Best online casinos for Australians

Australians love to play at online casinos and OnlinePokieGame.com is a dedicated resource to guiding you on your gambling journey. This page will teach you everything you need to know about online casinos and what is available to Australians following an update to the laws. The reasons for playing at Australian online casinos over regular casinos are many, including; online casino games offer better odds, bonus offers, promotions and payout percentages. Online casinos are much more convenient, and there is a significantly larger array of pokies titles available online. Read on to find out everything you need to know or play at the best Aussie online casinos for 2024.

United States Top AU online casinos 2024

Top AU online casinos 2024

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How can online casinos offer better player-friendly rules than land-based venues, you ask? Online gambling sites do not need to worry about nearly as many overheads (operating expenses) as land based casinos, and thus they can hand out more winnings to a wider scope of players. Not only that, they can also offer all kinds of excellent welcome bonuses and promotions that land based operations simply can’t afford to do. Players of all skill levels love to play the slots, and subsequently, such Web-based establishments target our population and reward players with exclusive matched deposit bonuses and free spins.

Real money online casinos

Real money online casinos are not as good in 2024 as they were a few years back, prior to Australia banning online casinos. This meant many of the best online casinos based out of the United Kingdom and Malta departed the gambling market in Australia, and a new wave of less regulated (don’t give a stuff about the laws in Australia) began targeting down under. This does mean you need to find safe online casinos to gamble with, and use honest resources like this one to weed out the bad grapes.

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Pokies, fruit machines, slots – whatever you like to call them, are the fundamental game and attraction of many of the top online casinos for Australians. The best casino sites own hundreds upon hundreds of different types of pokies, all more varied than anything a live venue could ever offer.

We only review the top and most reputable online casinos; those which not only cater to real money players, but also provide a wide range of the most common and trusted banking methods so we can finance and withdraw from our accounts. Worrying about currency conversions or exchange rates is futile as most online casinos accept payments in a range of currency options.

Best Online Casinos for Australians:

Download vs instant play casinos

Playing online casino games on your computer, smartphone or tablet is convenient and easy, but a common question is whether or not it’s better to download a casinos software client, or play games instantly over your Web browser. Ultimately, it will come down to personal preference, as neither casino platform offers a definitive, superior experience over the other. These days, the Microgaming technology has enabled the best casino operators to host the same high-quality gaming experience through both means.

When choosing the best option for you, consider these tips:

  • The downloadable casino client package does offer a wider game selection than the instant play alternative, with new titles added each month. Gaming news and reviews are also fed through to the official downloaded software clients, in addition to added features such as personalised settings and premium graphics, fully protected from any adware, spyware or viruses. However, downloadable casino software is becoming less favoured, so not many online casinos offer this option any more. You can still download an exclusive casino client at Microgaming pokies sites like Royal Vegas Casino, All Slots Casino and Platinum Play.
  • If you use a shared or family computer, or simply don’t wish to download any software, then instant play via your browser is the way to go. Log into your account at your preferred casino, and choose from the hundreds of pokies games available, including the same progressives offered via the downloadable client. Make sure your Web browser has the latest Flash or Java plugins installed. Play from any compatible device, anywhere and any-time. Read more about no-download instant play pokies here.

Online casinos bonuses

A major reason to opt for online casino play is that you’ll be rewarded with all kinds of incredible casino bonus offers and promotions that you’d never find in a land based casino, pub or club.

First and foremost, online casinos entice new players to sign up for an account at their site by offering fantastic welcome packages, which typically involve no-deposit bonuses, matched deposit bonuses and free spins. This gives you the chance to try real money games with less risk to your own wallet, while potentially racking up some winnings at the casino’s expense.

In addition to the welcome bonuses, online casinos never cease to reward players for their loyalty. When signing up for an account, you’ll get instant access to the venues loyalty rewards program, as well as eligibility for all the one-off and ongoing promo offers that casinos offer exclusively to their players. Promos can include anything from casino credits to cash and real world prizes like cars, luxury holidays and tech gadgets. Read our guide to Australian online pokies bonus codes for some great deals.

Online casino games available in 2019

Playing at online casinos from Australia can open up a whole new gambling world. This is because often players are gun-shy to play certain games at retail casinos, because of table limits, uncertainty about the games rules or many other reasons. Online the pressure is off to a certain extent. You can play at your own pace or even play a few hands for practice before you delve into the real money casino games. Some of the most popular online casino games include:

Online blackjack

One of the most popular online casino games by the length of the Flemington straight, online blackjack is found commonly at casinos in Australia with table limits varying from $5 into the 10s of thousands of dollars. Online it’s a similar story, with live dealer blackjack generally having a table limit of $5 per hand, while you will find RNG blackjack titles that allow you to play for as little as a few cents per spin.

