$1,000
200
11,000+ Pokies
1,500+ Jackpots
Plenty of pokie tournaments
$250
100
11,000+ Pokies
Amazing live casino
High Limits
None
80
No wagering requirements
High value promotions
520+ Jackpot games
$300
100
Great selection of pokies
17 live dealer providers
High cashout limits
$225
150
Weekly cashback
6,600+ amazing games
Attractive Missions
$225
150
Excellent loyalty program
5,000+ amazing games
Great tournaments
$900
100
Top-notch pokie tournaments
Wide array of table games
9,000+ pokies
$400
180
Most famous crypto casino
Lightning-fast payouts
High wagering limits
$1,000
None
8,500+ Pokies
Weekly cashback
Amazing live casino
$2,000
150
Great selection of pokies
Mystery Drops prizes
High limits for VIP’s
Deposit Bonus
$ $500
Free Spins
30
Deposit Bonus
$ $400
Free Spins
None
Our experts check several factors when deciding on a pokie site to recommend. These range from what kind of rewards you can win to legal prerequisites for a website to accept Kiwi players. For an online pokie site to be successful, it has to meet all these requirements.
Do you want to inspect if a pokie site is worth your time? Then, follow the key metrics below to be sure that you will play at a safe and exciting gaming venue.
Regulation
The very first thing we check is the site’s license and regulatory status. It is the starting point of every good, comprehensive review. It also helps us eliminate websites very quickly. If a pokie site isn’t licensed, certified, and regulated – we say Haere rā.
Tier 1 Pokie Makers
Our focus is also on the pokies and the reputation of their providers. Is the quality good? Are the graphics spectacular or lazy and outdated? Are the themes recycled to oblivion or creative and immersive? You’ll never find high-rated pokie sites here with untested games of suspicious origins, and that’s choice.
Fast KYC/AML
At the best NZ online pokie sites rated by the Pokie Machines team, you’ll never waste any time on delayed verification. We make sure our top suggestions are casinos with simplified verification procedures and minimal waiting times.
First-hand Experience
You won’t come to PokieMachines.com for garden-variety reviews and recommendations. You’ll come here for objective reviews coming from actual experience, expertise and professionalism. We’ll give you precious feedback you can use and benefit from.
Valuable Rewards
While tasked to review pokie machines and pokie sites, we won’t miss out on the opportunity to point out worthwhile rewards. Whether they are specific bonus offers or simply favourable features, you’ll find them here if you comb through our best NZ pokie sites list.
Banking Selection
Casinos recommended by Pokie Machines may not be tailor-made for Kiwis by Kiwis, but we do our best to find the next best thing. We always check if the pokie site offers secure NZ-friendly payment methods and accepts deposits in NZD currency.
Responsible Gaming
Fairness and responsible gaming are just as important as licensing and regulation. Therefore, we always check how the pokie site handles such aspects. If the site has varied responsible gambling tools and promotes fair gaming, we’ll give it a chance to show its qualities.
Customer Support
Support agents, prepare! Everything has to function smoothly for the players to be treated with due respect and care. We’ll be all over the chat, asking all kinds of questions, expecting meaningful and helpful answers. Casinos without proper assistance channels will not receive sympathy from us.
Mobile Experience
Once all crucial aspects of a pokie site have been examined, we move on to mobile performance. Our endorsement goes to NZ pokie sites with responsive platforms and well-designed dedicated Android and iOS apps. Update those apps, or we’ll have no choice but to biff your pokie site in the bin.
Our experts check several factors when deciding on a pokie site to recommend. These range from what kind of rewards you can win to legal prerequisites for a website to accept Kiwi players. For an online pokie site to be successful, it has to meet all these requirements.
Do you want to inspect if a pokie site is worth your time? Then, follow the key metrics below to be sure that you will play at a safe and exciting gaming venue.
Regulation
The very first thing we check is the site’s license and regulatory status. It is the starting point of every good, comprehensive review. It also helps us eliminate websites very quickly. If a pokie site isn’t licensed, certified, and regulated – we say Haere rā.
