Online Casino Games in New Zealand

Playing online real money casino games is preferred by many Kiwi players because they offer entertainment and potential winnings – all without leaving the coziness of home. We have gathered useful information about the best casino games online websites offer, and we’ll share details such as payout rate, features, volatility levels, and how to make the best choice when playing online casino games.

Our top list of gambling games - Online casino games for players from New Zealand

Uncover all about the best pokies, table games, live dealer games, jackpots, lottery, instant games, and various types of other casino games, and start playing for real money confidently.

Real money casino games in NZ

Playing casino games for real money for players from New Zealand

There are thousands of distinctive real money gambling games, and they can be played at the best NZ sites.

If you want to play casino games online for real money, you should make a deposit and then choose your game and play. If you are a beginner, it’s always better to start with small sums and then increase the stakes at your own pace.

Another great aspect of playing with real money is that once having deposited at least the minimum amount, you are allowed to claim welcome, crypto, reload, or any other bonuses available at the casino. Bonuses are a great way to boost your start at a certain casino website and can significantly increase the balance in your gaming account.

Casino Games NZ

Nowadays, online NZ players can get their hands on many different types of games on casino websites.

Even though the most played and ever-popular are pokies, these aren’t the only types of games chosen by Kiwis. When it comes to casino games, the runner-up is Blackjack – a popular card game. Baccarat and Poker also belong to the category of great card games, and then table games such as Roulette, Sic Bo, Pai Gow, and others are prevailing among online gamblers, mostly based on their location.

There are many Kiwi gamblers who also try their luck at playing specialty games such as lottery, keno, bingo, or instant games such as Aviator.

Below, we prepared an extensive casino games list, from which Kiwi players can gain useful knowledge about each type.

Categories of casino games for NZ players and their examples

Online Pokies
Kiwi players’ favorites, pokies are probably the most versatile of all casino game types because they can differ in many aspects – the number of reels, the volatility and RTP range, the bonus features, themes, and symbols, the number of paylines, and the presence of a jackpot prize.

Depending on your level of knowledge, you can choose to play classic 3-reel slots with a few paying symbols and combinations, or you can choose a more complicated slot machine with more reels and hundreds of possible paylines.

Slots are a great place to spend a claimed bonus, such as extra funds acquired by a deposit bonus or free spins. This casino online game is present on every NZ casino website, and the most popular variants among players from New Zealand are:
- Classic Slots;
- Video Pokies;
- Bonus Buy Slots;
- Progressive Pokies;
- 3D Slots;
- 5-Reel Slots.
Crypto Games
A crypto game casino can be any type of game that can be only played with wagers made in cryptocurrency.

Casinos usually place these games in a special category in order to ease navigation for all crypto depositors and quickly find the games which are eligible to play with crypto deposits. Sometimes, even if the casino accepts payments in several cryptocurrencies, these games can be played only by Bitcoin depositors, which is a condition preset by the casino.

Any casino game online can be a crypto game as long as it accepts deposits in cryptocurrency. The best casino games that accept crypto payments are:
- Crypto slots;
- Poker;
- Keno;
- Video Poker;
- Baccarat;
- Bingo;
- Blackjack.
Jackpot Games
Undoubtedly, the most sought-after games by NZ players are jackpot games. This is the case because these games offer the possibility to win a whopping jackpot payout while playing, which builds up progressively, with each wager made by all gamblers who play that particular game at one or several casinos at once.

The most customary games that include a progressive jackpot are pokies, and you’ll find them placed in a separate category in the lobbies of New Zealand Casinos. The more you play and spin the reels, the greater the possibility of acquiring an enormous payout, even with small sums of money wagered.

There are hundreds of jackpot games whose jackpot sum differs, but the most popular progressive casino games online among NZ players are:
- Mega Moolah by Microgaming;
- Mega Fortune by NetEnt;
- Major Millions by Microgaming;
- Hall of Gods by NetEnt;
- Arabian Nights by NetEnt.
Blackjack
Card games casino players always go for Blackjack, an exciting game played with cards, whose goal is to beat the dealer by trying not to go over 21. This popular game is present at all the top-rated NZ online casinos and has many variants. Moreover, based on where it is played and where the variant originates, the game’s rules are altered.

To end up with the best possible outcome at Blackjack, we advise using a certain strategy and skipping wasting your time counting cards, which is an activity that simply isn’t possible when playing online Blackjack.

