Casino games

If you’re looking for the best casino games online that NZ casinos have to offer, you have come to the right place.

Our casino experts test, compare and review the best casino games in the industry, giving you extensive info on what each game has to offer and how it works.

With our help, you can find casino games with the best odds of winning ranging from top of the line pokies to classy live dealer games, powered by reputable providers and the potential for massive payouts.

Real money casino games online are available on all casinos that we have listed on our site.

Casino games

Tip! Best Las Vegas casino games online!

Most populare game types online

Online casinos usually have 10,000s of games to offer but in reality it is usually a couple of categories of games that attract most of us. Below you will find the most interesting game types online.

Game typeGame category
Jacks or BetterVideopoker
Las Vegas slotsPokies
VR GamesGame Shows
Buy bonus slotsPokies
Progressive jackpotsPokies
Double up gamesAll games
Game showsLive casino
Dice gamesLive casino
Instant win gamesCasino

Classic casino games

How to play guides for classic casino games!

Roulette
Roulette

Roulette

Texas Holdem Poker
Texas Holdem Poker

Texas HoldEm

Blackjack
Blackjack

BlackJack

Baccarat
Baccarat

Baccarat

Videopoker
Videopoker

Videopoker

Craps
Craps

Craps

Sic Bo
Sic Bo

Sic Bo

Scratch cards
Scratch cards

Scratchies

Pokies
Pokies

Pokies


Game shows (Live casino)

How to play guides for modern game shows that you can find at online live casinos.

Dream Catcher
Dream Catcher

Dream Catcher

Monopoly Live
Monopoly Live

Monopoly Live

Gonzos Treasure Hunt
Gonzos Treasure Hunt

Gonzos Treasure Hunt

Crazy Time
Crazy Time

Crazy Time

Football studio
Football Studio

Football Studio

Mega Ball
Mega Ball

Megaball

Deal or no deal
Deal or no deal

Deal or no deal

Andar Bahar
Andar Bahar

Andar Bahar

Cash or Crash
Cash or Crash

Cash or Crash

Fan Tan logo
Fan Tan

Fan Tan

Crazy coin flip
Crazy Coin Flip

Crazy Coin Flip live

Monopoly big baller
Monopoly Big Baller

Monopoly Big baller

Adventures Beyond Wonderland
Adventures Beyond Wonderland

Adventures Beyond Wonderland

Power up roulette
PowerUP Roulette

PowerUP Roulette

Sweet bonanza logo
 Sweet Bonanza Candy Land

Sweet Bonanza Candy Land

Boom city
Boom City

Boom City

Other casino games

Keno
Keno

Keno

Bingo
Bingo

Bingo

Poker
Poker

Poker

Online lotto
Lotto

Lotto

Casino war
Casino War

Casino War

Pai Gow
Pai Gow

Pai Gow

Caribbean Stud Poker
Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker

Teen Patti
Teen Patti

Teen Patti

5 card poker
5 card poker

5 card poker

Crash game
Crash game

Crash game

Casinos with a large selection of games

Make sure to check out the best casino bonuses that you can claim before playing.

Latest casino games news

About casino games

The online casino industry in New Zealand is developing at an incredible rate that is best seen in the casino games operators have to offer.

Today’s casino games feature amazing visual details, top of the line animations and an incredibly fun gameplay.

Some of the modern pokies can easily go head to head with the top video games in terms of visual details.

Add in the factor of winning massive amounts of money and you get an incredibly fun casino game that you can easily spend hours playing.

In this page, we explain about the games available at New Zealand casinos, how they work and where you can play them for real money.

We cover the most popular casino games from pokies to live dealer games. Read on and see what we have in stock.

Types of casino games

When we talk about a casino games list at an online casino we don’t just refer to sheer volume. If you take a look at the real money casino games some operators have to offer you see that their portfolio is quite diverse.

Online casinos give you a chance to try your luck on thousands of different pokies, chase multimillion payouts on the jackpots or simply play bingo to pass the time. You can choose from many electronic variants of table games or you can put your skills to the test against live dealer.

From video poker, keno, baccarat to specialty games, online casinos are guaranteed to have any game you want to play.

Factors that consist a good game:

  • High RTP
  • Low house edge
  • Nice design

Pokies/slots

Pokies take up the most from the casino games list at every online casino. But despite their popularity online pokies have the highest house edge from most other casino games. They can be very volatile eating your balance away pretty fast, but they can also bring monster payouts in the first few spins.

A general rule across the industry is that the best pokies to play are the ones with a high RTP value (96%+) and a low to medium variance.

But you also need to consider the overall payout potential of the game and the bonus features it has in stock.   