Tier 1 Pokie Makers
Our focus is also on the pokies and the reputation of their providers. Is the quality good? Are the graphics spectacular or lazy and outdated? Are the themes recycled to oblivion or creative and immersive? You’ll never find high-rated pokie sites here with untested games of suspicious origins, and that’s choice.
Fast KYC/AML
At the best NZ online pokie sites rated by the Pokie Machines team, you’ll never waste any time on delayed verification. We make sure our top suggestions are casinos with simplified verification procedures and minimal waiting times.
First-hand Experience
You won’t come to PokieMachines.com for garden-variety reviews and recommendations. You’ll come here for objective reviews coming from actual experience, expertise and professionalism. We’ll give you precious feedback you can use and benefit from.
Valuable Rewards
While tasked to review pokie machines and pokie sites, we won’t miss out on the opportunity to point out worthwhile rewards. Whether they are specific bonus offers or simply favourable features, you’ll find them here if you comb through our best NZ pokie sites list.
Banking Selection
Casinos recommended by Pokie Machines may not be tailor-made for Kiwis by Kiwis, but we do our best to find the next best thing. We always check if the pokie site offers secure NZ-friendly payment methods and accepts deposits in NZD currency.
Responsible Gaming
Fairness and responsible gaming are just as important as licensing and regulation. Therefore, we always check how the pokie site handles such aspects. If the site has varied responsible gambling tools and promotes fair gaming, we’ll give it a chance to show its qualities.
Customer Support
Support agents, prepare! Everything has to function smoothly for the players to be treated with due respect and care. We’ll be all over the chat, asking all kinds of questions, expecting meaningful and helpful answers. Casinos without proper assistance channels will not receive sympathy from us.
Mobile Experience
Once all crucial aspects of a pokie site have been examined, we move on to mobile performance. Our endorsement goes to NZ pokie sites with responsive platforms and well-designed dedicated Android and iOS apps. Update those apps, or we’ll have no choice but to biff your pokie site in the bin.
Anyone who wants to start an online casino in New Zealand should know specific laws and regulations apply. The operation of online pokie sites is not under the regulation of the New Zealand Government, that is true.
Only lotteries are regulated by a government-related entity, the New Zealand Lotteries Commission. If you come across the New Zealand Gambling Commission, know that this body is dedicated to licensing land-based gambling venues.
Since online casinos are left out in both these cases, most operators obtain an offshore license and software platform from a reputable provider. Some providers offer local hosting options, which is ideal. From a player’s perspective, the pokie site must be licensed, preferably by trusted authorities like the UKGC, MGA, Alderney, or Curacao.
Another sign of top-level regulation is the eCOGRA seal. As a world-renowned testing agency and certification body, eCOGRA conducts all sorts of operations indispensable for a casino of great repute. For example, eCOGRA is in charge of testing, inspection, product certification, ADR, and more. The eCOGRA approval means heaps in the iGaming world, so players should value casinos that have it twice as much.
Tier 1 pokie makers are the best software providers in the industry that create high-quality video pokies. These include slot game veterans such as NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, Games Global, and Play’n GO.
Being tier 1 requires the developer to have a proven history of excellent games. Therefore, operators who offer such releases will rank higher than others. Pokie sites with games from obscure developers usually don’t meet the same quality standard.
Identity verification is an obligation we all want to carry out as quickly and painlessly as possible. Of course, the KYC/AML protocols have an important purpose – to combat underage gambling, scams, and money laundering. Even so, it can be a hassle to provide documents like your passport, driver’s license, household bills, and more.
Thankfully, most high-rated pokie sites have an efficient KYC/AML department that will ensure the process concludes quickly and you don’t have to wait days for verification. The key is to have the process streamlined and well-structured so that it only contains a few easy steps any player wouldn’t mind completing. This, combined with capable employees checking shared docs and pictures soon after submission, you’ll be good to go before you know it.
If you think we visit a pokie site like we would a library, you couldn’t be more wrong. While online casinos provide plenty of reading material and nice pictures to look at, we are more interested in empirical research. Once we decide on a pokie site to review, we roll up our sleeves and get in there.
