How slots work / Pokies versus online slots: why the same game has two sets of numbers
Pokies versus online slots: why the same game has two sets of numbers
Reference page. Reviewed 29 August 2026.
A large part of this site covers games that exist in two forms: as a poker machine in an Australian venue, and as an online conversion deployed to regulated markets overseas.
They share artwork, symbols and features. They do not share mathematics, and the difference is usually somewhere between eight and twelve percentage points of your turnover. This page explains where that gap comes from.
The legal position first
Real-money online slots are prohibited for Australian residents under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Offshore operators that accept Australian players are operating outside that law.
So when you read that Buffalo has a 94.85% RTP, that figure describes a product Australians cannot legally play online. The Buffalo in your local club is a different machine.
Where the venue return comes from
Not from the game designer. From the venue operator's configuration, chosen within a statutory minimum set by your state or territory.
| Jurisdiction | Minimum RTP | Max bet per spin |
|---|---|---|
| South Australia | 87.5% | $5 |
| Victoria | 87% | $5 |
| ACT | 87% | $5 |
| NSW | 85% | $10 |
| Queensland | 85% | $5 (sources vary) |
| Tasmania | 85% | $5 |
| Northern Territory | 85% | $5 |
Minimums per the Australian Gambling Research Centre. Victoria's $5 maximum bet is set by the VGCCC under the Australian/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard. NSW's $10 limit is the highest in the country. Casino machines generally run above these club and pub floors.
NSW GambleAware separately publishes a consumer figure of 85–92% across a machine's lifetime, with the regulator's own caveat that this does not mean you get back 85–92 cents per dollar in a session.
The thing nobody can tell you
The configured return on a specific machine is generally not displayed.
You can press the information button and read the paytable. You usually cannot read the RTP setting. Two machines side by side running the same game can be configured differently, and there is no way for a player to tell.
This is the largest information asymmetry in Australian gambling, and unlike the online market — where the RTP sits in the info screen and can be checked in seconds — there is no consumer-facing fix.
Why online builds return more
The usual explanation is overheads. A physical venue carries floor space, staff, licensing and machine costs that an online operator does not. The industry position is that the higher venue margin funds that.
Whatever the justification, the arithmetic is what matters to you. On $1,000 of turnover:
- A venue machine at the Victorian minimum of 87% has an expected cost of $130
- An online build at 96% has an expected cost of $40
Same game, same features, more than three times the expected cost in the venue.
Other venue rules worth knowing
NSW. Prize money above $2,000 must be paid by cheque or electronic transfer rather than cash. ATMs are banned from gaming areas and credit card cash advances are not available anywhere in the venue. There is a mandatory shutdown period between 4am and 10am. The state has a cap of 99,000 machines.
Victoria. Around 30,000 machines. All machines outside Crown Melbourne must be connected to a single independent electronic monitoring system.
Queensland. Around 50,000 machines. Reported win limits of $10,000 in clubs and hotels, or $25,000 on a jackpot. Note acceptors take $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes; casinos are unrestricted.
South Australia. Note acceptors are banned entirely — machines accept coins only.
Jackpot machines return less in ordinary play
This applies in both venues and online, and it is worth stating plainly.
On a linked machine — Lightning Link, Dragon Link, or any four-tier progressive — the jackpots are funded out of the same return percentage that pays ordinary wins.
A linked machine and a standalone machine advertising the same configured return are not equivalent products. The linked machine has committed part of that return to a pot the overwhelming majority of players will never take, so regular play feels tighter.
If the Grand is why you are playing, that trade is the point. If you want your money to last, a non-jackpot machine at the same configured return will generally give you more play.
Units: coins, credits and total bet
Legacy pokie documentation quotes awards in coins, and often per line. Modern slot reporting quotes multiples of total bet. These are different measurements and they differ by the line count.
A "2,000 coin" award on a 25-line game played across all lines is 80x total bet, not 2,000x. Sites that report the coin figure as a bet multiple have done no conversion at all, and this is the most common error in legacy pokie reporting.
We decline to state a maximum win on several Aristocrat pages for exactly this reason — see More Chilli and Buffalo Gold.
What to actually do
In a venue. Understand that the configured return is not visible and varies between machines. Set a spending limit before you sit down, because you cannot make an informed comparison between machines on the floor. Clubs are often reported to run slightly better configurations than pubs, though venue-specific factors matter more than venue type.
Reading figures anywhere. Check whether the number describes a venue machine or an online build. On this site we label which, on every page. Most sites do not.
If gambling stops being fun, stop. Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858, free, 24 hours.
Sources: Australian Gambling Research Centre for jurisdictional minimums; VGCCC for Victorian bet limits and monitoring requirements; NSW GambleAware for the NSW lifetime figure; published legal summaries for NSW payment and shutdown rules. Sources vary on the Queensland maximum bet. Reviewed 29 August 2026.
Reviewed by SlotzKilla Editorial · Last updated