Below we explain the most common details about online pokies. By better understanding the game you can choose the best online pokies and maximize your chances in winning big.

  • Wild symbol: The Wild symbol is often referred to as the Joker symbol and it replaces for all other symbols in the game, except for the Scatter and Bonus symbols. In many pokies, the Wild has extra functions like Expanding Wild, Sticky Wild, Wild Reels, Random Wilds, Extra Wilds, Multiplier Wilds, and so on.
  • Scatter/Bonus Symbol: The Scatter and the Bonus symbol generally have the same functions. They trigger the bonus round in the game, usually when 3 or more of them land on the screen. once this happens the fun begins with a chance for big payouts to land. 
  • Free spins bonus: A free spins bonus is the most attractive feature in a pokies where you can play for free. Once 3 Scatters hit the reels the feature is triggered, awarding the player with a predefined number of free spins. The feature can be re-triggered by landing another set of 3 or more scatters and usually comes with extra features attached. 
  • Cash bonus: The cash bonus is another bonus feature that can be triggered in many pokies. Opposed to the free spins bonus the cash bonus is a pick and win feature. The player makes picks from different objects on the screen and each one reveals a cash prize. 
  • Overall payout potential: The best way to see if a pokie is worth playing or not is by checking the overall payout potential per spin or per feature. Some pokies can produce smaller payouts ranging from 200 to 500 times the total stake per spin, while others can bring you wins of over 10,000 times the total stake and more. So, the higher the payout potential is the better your chance is to hit a monster payout.

Live casino games

Live Casino games were first introduced by Evolution Gaming. The way they work is that a real live casino floor is built and the gameplay is streamed in real-time by using HD cameras.

The player can place bets on the table via special software and communicate with the dealer and other players via a chat screen. At first, only Roulette and Blackjack were introduced, for later an entire plethora of table games to join the live dealer section.

The most popular live casino games across online casinos today are: 

  • Live Roulette 
  • Live Blackjack 
  • Live Baccarat 
  • Live 3 Card Poker 
  • Live Craps 
  • Live Texas Holdem Poker
  • Wheel of fortune shows

Video poker

When video poker machines were first introduced across land-based casinos they really changed the face of the industry worldwide.  Other players and a dealer were excluded from the equation, leaving only you to play against the machine. Another reason why video poker became a popular casino game is the house edge.

Video poker comes with the lowest house edge in the industry, edging at over 99% on some variants. Players also have a choice to double up their winnings by choosing a Black or Red Card.

This detail makes video poker a lucrative game since with some luck on our side we can easily double our winnings up to some pretty big wins.  Of course, you always have a chance to hit a Royal Flush and get the top payout in the game. Some of the most popular poker variants you can play at online casinos are: 

How to play videopoker online!

BIngo games

Bingo games allow you to slowly play and build your balance over a period of time. It’s still a game played daily by many Bingo enthusiasts, but today it’s mostly played at specialized Bingo sites. At online casinos, Bingo usually falls into the Specialty games category, along with Keno, Sic Bo, and a few other casino games.

The most popular Bingo games across New Zealand casinos are:

  • Roaring Twenties Bingo
  • Bingo Blast
  • Bargain Bingo
  • 90 ball Bingo
  • 75 ball Bingo

Scratch cards

Scratch cards You can find scratch cards at pretty much every online casino. They are easy to play as all you need to do is scratch away the fields and reveal a prize. But compared to other casino games scratch cards have a high house edge. Many of them come with bonus rounds and hefty prizes, but it can be hard to make a profit.

Some of the most popular scratch card games across NZ casinos are:

  • Treasure Tree
  • Lucky 8’s
  • Magic Sevens
  • Tiki Treasure
  • Pirate’s Pillage

Jackpot slots

If you are a fan of online slots, then slots with a progressive jackpot will be even more favourable. The only difference between regular and progressive slots is that the progressive jackpot slot has a built-in jackpot function and a jackpot meter that is clearly displayed on the game screen.

The only downside is that jackpot slots have a lower RTP theoretical percentage, but given that jackpots prizes are in millions, many players are fine with that.

The most popular online progressive jackpot slot is Mega Moolah from Microgaming, with a Guinness record for the highest payout when a lucky player won 31,644,363.62 New Zealand Dollars in the month of October 2018.

by John Coleman (Microgaming CEO)

Progressive jackpots work so that a small percentage of each bet played goes to the jackpot pool prize.

The jackpot is triggered accidentally during the game, within the bonus game you get when special symbols land on your reels – scatter, and in some cases where a special bonus jackpot trigger symbol is inserted.