When it comes to diversity, the game comes in a lot of variants, and the most popular among NZ players are:
- American or Classic Blackjack;
- European Blackjack;
- Vegas Strip Blackjack;
- Multi-Hand Blackjack;
- Double Exposure Blackjack;
- Single Deck Blackjack;
- Progressive Blackjack;
- Pontoon;
- Perfect Pairs Blackjack.
Roulette
Roulette is an exciting table game that draws thousands of New Zealand players to place bets because of its exciting gameplay and great possible payouts. It involves predicting where the rolling ball will end up on a wheel, and you can place wagers by guessing the particular number, a set of numbers, colors, odds and evens, and combinations of these too.

Roulette is a thoughtful game that requires building or following a certain strategy, being constantly mindful of your bankroll, avoiding making emotionally-colored predictions, and going all in on just a single outcome.

Roulette is an integrated part of all casino online games lobbies and is usually placed under a separate category or sometimes in the group of ‘Table Games.’ It’s most played variants by Kiwi players are:
- European Roulette;
- French Roulette;
- American Roulette;
- Multi-Wheel Roulette;
- Video Roulette;
- Premier Roulette;
- Roulette Pro;
- Double Zero Roulette.
Baccarat
Baccarat is another card game that has its spot among the best casino games, keeping a steady fanbase of card game Kiwi enthusiasts. With the rise of online gaming, baccarat has become accessible to online gamblers around the world, including in New Zealand.

The game involves predicting the winner between a player and a dealer, so you can bet on the player winning, the dealer winning, or on a tie. To play Baccarat for real money, you should know at least the basics of the rules, how the cards combine, which of them count as zero, what happens if you bet on tie and win, and when do the cards stop being drawn.

Baccarat can be found in the lobbies of the best sites in NZ, usually belonging to a separate category or placed along with Card or Table Games. There are many variants of this game, but the most selected by Kiwi gamblers are:
- Baccarat Banque;
- Chemin De Fer;
- European Baccarat;
- Mini Baccarat;
- Punto Banco;
- Dragon Tiger.
Bingo
A classic game of luck that also got increasingly popular with the rise of online casinos is Bingo. With rules as simple as they get, Bingo attracts many online gamblers for a quick break from regular online gambling casino games and offers a different kind of entertainment but still has possibilities of great potential winnings.

Bingo players buy a ticket with random numbers spread across the grid and follow an announcer or dealer who reads numbers – in the case of games in a casino, the machine does that. To score a win, the numbers announced must match the numbers you have on your ticket.

Bingo is prevailing among Kiwi players because some variants include progressive jackpots, which is quite enough to attract gamblers’ attention. The most played Bingo variants at NZ gambling sites are:
- 30-Ball Bingo;
- 80-Ball Bingo;
- Absolute Bingo;
- Video Bingo;
- Jackpot Bingo;
- Slingo.
Sic Bo
Sic Bo is another best online casino game belonging to a group of dice or table games. It is based on an ancient Asian game with dice, and with the appearance of online casino websites, it can be played on a machine by many worldwide gamblers, including Kiwis.

The game revolves around three rolling dice, and what gamblers need to do is bet on the outcome of the dice by making predictions, starting from a single number that pays 1/1, going all the way to a payout rate of 180/1 for a triple prediction. Even though the basic version of the game is the most popular in New Zealand, other variants of Sic Bo include:
- Chuck-a-luck;
- Ho Hee How;
- Grand Hazard;
- Yee Hah Hi.
Pai Gow

Originating from China, Pai Gow is a gambling game played with a set of bars called dominoes. The casino variant of this traditional Chinese game is Pai Gow Poker, and it is among the best casino game and poker variants on numerous NZ sites.

Another name for Pai Gow poker is double-hand poker, and it has no commission. This poker variant is played with a deck of 52 cards plus one Joker card.

The game involves skills and sticking up to a certain strategy if you decide to play it for real money and acquire some winnings.
Poker
There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t heard about this highly prevalent card game – poker is omnipresent at the top-notch online casinos in New Zealand, and it belongs to the most played of all casino games.

The game has gone through a swirl of changes in rules throughout the years, and today it is played with a single deck of cards, and it still involves predicting the best hand based on some preset standards.

Poker comes in lots of shapes and forms, and Kiwi players enjoy exploring through poker lobbies and playing mostly the following variants:
- Let it Ride;
- Texas Hold’Em;
- Video Poker;
- Caribbean Stud;
- Mississippi Stud;
- Hi-Lo Chicago;
- Seven-Card Stud.
Video Poker
This game is still regular, or five-card poker, as many Kiwi gamblers know it, but the main difference is, as the name suggests – video poker isn’t played on a table, but rather on a machine similar to a slot game.

