Quick facts about Australian real money casinos
Gambling is a very popular activity in Australia. The country has the highest rate of per capita spending on gambling in the world. In total, Australians spend about $24 billion a year on gambling. Half of this activity is due to Pokies which are extremely popular in the country. Sports betting is also quite commonplace, however, Pokies overshadow all other forms of gambling. There are 200,000 pokie machines in the country, which is more than what any other country has. Pokies are also in high demand at real money casino online AU websites.
Things you need to know about real money gambling in Australia
Online casinos have a few shared features that you have to be familiar with in order to be able to compare them. These features include game selection, bonuses and promotions, payment methods, customer service, and a few others. Below, we will describe some of the most important elements of an online casino so that you’re equipped with the knowledge to make a correct judgment when considering different Aussie real money casinos.
As gambling has been around for a while, some games have been able to stand the test of time, while others were forgotten. Today, we have thousands of games that players can choose from. They all differ in one way or another but it’s still possible to group them in certain categories. For example, Australia’s favorite pastime, pokies, are a type of casino game that has a thousand variations but all follow the same logic. Even if you’ve never gambled in your life, you’ve probably seen a pokie machine. They are usually very colorful and glitzy and contain spinning reels with different symbols sometimes depicting fruit, precious stones or different letters. Most Australian real money online casinos will offer pokies, so you need to be familiar with their workings.
The game of pokies is simple. You have to make a bet and spin the reels. You can think of the reels as columns that are further divided into rows and contain symbols. Once the reels are spun, a different combination of symbols will show up. If the combination contains favorable alignments, you win, otherwise, you lose. Favorable alignments usually consist of the symbols of the same type aligned next to each either diagonally, horizontally, or in other predetermined ways. The more valuable a symbol in the combination, the more you win. A game will usually contain several standard symbols all with different values. In addition to the standard symbols, these AU casino real money games also include special symbols like Wilds and Scatters. Wilds can substitute for other standard symbols to form a winning combination, thus landing a Wild increases your chances of winning. Scatters pay no matter where they land on the reels. Very often, they also trigger a bonus play.
The bonus features of Pokies can be really unique and creative. There are no rules to how these should be structured so some game developers come up with completely new ideas. However, most often, you will encounter bonus features like free spins, progressive jackpots, expanding wilds, and a few others. Features like these make AU real money casino pokies more fun. Free spins will spin your reels several times for free while you get to keep the winnings. The progressive jackpot will increase over time until won and could lead to huge winnings. Expanding Wilds feature expands the Wild symbols until they cover a few positions on the reels thus increasing your chances of winning even more. An interesting part of trying out new Pokies is figuring out what kind of bonus features they have.
In addition to pokies, there are other Aussie online casino real money games you can try your luck at. These include some of the popular table games like Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, and others. While Pokies are more focused on the visuals and thematic elements to stand out, there’s not much to alter when it comes to design with these games. Sometimes, even the minute details down to the color of the table are dictated by the rules. Over the years, variations in the rules have created different versions of these games and the casino you choose will likely offer a few options for each one. Unlike pokies, games like Poker and Blackjack are more involved and require thinking and experience.
When you play AU real online casino games like Pokies or Roulette, you can’t influence the outcome of the game in any way. It is all up to chance. You have no room for strategizing or using your wits to gain an advantage. Chances of winnings are the same for you and any other more experienced players. The same isn’t true for games like Poker and Blackjack. Here, you have to know the rules of the game and experience will come in handy as well. You might end up losing everything real fast if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s why many experienced players tend to go for more complex games while beginners choose simpler ones like Roulette or Pokies.
Live casino games are also very important to remember. If you enjoy the atmosphere and feeling of land-based casinos, you might prefer live-dealer games over the standard ones when you gamble online for real money. Live casino games offer a live feed to an actual table set up in a land-based casino. You get to control the game using the buttons that are on the screen. There will be a human dealer as well with whom you can communicate using a chat box. Live dealer games manage to replicate the feeling of a land-based casino better and are preferred by many gamblers around the world. Hosting these games is associated with lots of resources, so you won’t find a bunch of them on your casino, but you still should be able to find a few versions for most table games.
The selection of games is arguably the most important feature of Aussie online casino for real money. However, there are many other important aspects that need to be considered as well. You have to think about the reliability of a platform so that you don’t fall for a scam. You also need to consider the payment options to make sure you’ll be able to deposit and withdraw money. Bonuses are another important aspect that can’t be ignored. In fact, bonuses can be used to decide between several equally appealing casinos.
FAQ
What kind of bonuses do real money casinos offer?