The hottest progressive jackpot slots in the industry right now include:

Update: Don’t miss the new 4 tiered jackpot function called WowPot from Microgaming. They have 4 new progressive jackpot slots each with starting seed at 2 million NZD.

Offline casino games

Offline casino games are great options when you do not have a wifi connection and you are in the mood to practice your skill or just have fun for free.

Most popular for New Zealand players is an option to download and play free offline slots, but not just that there are more types of games available to play offline such as roulette, baccarat, video poker, Texas Holdem and many others.

Many online casinos offer free casino apps, the mobile versions of their platforms where you can play all theirs games in offline mode without connection to the internet

How to find good casino games

If you’re a newbie player venturing to the world of New Zealand online casinos you can easily be overwhelmed by the massive offer of casino games. It can be a hard task to find the best ones, lucky for you we are here to help.

We have a team of seasoned casino experts who find the best games in the industry and bring them to you.

When looking for the best games our casino experts consider many factors, including: 

  • High RTP value 
  • Great bonus rounds 
  • Big payout potential 
  • Attractive design 
  • Low house edge 

Once our casino experts find a game that suits the criteria they add it to our site and recommend it to our loyal players. This way you save on time and get to play some of the best casino games in the industry. 

Return to Player (RTP)

The RTP (Return to Player) value of a game can be a good indicator of what type of payouts you can expect. Simply put this is the promoted value that the game is designed to return to the player in form of winnings over a period of time.

The math is simple, casino games with a higher RTP value are bound to produce better payouts. 

But the RTP value shouldn’t be taken as the only factor of the game. The RTP works in correlation with the game variance and the RNG (Random Number Generator) to create a totally random game.

This means that a pokie with an RTP value of 98% won’t return $98 in winnings over 100 spins at $1 bets. It can be more or it can be less, which is exactly what makes pokies fun to play.

Casino games with high RTPs:

Top online casino games (slots) based by RTP (return to player) – Also means: This is the slots games where the casino the lowest house edge!

Few other worth mention games with highest RTP are:

  • Mega Joker – 99,00% (Long time winner)
  • White Rabbit Megaways (New) – 97,39%
  • Jack Hammer – 97,00%
  • Fishy Fortune – 97,90%
  • Devils Delight – 97,60%
  • Blood Suckers – 98,00%
  • Immortal Romance – 96,8%

Read more about RTP here!

House edge

The house edge is simply the opposite of the RTP value. If the RTP value of a pokie is 98%, then the house edge is 2%. This is the amount the casino gets to keep in winnings over a period of time.

The house edge is calculated over millions of spins and all pokies reach the house edge and RTP value sooner or later. But the variance makes things interesting giving both the player and the casino and equal chance to make a profit short term.

Which games have the best house edge at casinos? Table games are a bit more skill games than other casino games and therefore the house edge can vary depending on how you play.

Top casino games to play

Do you want to know which are the best casino games to play? You have some skill but would like to be sure what casino games have the best odds?

Well in this section we have compiled a list of the best casino games to play by several criteria such as odds of winning, house edge, RTP of the game and popularity:

But to find out which casino games have the best odds of winning, we look at the game’s average “house edge! Let’s look at the list below:

Game typeHouse edge
Blackjack1,5%
Baccarat1,5%
Video Poker0.5%-5.0%
Craps1,4-5,0%
Roulette2,5%
Sic Bo2,7%
Pokies1.0%-15.00%
Pai Gow2,5%
Scratch cards3.05%-5%
Caribbean stud poker5,0%

As you can see, we players have a greater chance of winning at Baccarat, Roulette and Three Card Poker than at the other casino games.

But as I said, this depends on how we play the game. A more experienced player who knows the rules of the game and has a good strategy can optimize his chances of winning and make sure to have better odds on his side while a beginner often has even lower odds.

The best casino game according to us is Blackjack. It is the game where we can make sure to have a bigger house edge than in other games and it is also a relatively easy game to learn.

Variance 

A lot of newbie NZ players have a hard time understanding what exactly does variance mean when it comes to casino games. Well, simply put the game variance determines the frequency of payouts that occur on the reels.

In terms of pokies, you can find games with low, medium, or high variance. Some pokies come with a mixed value, so on some titles, you can come across a low-medium or medium-high variance. But what does this all mean exactly? 

  • High variance pokies are games that have the potential to produce massive payouts, but this happens very rarely. 
  • Low variance pokies on the other hand are games that produce frequent payouts that are smaller in size. 

Many experienced players base their gameplay according to the pokies’ variance. If they’re aiming to win big they go for high variance pokies and hope to hit a good bonus round.

If they need to wager a big bonus amount they move over to low variance pokies on higher bets.

