Pokies are a favourite Australian casino game. Australians play them at online casinos, in pubs, in clubs and in land based casinos. Being inveterate and convivial gamblers, Australians love to play pokies for real money because that is the only way to gain any winnings.

Pokies can be played for fun and enjoyment. They are generally exciting slots with highly imaginative themes and are fun to play for free. But betting on pokies and playing pokies for real money is when the games are really interesting. So it is a good idea to look up those Australian games and join in the fun.

Just as in standard Vegas slot machine games, pokies come in all different styles. There are the traditional three and five reel, one pay line pokies, where, when you are playing pokies for real money, you decide on the size of your bet, spin the reels and hope to see three of kind line up in the pay line.

But today you can play much more sophisticated pokies. And when playing pokies for real money, it is worth your while to try the more elegant ones.

Most of today's pokies sport a single theme or story. The highly imaginative and colorful graphics usually carry out the theme of the game together with suitable and real life sounding music. Many of the images on the reels are animated when they help to create winning combinations. Furthermore, today's pokies have multiple reels, multiple pay lines and a lot of bonus games. There are Wild symbols that substitute for images to create winnings. There are also Scatter symbols that can trigger Free Spin features. Sometimes the Scatter symbols will also take you into a second screen to a bonus game where big money prizes await you. Then there are also pokies with progressive jackpots which can really mean big winnings if you are lucky.

Here are some of the more popular games available to Australian players of pokies for real money:

Where's the Gold: This game can get you up to 20 free spins. When the bonus game is activated you get to pick one out of 5 characters. The free spin amounts and symbols associated with that character drop down the screen and that's when the wins begin.

Prize Fight: This is a boxing theme game which starts with a rather high betting range. Three KO symbols award the player with 5 free spins with all wins tripled, but the free spin wins can only occur on the line that activated the bonus.

Penguin Pays: This game offers something a bit different. Landing on an iceberg on reel one and a coin on reel five activates the bonus. The Wild Penguin then jumps to all 15 reel positions and pays out any combinations it completes.

It is obvious from these descriptions that playing pokies for real money can be absorbing, entertaining and also lucrative.