The same rules apply to each variant of the game, NZ players who wish to have the best possible performance in this game should follow a strategy for an optimal outcome.

Video poker is included as a separate category in the majority of lobbies in the online sites, and the most popular variants of this casino online game are:
- Caribbean Stud Poker;
- Joker’s Wild;
- Tens or Better;
- Texas Hold’em;
- Deuces Wild.
Keno
Keno is very similar to bingo, and it’s another draw-based game that involves numbers and their combinations. Kiwi players can buy their keno ticket, place bets on preferred numbers which usually range from 1 to 80, and then wait for the random selection of numbers by the machine. The payline and combinations are previously determined by the software provider, and these can vary depending on the provider.

Keno is gaining in popularity, and some casinos include it in its category of Specialty, Lottery, or Bingo games. Some variants of this best online casino game include
- Progressive Jackpot Keno;
- Super Keno;
- Live Dealer Keno.
Lottery
The mega-popular game of luck played almost worldwide can also be played on a console at the best online casinos in New Zealand. The lottery is among the quite popular instant-win gambling games, and gamblers complete their lottery tickets by selecting some numbers and waiting to see how many of them match with the random number generator.

Paying combinations are predetermined by the software provider or the casino, and the best thing about it is that it’s instantly paid and requires no skillful strategy. Some famous variants of the lottery are
- Irish Lotto;
- Australian Lotto;
- Canadian Lotto;
- Spanish Lotto.
Craps
Mostly similar to Sic Bo from all casino games, Craps is another game that requires participants to predict the result out of two rolling dice. Another popular name is seven-eleven, and it was mostly played on the streets before the emergence of online casinos.

In the casino game, gamblers play a so-called ‘against the bank’ version rather than bets against each other as it used to be with physical play. Craps isn’t found on every online gambling website, but the top ones offer some variants of the game in their Table Games category. The most popular are:
- Simplified Craps;
- Die Rich Craps;
- Crapless Craps;
- High-Point Craps.
Scratchies
Most of us have seen what a scratch card looks like, and now this common game of chance can also be played at online NZ casinos on a console similar to a slot game.

Depending on the theme and the size of the grid, scratches require a symbol, a number, or a letter to appear a particular number of times on the grid, which results in a winning outcome.

Kiwi players can scratch several types of cards and acquire different sums of money, and the most popular version present at online casinos are:
- Silver Scratch;
- Happy Scratch;
- Scratch-Em.

New Casino Games 2024

In order to keep our fellow readers up to date, we made a casino games list of the newest games found in the lobbies of many NZ sites.

These real money casino games are provided by top-notch software vendors, and you can read the details in the informative table below.

New gambling games for NZ players - a list of games with descriptions

Game	Description
Fortune Rewind	This game by Play’N Go comes with time machine vibes and portals to other dimensions, with high volatility and variable RTP. It has great features such as free spins and a maximum win of 8500x your wager.
Crown of Fire	Pragmatic Play takes us back to the basics, with some classic fruit symbols and simple features. It’s a highly volatile slot with an RTP of 96.36%.
Champions of Mithrune	Another release by Play’N Go, Champions of Mithrune, is a highly variable pokie with an RTP of 96.25%. Famous heroes gather here to fight evil, bringing a maximum win of 7,500x your stake.
Bee Hive Bonanza	This pokie is produced by Netent; its RTP is 96.09%, and its variance is high. The theme is the queen bee and her adventures, accompanied by many amazing features such as avalanche scores, sticky symbols, and free spins.
Captain’s Quest Treasure Island	Betsoft is the provider behind this pokie that revolves around the topic of pirates and treasures. It has 20 paylines, an RTP of 96.28%, and high volatility. The maximum win is a whopping 25,280x your bet.
Gods of Troy	Red Tiger Gaming recently introduced this slot, which has an RTP of 94.73% and a medium to high volatility. The topic is the ancient world of Greece, and the slot’s maximum win potential is 6,157x your stake.
Numero Uno	Numero Uno is a pokie by Games Global, powered by Microgaming, which has an RTP of 94.04% and high variance. The slot’s topic is Mexican wrestling, and it comes with 243 paylines and a maximum win of 2,100x your wager.
Dead Riders Trail	A continuation of their already popular Dead Man’s Trail, Relax Gaming issued this new casino game with the potential to win 50,000x your stake. The slot has bonus buy features and cascading reels, its volatility is high, and its RTP is 96.20%.
Hot To Burn Extreme	Pragmatic Play gets back to the basics with Hot To Burn Extreme, a fruit-themed slot with an RTP of 96.65% and high volatility. There are 40x paylines, and the maximum win is 5,000x
Bull in a Rodeo	Play’N Go is the procedure behind Bull in a Rode, and the slot has 20 paylines and pays a maximum of 2,000x your bet. The volatility is medium to high, and it has an RTP of 94.2%.

