Why there is no pokies app in the Australian app stores
The obstacle is the licence, not the technology. Both stores treat real-money gambling as a restricted category and distribute such an app only in countries where its developer can show a licence for it. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits supplying online casino games, pokies among them, to a person physically present in Australia without a licence, and no Australian regulator issues that licence. An offshore operator has nothing to submit, so nothing appears in the Australian listing.
The Act is written against operators rather than players. It contains no provision making it an offence for an individual in Australia to place a bet at an offshore casino, and the 2017 amendment gave ACMA a complaints process for prohibited services plus the ability to have non-compliant sites blocked. A blocked domain is the part of the law you notice as a reader, because it shows up as a page that will not load.
Sports betting is the reason the confusion exists. Betting is licensed by the states and territories, separately from the Act, so betting apps do sit in the Australian stores next to a search for pokies. Seeing one there is usually what makes people assume a casino version must exist somewhere.
| Route | How it works | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| A store app | Not available for the offshore brands in this table, because the category needs a licence in the country of distribution | An app claiming to be one of these brands did not come from the brand |
| The site in your browser | Lobby, cashier and games all load in Chrome or Safari with nothing installed | Nothing beyond the usual: keep the login off a shared phone |
| The site pinned to your home screen | Your browser saves a shortcut with an icon that opens the site full screen and behaves like an app | It is still the browser, so clearing site data signs you out |
| An .apk from a mirror site | An Android package installed from outside Google Play, offered by a third party rather than the operator | You cannot see what is inside it, and a copy wrapped around a real login form is the obvious risk |
Compare the casinos that run in a phone browser
Every brand below opens in Chrome or Safari with nothing to install. The rows rank the offers as each operator's own terms state them, in the currency the supplied feed served, and the full conditions sit under each row.
Bonus terms
Offer placeholder. Bonus amount, wagering, minimum deposit and eligibility are to be confirmed with the operator before publishing. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 125% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Bonus valid 7 days | Free spins credited over 4 days | First deposit only | T&Cs apply.
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | Bonus code BLISS | Min. deposit €20 | 120% bonus up to €500 + 125 free spins | 40x wagering within 14 days | T&Cs apply.
- #4
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €500 + 100 FS | 2nd dep: 75% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 3rd dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 4th dep: 25% up to €3,500 + 50 FS | 5th dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 100 FS | 40x-50x wagering on bonus & FS winnings | Bonus and free spins valid 3 days | Max withdrawal 5x deposit | First 5 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #5
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €20 | 100% bonus on the first deposit up to €600 + 125 free spins (25 free spins daily over 5 days) | Wager the bonus within 7 days | T&Cs apply | 18+ | Gambling can be addictive.
- #6
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus 280% up to €3,200 + 800 free spins. Bonus winnings are subject to wagering and are capped at €500. The bonus expires after 5 days if the wagering is not met. One bonus per person. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #7
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €250 | Deposit bonus 100% up to €5,000 + 100 free spins on Collapsed Castle (€0.20 per spin) | Free spins credited in 2 packs of 50 every 24 hours | Bonus wagering x25 (free-spin winnings x25) | Wagering to be met within 14 days | Bonus can be reactivated after 7 days | Bonus is not withdrawable until fully wagered | Bonus T&Cs apply.
- #8
Bonus terms
18+ | New users | Welcome pack across 3 deposits: 100%/80%/60% bonus, up to €2,500 in total + 300 free spins | Min. deposit €20 | 45x wagering | Max bonus bet €5 | Activate within 48 hours, valid 5 days | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #9
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | 100% deposit bonus up to €200 | Min. deposit €20 | 40x wagering | Max bet €5 | Bonus valid 10 days | Max withdrawal 10x the bonus amount | T&Cs apply | Gambling can be addictive.