Every casino wishes to present itself in the brightest light, and sometimes what’s written on its pages can be untrue or misleading. The best way to find out the truth about a casino and its quality is to live the experience.
In other words, one has to do what we call a “real player test”. The test requires signing up, verifying the account, depositing, betting real money and cashing out. Pokie Machines is determined to have this advantage over the competition – providing our readers with proper analysis results instead of barren descriptions of no viable use.
Playing real money pokies can yield the thrill of landing a substantial win. But, of course, you must be extremely lucky to win big. However, if you have an opportunity to do it, why not try your luck? And, furthermore, why not take advantage of rewards and promotions along the trail while chasing that lucky rabbit?
Keep an eye out for valuable pokie rewards when looking at online casinos. These include welcome bonuses, free spins, cashback offers, and no deposit bonuses, to name just a few. The best NZ casinos will often host pokie tournaments with real money prizes or free spins rewards. From freerolls and scheduled tournaments to same-day contests and ongoing tourneys, there is something for every pokie fan yearning for action. Variations of these may overlap, but the important thing is to keep your eye on the prize pool and have fun.
Ultimately, pokie sites may come with rewarding features that aren’t bonuses per se, but turn out equally valuable. Think of low wagering pokie offers or – even better – no wagering pokie promotions. While such circumstances aren’t commonplace, casino operators are well aware of their popularity and positive reception among players. So, never give up on finding low wagering bonuses – and neither will we.
NZ players like to use various banking options in their day-to-day life. That includes bank cards, e-wallets, cryptocurrencies, prepaid vouchers, and more. The best websites will offer all of these payment methods. That way, your chances of being able to use a banking option you already know and prefer is increased.
A diverse selection of payment methods is also advantageous if you want to use something new. You can compare different banking options’ costs and waiting times. Additionally, you can see if some are subject to additional fees. We always check if casinos offer locally specific and country-wide accepted methods like POLi, PurplePay, Payz or Apple Pay.
In addition, the best NZ pokie sites will allow players to use NZD currency to deposit and store their balance. As logical as it may sound, some casinos don’t support NZD. Pokie Machines will always suggest the ones that do because the benefit of using local currency is always superior to converting money. Why? There are two simple reasons – no added expenses and easier bankroll management.
It would be careless to rate any pokie site without paying attention to its responsible gambling policies and overall fairness. Responsible gambling tools, game fairness, and general honesty in customer relations greatly affect the experience of playing at NZ online casinos. Therefore, we give this a lot of thought and investigate these aspects thoroughly during our analysis.
The more responsible gambling tools, the better. Some casinos slap on a questionnaire and advise you to contact problem gambling organisations if you suspect a developing gambling addiction. This is not enough, at least by our standards. We want to see a range of responsible gambling tools like time out, self-exclusion, and account limits. Furthermore, we demand proof of fairness and reliability.
Treating users fairly doesn’t just involve fair games and tested software. We also take into account casino staff behaviour and other relevant aspects, such as player-friendly bonuses and payment proceedings. Customer complaints regarding delayed payouts are a fair sign of poor customer treatment. Such casinos have no place on our best NZ online pokies sites list.
Hiring a handful of agents to handle support isn’t nearly enough to get a good score in this aspect. Understaffed or poorly qualified reps lead to long waiting times and, ultimately, bad customer assistance. Players want and deserve quick help provided by trained professionals. In other words, an ideal customer support department should have a working live chat for lightning-fast responses, in addition to email assistance and phone support.
The agents must be friendly and knowledgeable, serving their purpose of immediate helpers. Contrary to this would be agents that have the same effects as bots – giving generic or inadequate answers to concrete queries. If you run a casino serving NZ players, don’t do this to them. Hire proper customer support agents, train them well, and your customers will be ever thankful.
Furthermore, limited opening hours for customer support are frowned upon. Help should be readily available 24/7, and there is hardly any excuse that would justify short business hours for human support. If you want to play NZ pokies at dawn and use on-site guidance, you should be able to do so. By investing in high-quality support, pokie sites show commitment to player welfare and a safe gambling environment. Pokie Machines rewards such sites with a high rating.