How we choose the best games at online casinos

Criteria for choosing the best casino games

Choosing the best casino games online is an extensive, detailed procedure to which we dedicate significant time and effort.

There are several parameters that we go over in the process; here are the criteria that we consider before deciding on the best casino game.

Variance or Chance of Winning

The variance in slots determines how often you’ll win and how big those winnings can be. We always check whether the slot has a high variance, which means it will give out greater winnings to Kiwi players.
High RTP

The Return to Player ratio is very important, and those slots with high RTP are always preferred because they return a greater portion of the stakes back to the players in the form of winnings.
Enticing Gameplay

The theme and the overall gameplay are also other points to consider because the game should always be entertaining and easy to understand for the player.
Visual Effects

With technology advancing that far, quality visual effects are a must because they largely contribute to the whole gameplay, the entertainment factor, and the storytelling.
Bonus Features

Pokies should be rich with special features that offer bonus rounds, such as free spins, special symbols, or any other opportunity for an additional prize.

Live Casino Games

Live dealer games have a separate fanbase of New Zealand players and are preferred by many because they bring the excitement of a land-based casino without leaving your home setup. These games are played with a live dealer in real-time, usually involving other participants at a table, and everyone can communicate with each other.

We have collected information on the best live casino games played by Kiwi players at online casino sites, and we present and regularly update this information for the convenience of our readers.

Here are the most popular live dealer games at NZ sites.

Live games in online casinos - categories of games

Live Roulette
Live Blackjack
Live Baccarat
Live Poker

Best payout casino games

Casino games with high payouts - a list of gambling games

Every slot has a number of predefined paylines and a maximum payout per spin. The paylines determine the combination of symbols that result in scoring a win, and depending on your wager, the payout is different.

The best payout casino games are the ones that pay a great multiplier of your stake for a certain combination of symbols. There are pokies that pay out as much as 300 or 400 times your wager, but the best ones multiply your wager thousands of times for a huge payout, have a high RTP percentage, and give a great portion of stakes back to players.

Here are the current best pokies in casinos with great payouts.

Goblin’s Cave

99.32%
Beat the Bank

99.17%;
Ugga Bugga

99.07%
Mega Joker

99%
Ooh Aah Dracula

99%

RTP and House Edge

When considering a pokie to play, among the first aspect Kiwi players consider is the RTP, or Return to Player, and thus the house edge also.

The Return to Player percentage specifies the amount of money the pokie will return back to players in the form of winnings.
This RTP is calculated in accordance with the volatility of the slot and the RNG.
RNG or the Random Number Generator ensures a totally random game outcome.

On the other hand, the house edge is directly linked to the RTP, and it represents the remaining percentage, in our example, it would be 4%. This is what the casino gets in profits from the wagers of the players on that particular slot. Again, this is calculated for a long period of thousands of spins, and it isn’t to be taken for granted.

Information about rtp in online casinos for NZ players

Online Slots Volatility

Payout from casino games to a player from New Zealand

Volatility is another factor that determines the payout of a certain pokie. In simple terms, volatility determines how often and how big your winnings will be while playing a slot machine. There are three main classifications of volatility – low, medium, and high, although there are many casino games that belong somewhere in the middle and are classified as low-medium or medium-high pokies.

Low volatility means that the slot tends to give more frequent payouts to players, but the sums are smaller and closer to the bets they place. On the other hand, high volatility slots give out significantly less frequently than low ones, but the payouts can be massively bigger.

How volatile slots you decide to play mainly depends on your goals and the amount of money you wish to spend on wagers.

Mobile casino games in NZ

When considering the best real money casino games, we always pay special attention to mobile gaming, as many NZ players tend to gamble more often on their mobile devices. Many software providers optimize the games they produce to fit small screens and produce equal quality when playing via mobiles.

Below, we present the most popular mobile casino games among Kiwi players.

Casino games that can be played on mobile devices

Mobile slots
Blackjack
Baccarat
Roulette

Online casino game providers

In the table below, we will share knowledge on the most prominent software providers that currently supply the lobbies of NZ casinos.