Online roulette

While not as popular as online blackjack, online roulette has got a huge following. This is largely because many casinos in Australia enforce American roulette rules on their customers, while online you will find plenty of versions of European roulette (including live dealer) to sink your teeth into. Table limits vary from online casino to gambling site, but as a general rule the minimum bet for outside wagers online will be $5, while inside bets will be $2. These bet limits can be lower in RNG-powered games.

Online keno

A game that has many parallels to online pokies, Keno can be found in pubs and clubs across Australia, while lotto companies tend to also have some legal versions of keno available on their websites. Keno is also readily available at the online casinos we promote on OnlinePokieGame.com. Online keno is a draw-based game, where the more numbers your correctly choose, the more Aussie dollars you can win.

Video poker

Fun fact about video poker: it consistently has the best house edge out of any online casino game. While you don’t see video poker at Australian casinos in 2024, you will find it at almost every online casino, with most of the major software developers having extensive titles based around video poker. Video Poker has many different variations available, with our guides some of the most detailed on the web.

Online pokies

If you are an avid fan of playing slots at your local casino, the staggering variety of pokies available on the Internet – from the comfort of your home via computer or mobile device – should sway you to consider playing on the Web more often. Everything from traditional 3-reel classics, to the standard 5-reel video slots, progressive jackpot games, and the more modern 243 ways and even 1024 and 3125 ways games are readily available online.

Mega Moolah pokiesProgressive pokies are the most popular format of Web-based slot games, where constantly increasing jackpots can reach in excess of $5,000,000 before one lucky player wins the entire prize. Microgaming hosts a network (Progressive Jackpot Network) of over 40 of the most in-demand jackpot games, including Mega Moolah, Major Millions and Treasure Nile, all of which are available at our recommended sites.

MegaSpin Pokies, which allow you to play up to nine pokies games at the same time, are also a popular choice for players who like to multi-task and play more than one slot machine at a time. MegaSpin applies to every base type of pokie, so you could play multiple progressive games while spinning classic video pokie reels like Queen of the Nile – all made possible by the Internet.

Almost all pokie games carry graphical themes and extra features such as bonus symbols, free spins and scatter symbols to spice up the experience. There are games based on popular movies such as Jurassic Park, Bridesmaids and Tomb Raider, games based on musicians like Guns N’ Roses and Jimi Hendrix, as well as a vast array of original games with unique themes such as Agent Jane Blonde, Leagues of Fortune, Avalon II and Immortal Romance.

Along with the games mentioned above, here are some of the most popular online pokies available at our recommended casinos, all available for instant-play directly over Safari, Chrome, Explorer or Firefox:

You can click here to access our full directory of online pokies reviews, although this is just a tip of the iceberg, with literally thousands of real money pokies games at your disposal online.

Mobile casino apps

OnlinePokieGame.com’s recommended casinos also offer hundreds of mobile optimised pokies, allowing you to play for real money on the go from any data enabled smartphone or tablet. Only a small amount of reputable pokies sites offer a downloadable native app, but there’s also an instant-play option available for those that don’t. Our favourite casino apps give us access to the most popular pokies on the Web, with instant deposits in available so you can play real money games on the go from anywhere you can secure a Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G connection.

iOS casino apps in Australia

Unfortunately because of local laws Australians cannot download real money casino apps from the Apple app store. This means the only wait to play at mobile casinos on your iPhone, iPad or other Apple device in Australia is via gambling sites mobile version. As a general rule the mobile casinos are just as well stocked as the desktop version.

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Android casino apps

Android casino apps are a bit more available than their iOS counterparts because Android users have the ability to download apps from non-market locations. This means you can sign up at one of the best online casinos for Australians, then download their Android app directly from them if they have one available. It’s important to note though, that you need to have non-market apps turned on in your device, otherwise you will not be able to download the software.

Keen to play pokies using a mobile app? Tap the links below using your iOS, Android or Windows mobile device to head directly to download a safe and reliable pokies app:

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Online casino AUD deposit options

With a huge list of supported deposit and withdrawal methods, such as bank transfers, credit and debit cards, cheques, e-Wallets, pre-paid cards and more, the banking process has been streamlined at our suggested websites to make transferring money and getting into your chosen game as efficient and painless as possible. The recommended and most popular methods, such as MasterCard and Visa, ClickandBuy, ECOCard, Entropay, Neteller, PayPal, Skrill (Moneybookers), Paysafecard (Ukash) and Flexepin, are all fully supported and recognised as safe, trustworthy services to use when handling your money.

Online casino software at AUD casinos

Australians are restricted in the games you can play at online casinos, with many of the best iGaming software companies telling their customers they can no longer operate in Australia following the IGA update in 2017. This means giants like Microgaming and Playtech stopped servicing the Australian market.