There is no one way to characterize bonuses that Australian casinos for real money offer. There is no set of rules or a predetermined structure that these promotions have to follow. However, in general, you’ll encounter similar bonuses on many online gambling platforms. Probably the most common type of bonus is a deposit bonus. It is rewarded to users after they make a deposit. Many casinos will have First Deposit promotions that encourage customers to join the platform and make a deposit by giving them certain benefits for it.
The deposit bonus itself might contain different kinds of benefits. A very common reward to include in such offers is a match bonus. The match bonus will match your deposit by a certain percentage. If an Aussie real money online casino is advertising a 100% match bonus, this means that you’ll receive the same amount as your deposit in free cash to gamble with. Naturally, there will be a maximum limit on such offers. The free cash you receive can’t be withdrawn. However, it can be used to gamble on different games. You get to keep whatever you win. In addition to a match bonus, a deposit bonus might also reward you with free spins. These will be for particular pokies and just like with the match bonus, you’ll get to keep the winnings.
A no deposit bonus is another promotion you might find on real money casinos in Australia. As the name suggests, you don’t have to make a deposit in order to claim the benefit of this bonus. You simply have to sign up and enter the bonus code. No deposit offers might reward you with free spins or free cash that you can use to gamble. Because these offers require less commitment from you and some people might sign up without any intention to deposit their money, you won’t find many such offers around. With some no deposit bonuses, casinos might ask you to deposit money before allowing you to withdraw the winnings. Although this might seem against the whole idea of a no deposit bonus, it is a practice that you’ll encounter quite often.
We mentioned a couple of times that you’ll be able to withdraw the winnings from your bonus cash. However, there’s an extra requirement you need to satisfy in order to be able to do so. Most bonuses by real money online casinos in Australia will have wagering requirements that specify how much you need to bet in terms of the bonus cash, in order to be able to withdraw. If you don’t meet this requirement, you won’t be able to make a withdrawal. Wagering requirements that are too tough might completely break the appeal of a good bonus offer. As a result, you have to take these requirements into consideration whenever you are comparing different offers. It doesn’t matter how much free cash a casino will give you to gamble with if you’ll never be able to actually benefit from it.
How do I deposit and withdraw money?
When you’re gambling online for real money in Australia, you constantly have to move money in and out of your account. This will be done through one of the payment channels that your casino makes available to you. Some casinos have a more limited set of options than others, however, in general, casinos will offer at least a few of the following options: bank cards, direct bank transfers, electronic wallets, cryptocurrencies, alternative methods. Each of these methods is good for one thing but less effective for another. Your decision should ultimately be based on your circumstances and priorities.
When you use credit/debit cards to deposit money on an Australian casino for real money, you’ll get fast and convenient service. Most payments will be reflected on your account immediately, while you have to go through the same easy process as you do when online shopping. The fees are also very low and since you will likely need to own a credit/debit card, either way, you can take the fixed fees and commissions out of the equation. The commissions per each transaction are very small compared to some of the other options. On the downside, payments that you make via your bank card will show up on your bank statement. Your bank will have access to your gambling history, which is something that many gamblers want to avoid.
If you prefer more discretion when it comes to Aussie online gambling for real money, you might want to go for electronic wallets or other options that introduce an extra step between your bank and your casino. This way, the payments will show up on your bank statement as payments to the eWallet provider and not to the casino. While eWallets are good for privacy, you might need to put some time and effort into setting one up if you don’t already have an account. You’ll also need to spend extra time on moving the funds in and out of your eWallet. These services definitely won’t be free either. While the provider might advertise commission-less payments to the casino, or anything of that sort, it will almost certainly charge you for the service one way or another.
You might also consider cryptocurrencies as an option to pay top real money casinos for Australian players. While these assets have gained a lot of popularity and the speculative environment around them seems to have died down a bit, they are still very volatile. You don’t want to win money in a casino and have its value halved before you can even withdraw it. That’s not as far-fetched as it might seem when it comes to cryptocurrencies. This is not the only issue with these assets. Some of the largest cryptocurrency networks in the world have an issue with scalability. This means that in the moments of a high load, the fees of transactions using these assets might skyrocket making it a worthless payment method for small transactions. The waiting times could also be inflated.
On a more positive note, cryptocurrencies also offer fast and easy payments to online casinos real money Australia platforms. Furthermore, the privacy with this method is even more observed than with eWallets. Most cryptocurrency networks are decentralized, which means that no third-party organization will have access to your payment history.
Can I use my phone to gamble?
