to both as pokies, and the slang spreading from there.

It does feel odd that slot machines also got the pokie brand, despite not having anything to do with poker. We can only assume it was due to these machines sitting side by side in the earliest Australian casinos.

Even if we are not sure how it started, we know the term remains popular to this day. Aussies still refer to online slots and video pokers as pokies.

Alongside pokies, slot games have many other regional names. One-armed bandit is another widespread nickname for slot games since you used to pull a lever to make the reels spin.

The popularity of fruits in older slot machines also earned them the name fruit machines or fruities. That nickname is particularly popular in England.

Best Pokie Online Casinos

When looking to play new pokies, you need an excellent online casino to try them in. Given how popular pokies are, you can find them on many websites.

However, not all websites are equal. Many insecure and unreliable online casinos will tempt you with a seemingly top-tier pokie selection. After you score a win, you realize that the operator plans to slow down your withdrawal attempts or prevent them altogether.

Players have to find real money online casinos with a good offer and an excellent reputation to prevent that. It can be challenging to find a suitable website.

However, that is why the topcanadiancasinos team is here to help! We went out of our way to test and check out as many online casinos as possible. We only recommend websites we are confident meet our high standards.

We look at more than the number of pokies when reviewing websites. We also look at the casino bonus, payment methods, licenses, and customer service.

These factors play an essential role in determining a casino’s final score. Our top-rated online casinos excel in all these requirements, and they have heaps of pokies we can play! Each of these websites is an excellent pick.

Free Online Pokies

Reviews are helpful when selecting what pokies to play. They explain what you can expect in features and gameplay mechanics. They also tell us the maximum reward, RTP, and other helpful information.

However, reviews can only explain the experience. They cannot capture how it feels to play a casino game! Fortunately, software providers give us a tool to experience pokies without spending a dime.

Almost all of the pokies we review here at topcanadiancasinos have a demo mode. This demo version offers the whole game. However, demo mode does not allow you to score real-money wins.

The game gives you a set amount of ‘fun’ money to play. You do not pay real money to try these pokies, but you cannot score real cash via the demo mode.

Considering how useful this feature is, we wholeheartedly recommend taking advantage of it. It makes it very easy to test whether or not you will enjoy a game and its volatility.

The demo mode allows you to experience the extra features that a pokie offers. Not all bonuses are easy to understand. Seeing it play out makes it easier to know what you are dealing with.

Top 5 Online Pokies

Canadians can look forward to all kinds of exciting pokies in their online gambling sites. However, finding the best pokies can be challenging.

That is why we went out of our way to find the best available online pokies. Pick any of these titles, and we guarantee you will have a blast.

Sweet Bonanza

If you are on a diet, you want to stay far away from Sweet Bonanza! Pragmatic Play’s release features a delicious world made out of candy. You play this pokie on a six-reel, five-row board with cluster pays. You need at least eight symbols in a cluster to form a winning combination.

Available features include the tumble bonus, free spins and multipliers. Casino members can also enable the Ante bet. This increases your total bet slightly but doubles the chance of winning a feature.

Finally, casino members can buy a special feature outright for 100x your total stake. The maximum win is 21,100x your total stake.

Thunderstruck 2

We cannot talk about the best pokies without mentioning one of the classics. Microgaming’s Thunderstruck 2 charmed countless audiences.

Even now, this five-reel, three-row pokie with 243 ways to win entices players! Casino members need three or more matching symbols in adjacent positions to win.

Land three or more Scatters to win free spins. You can pick between four combinations of free spins and multipliers. Some options are only available after triggering several free spins.

If a Wild is part of a win, it doubles the reward. The game may also randomly turn up to five reels Wild. The top prize is 8,000x your total wager.

Starburst

NetEnt is one of the most prominent pokie software providers in the world. Their most popular pokie remains Starburst, a game set in outer space.

You play it on a five-reel, three-row board with ten fixed paylines. Land three or more identical symbols next to one another to win. Winning combinations need to follow an active payline.

Starburst’s popularity comes from how simple it is. The game’s Wilds can appear on reels two, three, and four. When a Wild lands, it expands to cover its corresponding reel and grants a re-spin. The maximum win you can score in this release is 500x.

Gonzo’s Quest

Another exciting NetEnt pokie worth checking out is Gonzo’s Quest. The game is set in the lush jungles of South America, where an explorer seeks grand treasure.

You play it on a five-reel, three-row playing field with twenty fixed paylines. You need at least three matching icons following an active payline to win.

Each win causes an Avalanche. It removes winning symbols, allowing casino members to win several times in a row. Your first four Avalanches increase the win multiplier of the round.

Furthermore, the multipliers get improved during free spins. The game’s top prize is 37,500x your total stake.

Jammin’ Jars

What do you get when you combine fruits with a fantastic eighties disco track? You get Jammin’ Jars, Push Gaming’s most popular pokie!

You play it on an eight-reel, eight-row board with cluster pays instead of paylines. Casino members need to land five matching icons next to each other horizontally or vertically to win the round.

Jammin’ Jars has collapsing reels, moving Wild symbols with multipliers, free spins, and a rainbow bonus. These features drastically increase your odds of scoring a big win. The game’s top prize is a mouthwatering 20,000x!