This is a good strategy when playing pokies based on variance as you maximize your chances of hitting a big payout and keeping most of your balance while you’re wagering a bonus.

Design 

When it comes to online casino games design there are really no rules. Every provider in the industry can create casino games as they please. It’s all about coming up with new designs and games that the players like.

In the past, there was a general trend among software providers that followed a unified design. Classic pokies had a similar design with 3 reels and 1 to 5 active pay lines.

Then came modern slots that followed a 5 reels, 3-row design.

But today we can see new trends among game providers and new online casinos from the industry. Many new pokies come with 6 or even more reels and a bigger number of rows.

This design also increases the number of pay lines and many providers are creating pokies with a Ways to Win design.

A lot of providers also released pokies with a Cluster Pays design that is becoming increasingly popular among New Zealand players.

How casinos use design psychology to get us to play more!

What are the best casino games? 

When it comes to real money casino games there’s no simple answer to which ones are the best. The reason for this is simple.

Different players prefer different casino games. If you’re a pokies fan you will say that pokies are the best real money casino games.

If you love playing Blackjack or Roulette you can say that table games are the best way to go. Video Poker fans swear that these games are most generous when it comes to winning at the casino. So what are the best casino games to play for real money? 

Well, all and none of the above. Table games and video poker have the lowest house edge among all casino games, but the bet to payout ratio is quite low.

On the other hand, pokies and jackpots have the highest house edge from all other casino games but can produce massive payouts in one lucky spin.

Just, for example, Mega Moolah paid a staggering £13 million jackpot on a minimum bet of £0.25.

This is a payout of 52 million times the total stake, which no other game can ever match. In the end, it all comes down to your preferences and what you’re looking to win at the casino. 

Best game providers

Want to find a casino with games from your favorite game developer?

Choose a game developer or go to our casino game developers page for a full list of all developers, choose one and we will tell you more about them, their latest slot launches and the best online casino sites to play at.

An easy way to find new game favorites from your favorite game developer.

    1
  • Netent
    200+
    Games
    Licences: MGA
    Spinola Park, Level one Mikiel Ang. Borg Street, SPK1000, St. Julians, MT
    Established 1996
    2
  • Thunderkick
    45+
    Games
    Licences: MGA UKGC
    Contact form on site
    Vasagatan 11, 111 20 Stockholm
    Established 2012
    3
  • Relax gaming
    46+
    Games
    Licences: GBGA MGA
    Contact form on website
    Block 6, Floor 4 Paceville Avenue St Julian’s STJ3109, Malta
    Established 2010
    5
  • Betsoft
    50+
    Games
    Licences: MGA
    Valletta buildings South Street Valletta, Malta VLT 1103 Malta
    Established 1999

FAQ

What do the different game terms mean?

Coin-the coin – is the bet amount that is made in a pokie when the player is making their spin.

Deposit bonus – the deposit bonus is a bonus that players get when the casino matches the deposit that they have made into their account.

No deposit bonus – the no deposit bonus like free spins for online casino games in NZ is one that is given to the player as a gift.

Free spins – free spins are offered in all online casinos to help players play more pokies.

Bonus round – the bonus round is the round in casino games where players can multiply their winnings and get extra bonuses that they would not have gotten before.

Scatter – scatter tiles will fix a stuck board when someone is in a pokie that does not have any matches.

Live dealer game – the live dealer game is hosted by a real person who will deal with the cards or spin the roulette wheel live while the players are on camera.

Jackpot – the jackpot is the collective win that people can get from a game universally regardless of where they are playing the game.

Bankroll – the bankroll is the money that is in the account that a player can use as they go into any game.

Pay line – the pay line is any line of matches in a pokie that will give the player a win.

What is RNG = Random number generator?

An operating system or computer programme that releases outcome randomly of every dice rolled, every card dealt or wheel spun in the casino games is called a Random Number Generator (RNG).

Learn more about RNG here!

Are online casino games rigged in any way?

No, online casino games can’t be rigged in any way. When you take a look at the casino games list you see that each game comes from a certain software provider.

They supply the games to the casino and when you play a game you are in fact playing on the server by the software provider and not the casino itself.

The providers operate with a license issued by an authority that guarantees that the games are fair and random.

Can New Zealand players try every game at the casino for real money?

Yes, if the casino in question accepts players from New Zealand you can play any game they have on offer without any problems.

The only exception to this rule is when you are playing with a bonus.

You need to check the bonus terms to see which games are allowed for play with bonus funds.

Sources:

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_game
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_game
  • + from game sections at casinos that are listed on New Zealand Casinos
  • https://barxslots.com/card-games/