SafePokies.com Blog

Six years ago, the prevalence of gambling on pokie machines, and the high rate of problem gambling that came with it, was enough to provoke the Christchurch City Council to enforce stricter laws on licenses. Since then, the number of gaming venues has dropped by half, and the number of available pokie machines nearly...

A few year ago, you could walk into a corner pub in the south-east Queensland urban centre of Ipswich on any given weekend and find a line of patrons waiting for bar service. But that’s no longer the case. According to a multitude of recent pub closures and “for sale” notices, food and poker...

The owners of Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Western Sydney have immense plans for the future. They have proposed a $24 million upgrade to the facilities that would include a 4-star hotel, new pokies club, high-class restaurants, swimming pools and a new tower for residential and commercial retail outlets. Although they’ve already taken the first...

A total of 15 burglaries of pokies venues have taken place throughout the northern suburbs of Melbourne in the last four months. After the latest pokies robbery took place over the weekend, authorities are now asking for help from the public to identify the assailants. It was a frightening scene on Saturday, March 7,...

New Zealand has reported that half of all pokies clubs and pubs are found to be in noncompliance with operational law. As a result, the government is going to impose an increase of more than 2x the current fees to help offset the cost of regulatory investigations and enforcement. The government said that, due...

The dawn of a new month Down Under means more ways for Aussies to play their favorite Microgaming slots. The world leader in interactive gaming software has just released two new titles for the month of March, Lucky Leprechaun and Golden Princess. Both online pokies went live yesterday, and can now be found at...

As one of the most lucrative internet commerce industries in the world, the top online gaming system developers are generating millions of dollars each year. As such, Microgaming, the largest online pokies programmer on the planet, is making sure to give a little back. As part its extensive PlayItForward program, the Isle of Man-based...

In its third and final reading, an amendment to the pokies law was passed by New Zealand Parliament yesterday. Known as Gambling Amendment No. 2, the legislation was designed to reinforce the existing Gambling Act of 2003 and make operators of non-casino pokies and other gambling devices more accountable. Passage of the new pokies...

Progressive slot machines like Major Millions jackpot boasting, 3-reel and 5-reel slots are generally favored by the most avid players for their potential to pay out life changing amounts of money. In the same token, they are often criticized for being extremely unlikely to release their grip on those exponentially growing dollars. But there...

The debate over pokies throughout Australia has been brewing for years. Some say they are a menace to society, while others say they are a necessary source of revenue for community programs. Premier Jay Weatherhill of South Australia says pokies clubs should be taxed at a higher rate, but at what cost to local...