Whether or not you can use your phone for gambling depends on which casino you’ve picked. Some Australian casino real money platforms will have adapted to the changing demand and made their websites mobile-friendly, while others might still be waiting for stronger signals to invest in these changes. There are two main ways casinos could enable mobile access. The first is to build a responsive website that will adjust the layout and the navigation to a smaller screen of a smartphone once you open it using your phone browser. Using such websites is easy. You only have to open the website and the casino will do the rest. Some casinos might promise a mobile-friendly website but the design might still not be optimized for these devices in the best way.
A second option that you’ll get with some AU online casino sites for real money is a dedicated mobile application. You can download the application, log into your account and get to gambling. This will take up some of the free space on your phone, but it will give you faster gameplay and more mobile-centric features. Developing applications is not cheap and many casinos go for a responsive design instead, however, if you plan on gambling from your phone frequently, you might want to take this into consideration when you’re choosing a casino and select the one with an app.
Real money gambling Australia mobile platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, a big benefit of these devices is that they allow you to gamble anytime, anywhere. You can take your phone out when you’re in line for an appointment, or on a train commute to work. It’s much less convenient to do the same with your laptop. There are also special bonuses for mobile users that you’ll be able to take advantage of. In order to encourage customers to try out their mobile platform or application, casinos will put out promotions that are exclusively for mobile gamblers. You’ll be able to take advantage of these promotions as well.
On a more negative note, mobile gambling is often associated with a smaller game selection. Some game developers haven’t made all of their games accessible on mobile devices, while for others, the technical capabilities of the phones don’t allow smooth gameplay for certain Australian casino real money games. If you choose to gamble using your smartphone, be prepared to have a smaller set of games to choose from. Of course, there’s also the issue of a smaller screen. Some games, especially those that are visually appealing or that have large sets of control buttons, are better played on a larger screen.
What customer service options does my casino have?
Your casino will most likely have a few options for contacting the customer service. You can find this information under the ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Customer Service’ tabs. Most modern casinos will have a live chat option. Live chat allows you to open a chat box directly within the browser and write to a representative about your issues. This is a great method because it is extremely convenient and also because it allows you to give instant feedback in case the first response is not helpful. When you are selecting top online real money casinos for Australian players, it is important to pay attention to this aspect as well.
Email might be another option offered by the platform. While this method might be suitable for certain types of inquiries that require research on the part of the representative, if you have an urgent matter, it won’t be very helpful. Emails take long to respond and you have to wait just as long for a follow-up. When selecting a casino, make sure that email is not the only method of contacting customer support. Some platforms, especially the older ones, will also have a phone line. You can use it to call a representative directly. While this allows you to clearly explain your issue and give instant feedback as well, phone lines are usually associated with annoying queues. The best Australian real money casinos will have several options to choose from based on your requirements at the moment.
How do I recognize a scam?
While the internet allows many legitimate platforms to reach millions of users around the world, it also allows access to scammers who want to take advantage of the complexity of the internet and get away with people’s or personal data. Some of these scammers might pose as real money casinos in Australia, so you have to be able to recognize them. There are usually some red flags that you should look out for. For example, if a casino isn’t open about the information on its registration status, founding history, and the background of the team, you should tread carefully. There’s absolutely no reason why a casino should be hiding this information from you.
Another thing to look out for is an unrealistic promise. In order to lure in customers, casinos will put out promotions and offers that are simply too good to be true. Look out for bonuses that promise cash without any requirements. There is no way a legitimate business will start giving out money for free. If you see such an offer, first, look for the hidden requirements that might not be advertised, and if you can’t find any, start looking into the reliability of the Aussie online casino for real money. Some platforms might offer guaranteed returns, which is completely absurd where gambling is concerned. First of all, these games are based on chance and some lose while others win. If everyone won, the casino would go bankrupt in a matter of days. Don’t fall for such promises. On the contrary, be more alert if you see an unbelievably good offer.
In Australia, due to the absence of a licensing scheme for online casino operators, there is no national registry of companies that have been vetted by the authorities. Instead, you have to do this research yourself. You can use the internet to look up information about the casino. If it has been around for some time, there should be plenty of articles and reviews to look at. These will give an indication of the nature of the casino. If the online casino Australia real money website claims to have a long history but there is no information on it online, it probably isn’t being truthful. You can read user reviews to see if anyone else has any complaints about the casino. However, don’t be lured into a false sense of security by positive reviews. It’s not uncommon for scams to write fake reviews on different discussion forums.
Lastly, make sure that the casino is licensed at least in some other jurisdiction. The fact that it doesn’t have a license to operate in Australia doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be licensed in other parts of the world where it’s legal to provide such services. This way, you can feel more secure when you gamble for real money. The fact that the casino is regulated by a certain authority means that it has to uphold some standards of behavior. It also means that is has gone through some vetting that would’ve identified the most blatant of scams.
