Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Pokies nostalgia part 2

May 12, 2006 on 11:52 am | In Slot machine overviews |

More on Pokies, by Lawrie.

Poker machines have been with us for over 40 years and how they have evolved from a bit of fun to play at a registered club to being money grabbers at every drinking spot known to man and woman.

Today’s machines have hypnotic sounds and music, are usually linked to a mega jackpot that someone else always seems to win but never you, how many times have you left a machine and some legend comes along and wins a big one after spending a dollar or two, I’ve lost count.

Today’s poker machines seem to concentrate on big pays that only cough out when Jupiter aligns with Mars, I’ll have to check my astrological chart and see when it is a good time for Sagittarians to donate money to the government.

Back in the dim mists of times gone by a $2 container of ten cent coins would last you a good 15 minutes, lots of small pays (usually every 3rd pull of the handle) on a 3 reel machine, my favourite was the 3 reel Aristocrat Inca machine it usually always paid a $10 jackpot (Incas and Aces in any combination on the center reel) and if you were really lucky you would spin up a massive $20 jackpot (3 Incas on the center line)

Hey I’m not saying we didn’t have problem gamblers back then, it’s just that it took you longer to loose your loot and there were not as many poker machine venues around. Clubs were the only place in NSW where you could play the pokies, pubs were for swilling beer with your mates after a hard day at work and you were still in your work clothes, clubs were for a more sedate pace of drinking and socialising and a flutter on the one armed bandit’s over a Toohey’s or two.

There was one main reason reason that NSW introduced poker machines into pubs and that was to reach a whole new market of clientele, another 500,000 customers that rarely went to clubs were ripe for the picking, and how they picked, the ladies lounge (ladies couldn’t drink in the main saloon back then) became the gaming lounge and the toilet tile walls of pubs gradually began to disappear.

I suppose the revenue from the pokies did gentrify a lot pubs as this new found wealth had to be spent before the taxman took another swipe at it, today it’s carpeted floors and walls, muted mood music and girls in the main bar and blokes behaving themselves (well almost). Kids were once barred from setting foot on pub premises, how that has changed, pubs are more family oriented these days.

More soon from the past and present, hope this blog stirs a few old and forgotten memories.