poker machine

English

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Noun

poker machine (plural poker machines)

An electronic machine used to play games of chance for money, especially
1. (US) An electronic machine used to play poker.
  - 2007, Max Allan Collins, Double Dealer: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Mortal Wounds, page 119:
    He didn′t always play the same poker machine, but he never went to the tables where he would have to interact with a live dealer. In fact, he usually stuck to the row of poker machines closer to the back door.
  - 2007, Mary Herczog, Las Vegas for Dummies, page 177:
    Even better, there are some video poker machines — admittedly, they′re very hard to find — that actually offer favorable odds if you play perfectly.
  - 2010, Marina Milicevic, Vegas Dealer, page 19:
    Even there, you see poker machines placed in the bar counter to greet you.
2. (Australia, New Zealand) Synonym of slot machine.
  - 1973, Francis Keble Crowley, Modern Australia in Documents: 1939-1970, page 351:
    In New South Wales poker machines were legalized in clubs in 1956.
  - 1974, Donald Ernest Edgar, Social Change in Australia: Readings in Sociology, page 23:
    Lotteries, horse-racing and poker machines loom large in the life experience of many Australians.
  - 1991, Queensland Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Papers, volume 4, page 303:
    At that time Ainsworth had been manufacturing and selling poker machines in NSW for nineteen years.
  - 2008, Malcolm Brown, editor, Cold Blooded Murder: True Crimes That Rocked Australia, unnumbered page:
    He approached people who were not in the criminal world, including his poker machine attendant, to acquire firearms or arrange hitmen for him.
  - 2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:
    I was also shocked that the poker machines (which we call pokies back home) were on full display, as in Australia, they legally have to be in a separate room.

Derived terms