Since most people browse the internet on their mobile devices nowadays, an excellent mobile playing experience is not a plus. It is mandatory. Pokie sites try to appeal to the majority of players, which is why most of them perform well on mobile devices. But what makes them perform well and what does that mean?
Well, it means that when you launch an app or a mobile version of the pokie site, it never glitches or lags. Instead, it has a responsive layout with seamless navigation and clutter-free content.
The best mobile pokie sites in NZ offer the same games, bonuses and payment methods as they would through equivalent desktop versions. This makes mobile gaming seamless and utterly convenient. You can play using dedicated apps or through the browser. Still, not all NZ pokie sites have downloadable apps.
Having a dedicated app is not obligatory, as long as the site is optimised for mobile. Our review process includes testing all casino versions – desktop, mobile app, and mobile-responsive option. It’s the only way to get a reliable rating useful to our readers.
We should not forget to mention new pokie sites, an important sub-category that will appeal to many online gamers in New Zealand. New online casinos usually have quite a few things going for them and they should definitely be considered if you are undecided on where to start playing your favourite games. We will now list a few things (good and bad) that are essential when it comes to brand new pokie sites.
With thousands of online casinos already in the picture, new pokie sites face an uphill battle in trying to make its brand visible to large audiences. This usually results in new casinos attempting to attract players by offering much better incentives than established gambling venues.
Some pokie sites will offer no deposit bonuses or free spins, others will prepare welcome packages and cashback deals with low or no wagering requirements, or make its loyalty programs extra appealing in the early days.
This will not last forever as new pokie sites will tone down on these incentives once they start winning decent market share, so no wonder many players aim to sign up with these brands shortly after the launch date.
The bonuses and promotions that offer good value to the players are quite costly for pokie sites and this is the main reason why the favourable terms usually don’t last too long.
While established online casinos tend to overlook new developments in technology and design, and focus on catering to the huge player base, the best new pokie sites are well aware this is another area where they can gain the upper hand.
As a result, the newly established venues tend to feature the latest technology and features, modern design and intuitive user interface, making the entire experience of signing up and playing casino games that more enjoyable.
Another area where new online casinos tend to excel is the game lobbies. They not only feature the newest games and fresh game providers, but also create dedicated categories or filters for the most popular games and features.
Brand new pokie sites will usually have a prominent place in its game lobby for Crash Games, Megaways, Hold & Win, Bonus Buy, and many other categories and features that are trending.
Some of them also house extensive game filters, allowing players to sort the games by RTP, volatility, find hot and cold games, and much more.
New sites indeed offer many perks but there are some potential drawbacks as well, meaning you should never join an online casino only because it is new.
One thing where established sites have the upper hand is reputation as some of these brands have been around for 10 years or more.
New pokie sites, on the other hand, cannot be rated based on past performance or how they have treated players in the past, which ads an element of risk.
This is where it pays to know who the casino group behind the site is, as there are some reputable companies launching new products, and, when that is the case, you kind of know what to expect.
There is no one site with the best pokie payouts. That said, individual online casinos can have better or worse conditions for landing rewards. Websites with high maximum payouts, progressive jackpots, and fast withdrawal times make scoring excellent rewards much easier. Any pokie site recommended by Pokie Machines offers high payouts and favourable winning conditions.
While such a possibility exists, it is not worth pursuing for most online casinos. Strict regulations they must follow impose hefty fines and the loss of a license. If you play on licensed and reputable websites, you will not have any problems with rigged games.
Sadly, New Zealand players can’t use PayPal for deposits and withdrawals at pokie sites. This is not possible due to regulations. Thankfully, Kiwis have other alternatives to turn to.
Having more pokie games than your competitors is an easy way to boost your rank on our list of recommended NZ casinos. That is especially true if the pokie site has releases made by tier 1 developers. However, remember that the number of games is not the only factor worth considering when picking a website to join.
You can. Many of the pokie sites listed at PokieMachines.com allow players to launch demo versions of popular pokies and try them out before depositing.