It also meant a new range of online casino software was pushed harder into this region, with many Malta and UK licensed casinos opting to ditch their license and begin fresh, with a Curacao or equivalent license, allowing them to begin hosting games from operators like RealTime Gaming, Evolution Gaming (which already had a strong foothold in Australia) and Betsoft, two of the companies that have no qualms pushing into illegal markets.

There are also many smaller boutique casino software companies that allow their games to be played in Australia.

The beauty of 99% of gambling software companies is that they cater extensively to mobile now, with many claiming to build “mobile first” games. This simply means that we can play their games on mobile phones and tablets without any trouble.

Online casino law in Australia

Australian pokies lawsOnline casinos in Australia have been banned since March 20, 2017, when Australian politicians ruled to update the Interactive Gambling Act, in a way that seemed problematic from the outset. How can you stop digital progress in an age when more and more people live a lot of their lives via social media and the internet. To highlight the stupidity of Australia’s stance on online gambling, is that to this day hundreds of online casino sites still target Australian customers. Now, however, we no longer have reputable regulators such as the United Kingdom Gambling Commission overseeing the casinos we play at. Instead we are faced with gambling sites based in Curacao or other far flung places where the regulator is just in it to make a quick buck.

Having said this there are still some good online casinos accepting Australians in 2019, with these including many that have upwards of 400 online pokies and many live dealer tables. These online casinos are built on reputation rather than regulation and you need to be more careful than ever before when gambling online.

How did Australia get into this unenvious position of having 10s of millions of dollars pumped into offshore online casinos yearly? Well, online casinos and pokies have been the subject of years of socio-political debates in Australia, with many key figures in politics calling for tougher pokies laws and a reform of the current gambling regulations. Whatever your opinion is on the pokies, they’ve become a big part of Aussie culture, with Australia accounting for more pokie machines per person than anywhere in the world outside of casino hotspots like Las Vegas or Macau. As it stands, electronic machines are perfectly legal and widespread in Australia and can be easily found at clubs, pubs and casinos around the country.

Online pokies are a little different. The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was established by the then-Howard government in 2001, as a means of protecting vulnerable players from the risk of bringing problem gambling into the home. The IGA makes it against the law for any online casino operating within our borders to offer their services to Australian players. On March 20th 2017, amendments were passed to the IGA to clarify that online gambling would not be tolerated unless the casino had official licensing from a state or territory within Australia – licenses which Australia does not issue to online casinos. Essentially, these new laws forbid Aussie players from accessing offshore casino sites that are located outside our borders, although there is nothing in the laws to prosecute players for doing so.

As many legitimate online casinos that are licensed and regulated by a reputable international gambling jurisdiction continue to offer their services to Aussie players, Aussies can continue to play online with no legal recourse. If you do decide to play pokies or any other casino game at an online casino, we strongly recommend using a trusted VPN (virtual private network) service for an extra layer of security. VPN’s will also help you get around any region-blocks.

Who can play at online casinos?

Games such as blackjack, video poker, and to a lesser extent, craps, all have space for a modicum of skill, which gives players a better chance of beating the house.

Not so with the pokies – it all comes down to pure luck, and many people enjoy the fact each player has the same chance of winning as every other player, while taking kindly to the minimal strategy involved. This makes the pokies suitable for newbies as well as seasoned players, and with hundreds of games to choose from online, there’s something to suit all tastes and preferences. To play the pokies online you must be at least 18 years of age and will be required to prove your identity if requested.

Tips for playing at real money casinos

Money and time management are the keys to maximising your experience when playing real money pokies online. Remember that online casinos have got the house edge in their favour and will always win in the long run, even if you pull the wool over there eyes a few times. Slots for instance involve no actual skill, other than being able to click a mouse, push a button, or pull a lever – in the end, it’s all down to luck. Having said this, there are a few little tricks and tips we can follow in order to get the best results at online casinos.

  • Set a budget before beginning your online casino journey and never play for more money than you can afford to lose. If you lose your maximum, stop playing until you have that money set aside to do so again.
  • Play for a specific period of time each online gambling session, and no more than that time. Whether you are up, down, or breaking even, walk away when your pre-determined time is up.
  • When playing online pokies at casino sites, always cover the maximum amount of paylines. If this will stretch your budget, then shorten your session and/or lower the coin size. There’s nothing more infuriating than seeing that jackpot combo come up, only to realise you’re not covering that win line.
  • Do not play at online casinos if you are upset or depressed, or if your judgement is significantly impaired by alcohol or drugs. This comes down to personal judgement and common sense, more than anything else.
  • If you can’t afford it, then use the free play mode. The beauty of real money casinos is we can always play for no cost whatsoever in practice play. So if the bankroll is lean, don’t risk it – just play free casino games and wait till the coffers are refilled before getting back into it.

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