Glossary of Pokies terms

Here's some Poker Machine terminology

Hopper? Progressive? Tilt? What does it all mean? We play Pokies and Slots both Online and in pubs around Australia and we'll hopefully here try to explain what they all mean. You probably won't need to know these, but it's nice to understand what they mean.

Don't get too confused with all this Pokies terminology, but a quick read isn't a bad idea.

Credits: Credit is simply the amount of money you have in credit in the Pokie. Normally, $1=100 credits.

Fill. This is the act of the Pokie room employee (slot attendant) refilling an empty slot machine with coins. Refills are not done to ensure the Poker Machine is topped it, they are simply refilled when it's empty.

Hit Rate. This is used more for online Pokies, and it is the rate at which you win (hit) on a spin in comparison to non-winning spins. It's a kind of percentage of good spins compared against losing spins.

Hold. Unlike Slot Machines in England where you can 'hold' the reels for future spins, Hold represents the house profit. In other words, this is the amount of coins that the slot machine “holds” - that it does not payout. This number is typically about 3% to15% for Pokies in land-based casinos, but playing slots online makes this figure massively reduced. Online Casinos have minimal overheads compared to pubs, clubs and bars, so it makes sense to play Pokies online. You can do this here.

Hopper. This is the area contained within the actual Poker machine where the coins are stored. When or if a hopper is overflowed by coins (completely full) the excess coins fall into a bucket which is located under the hopper. These coins make up the casinos profit. Put simply, the Hopper is the coin storage area.

Max Bet. This is the amount that you can bet in one spin on a Pokie. If you press this button, you'll bet he highest amount possible in the next spin.

Pay Cycle. We believe that Slots and Pokies go through a kind of Pay Cycle, despite others telling us to the contrary. How many times have you sat in a Pokie room and see some machines offering a flurry of features and other Pokies just gobble your money? Surely if a Pokie has taken $10,000 in cash with the player continually playing until they lose, they it has to pay out something to get the payout rate at what it is set at? The Pay Cycle is how much a Slot machine needs to take before it's ready to pay out.

Pay Line. These are the lines on the Pokies screen where winning symbols must line up in order for the player to win the amount specified in the Pay Table.

Pay Table. The area on the Pokie machine which shows amounts won per combination of winning symbols.

Progressive Jackpot. This is a jackpot where the top prize amount grows in relation to the amount of credits lost by either a network of machines or a series of 'linked' machines. The progressive jackpots online are regularly over a million dollars (much better than in pubs!). You can see current LIVE progressive jackpots here.

Symbols. The symbols are quite simply the picture or icons that are printed on the reels. For example, the symbols on the Queen of The Nile Pokies are 9s, 10s, Jacks, Queens, Pyramids etc.

Take cycle. This is the opposite of the Pay Cycle (see above). The take cycle is the amount of time that the slot machine takes or keeps any inserted coins.

Tilt. Error! This is a Pokie Error. This usually occurs when the machine is out of money or if a coin is jamming the hopper (see above). An error message will be displayed and a light will come on if the machine is on tilt and a Pokies attendant will come and solve the problem. Don't worry if you get a Tilt error as the slot machine is programmed to remember any coins owed to the player so if your machine runs out of coins. Similarly, if there is a power cut, the Pokie will know what's in credit and what's owed to the player.

Winning Combinations. This is the amount of potential winning results, in different combinations on paylines that pay a win to the player.

Wild Symbol. Very common with Pokies - it is a symbol that will substitute for other symbols to make up a winning combination. It's essentially a free symbol.

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