- #10
Bonus terms
18+ | New players | Min. first deposit €20 (CAD/AUD: 15) | Bonus code FIRST | 100% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Max bonus withdrawal equals the bonus amount received | Max bet €5 while wagering | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #11
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus: 100% up to €1,250 on the first deposit (min. €20). The bonus must be wagered 30x with real money and is valid for 14 days. One redemption per player. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #12
Bonus terms
18+ | All deposits | Min. deposit €50 | Privilege Wheel: up to €700 bonus or 50 free spins on 3 Royal Coins / Lucky Streak 1000 | 30x wagering | Max withdrawal from free spins €300 | The prize must be activated with a min. €50 deposit | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #13
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €1,000 + 200 FS | 2nd dep: 100% up to €200 + 50 FS | 35x wagering on deposit & bonus | 40x wagering on free-spin winnings | Bonus must be activated within 7 days | Wagering to be met within 10 days | Max withdrawal 6x the bonus amount | First 2 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #14
Bonus terms
Welcome package: 100% bonus up to €10,000 + 500 free spins, min. deposit €20. Bonus funds and deposits must be wagered 3x before a withdrawal is possible. Check whether your country is accepted before depositing. Full terms apply. 18+. Play responsibly.
- #15
Bonus terms
18+. New customers only. The casino welcome bonus of 100% up to €500 + 50 free spins applies on a successful first deposit after the bonus code is entered. Before any withdrawal a 5x wagering of the deposit is required, counting only sports bets at minimum odds 1.6 and casino bets without minimal or zero risk. Withdrawal limits and further bonus conditions apply under the general terms. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
How to put a casino on your home screen
- 01
Open the site in your phone's own browser
Chrome on Android, Safari on iOS. An in-app browser inside a social feed is the one place game frames most often fail to load.
- 02
Sign in before you pin anything
The shortcut saves a page, not a session. Log in first so the icon lands you in the lobby rather than on a sign-in form.
- 03
Use Share, then Add to Home Screen
On iOS that sits in the Safari share sheet. On Android Chrome it is Add to Home screen in the three-dot menu, sometimes shown as Install app.
- 04
Tap the icon once and check where it lands
It should open full screen with no address bar. If it opens the marketing page instead of the lobby, delete it and pin the lobby address.
- 05
Leave the site data alone
Clearing browsing data, or using a private window, removes the login and the cached game assets. That is the one practical difference from an installed app.
What a store app would give you that a pinned site does not
What works
- Nothing to install, so no storage used and no update to approve.
- The same account, the same balance and the same lobby as the desktop site.
- According to an industry market brief on the Australian market, internet penetration among adults reached 99.7% in 2025 and average mobile speed 122 Mbps, so a browser lobby loads without ceremony.
- The same brief puts Chrome at about 52% of the market here and Safari at 31%, which is exactly what operators build for.
What to watch
- No push notifications, so an expiring bonus reaches you by email or not at all.
- Clearing site data or opening a private window signs you out.
- No home screen badge, no widget and no biometric unlock unless your browser offers one.
- No store listing means no store refund path, so the operator's own terms are the only document that governs the account.
Should you install a pokies .apk?
An .apk from a mirror is the one route worth refusing
A package file offered by a third-party site is not a build you can check. It asks you to allow installation from an unknown source, then asks for the login to an account holding money. If a brand has no store listing anywhere, a file claiming to be its app has no origin to verify. Pin the site instead: it gives you the same lobby with nothing installed.
Which pokies work in a phone browser
In practice, all of them. Studios ship HTML5 builds that scale to the screen they are opened on, so the lobby you see on a phone is the same list as on a laptop. What changes is the layout: reels are drawn larger, the paytable moves behind a menu, and a title designed for a wide screen crops instead of shrinking.
The information panel travels with the game, which matters more than the frame around it. That panel is where the return figure and the volatility sit, and reading it takes one tap. The RTP explainer covers what the number means over a long run, and the Megaways page covers the mechanic most often rebuilt for portrait screens.
Live tables are the exception worth planning for. They stream video rather than draw a game locally, so a weak connection shows up as a dropped feed mid-hand instead of a slow reel. If that is what you came for, the live dealer page explains how table limits are published in the lobby before you sit down.
Open the lobby in your browser
No install, no store approval, and the terms for every offer sit under its row in the table above. Read the row, then the cashier.
See the offerFor the wider phone experience, including what breaks on older handsets, the mobile casino page goes further. The instant play page covers the browser build from the other direction, Apple Pay covers paying from a phone wallet, and the online pokies page is the place to start if the game library matters more to you than the wrapper. What the Act actually says is set out with sources on the legality guide.