Provider	Description
Pragmatic Play	Offering innovative casino games since its establishment, Pragmatic Play is a well-known game in the NZ gaming market.
NetEnt	Ever since 1996, NetEnt has produced high-quality casino games and collaborates with the best NZ online casinos.
Aristocrat	Established back in 1953, Aristocrat is definitely the leading veteran on the list. The provider has a solid reputation among Kiwi gamblers, constantly providing top-notch online casino games.
Play’N Go	Play’N Go started creating online games for casinos in 2005 and since then has offered exceptional quality and entertainment through its releases.
Microgaming	Operating since 1994, Microgaming is among the most notable and highly-valued software providers on the NZ market.
Playtech	Playtech has been producing casino software since 1999, using state-of-the-art technology and an array of entertainment opportunities for Kiwi casino players.
Betsoft	Having produced hundreds of pokies, video poker, table games, and mobile games, Betsoft is among the most reputable software vendors in the industry.
IGT	International Gaming Technology, or IGT, is an eminent casino games producer which initially started operating in 1975.

Pros and cons of online casino games

Despite being as prevalent as it is, playing casino games online can have both its advantages and disadvantages.

Benefits
Practical and comfortable; played without leaving your home.
Much bigger selection of games compared to land-based casinos.
Appropriate for all budgets with affordable minimum bets and deposits.
Availability of claiming bonuses and promotions.

Downsides
Comfort and constant accessibility can lead to addictive behavior.
Players might come across some fraudulent sites.
Sometimes players wait for more than 24 hours for confirmations to withdraw.
Some payment methods are accompanied by transaction fees.

Demo mode in slots

If you don’t want to play casino games online for real money right away, you can try playing the demo version of the slots, which is enabled at most of the online New Zealand casinos.

Free play in pokies means that you can play that particular casino game without depositing your own money. This very appreciated feature enables Kiwi players to get to know the game, understand the mechanics, get familiar with the symbols and paylines and check whether it suits them and would like to continue playing for real money.

The demo mode in the best casino games online is activated in a similar way. This is what you need to do to play pokies for free.

Playing gambling in demo mode for New Zealand players

1

Step 1 – Enter the chosen casino website.
2

Step 2 – Go to the lobby.
3

Step 3 – Choose a category and a casino game.
4

Step 4 – Click on the game.
5

Step 5 – Click on ‘Play for Fun, or ‘Play Demo’, depending on the slot.

Nicole Goodwin - Main Author of the OnlinecasinosNZ site

Nicole Goodwin

27.09.2022

16.11.2024

FAQ

Why do casinos offer free online casino games?

NZ casinos offer almost all casino games to be played for free because it helps Kiwi players get to know the game before depositing real money.

Do I have to make a deposit to play free games?

No, you don’t. The point of free games is to check out the mechanics and the overall gameplay without depositing any real money. After playing the game for free, you can always deposit and play it with actual money.

Are there any restrictions on free games?

The only restriction regarding free games is that not all types can be played via this demo version. Demo slots are the most common, and some casinos also offer some demo versions of table games. However, you can’t play live games for free.

What are the best free casino games in New Zealand?

The best casino games to play for fun depend on the taste and needs of the player. It’s up to you which types of games you prefer playing, but the most popular free games among Kiwi players are demo slots, blackjack, and poker.

Is there a demo mode available for all games?

No, not for all. Slots are the most common type of game that you can play via demo mode. Some table games also are available to play for fun, but live dealer games cannot be played via a demo mode.

How often do new games come out?

Since there are hundreds of software providers who create casino games, new releases happen almost every week or month, depending on the online casino you are registered with.

Which online casino games give you the best chance of winning?

The games with the lowest house edge and highest RTP are blackjack and craps. However, players who are in for bigger payouts tend to play slots because they can claim and use many bonuses that casinos offer.

Is it possible to know the payout percentage of each casino game?

Technically, no. When casinos include slot games in their lobbies, they do it in bulk, and nobody really knows the payout percentage of each game. They only share the range that each game is possible to have.

Online Casino Games in New Zealand

Real money casino games in NZ

Casino Games NZ

Online Pokies

Crypto Games

Jackpot Games

Blackjack

Roulette

Baccarat

Bingo

Sic Bo

Pai Gow

Poker

Video Poker

Keno

Lottery

Craps

Scratchies

New Casino Games 2024

How we choose the best games at online casinos

Variance or Chance of Winning

High RTP

Enticing Gameplay

Visual Effects

Bonus Features

Live Casino Games

Live Roulette

Live Blackjack

Live Baccarat

Live Poker