Last updated: 13-07-2026
Most Aussie punters assume a pokie's RTP is fixed — printed once, true everywhere. It isn't. The same title can run at 94.5% on one casino and 96.5% on another, because operators can configure RTP within a range set by the studio, and most players never check which version they landed on. That's the first thing worth knowing before touching any of the 5,000+ titles at Level Up.
This page covers the full catalogue: traditional pokies, cluster-pays grids, Megaways, and the crash/arcade games — Aviator, Plinko, Chicken Road — that sit alongside them in the same lobby. I tested a cross-section of both, checked published RTP against what's actually loaded in-game, and mapped volatility against realistic session bankrolls in A$.
Bonus buy is unrestricted in Australia — no UKGC-style ban here — so I've flagged the cost of every buy feature in AUD terms, not just the multiplier. Demo mode is available for most titles without registration, which is worth using before you punt real money on anything above medium volatility.
What pokies are available at Level Up?
Level Up runs 5,000+ titles, which is more than any of the three direct AU competitors I checked. The catalogue splits into three broad groups: classic 5x3 pokies with paylines (Book of Ra Deluxe, Starburst, Gold Rush), cluster-pays and Megaways grids (Sweet Bonanza, Sugar Rush 1000, Deal or No Deal Megaways), and crash/arcade games that don't use reels at all (Aviator, Plinko, Chicken Road). Providers span Pragmatic Play, BGaming, NetEnt, Microgaming, Novomatic and Spribe.
Demo mode works without registration on most of these — Starburst, Sweet Bonanza and Gates of Olympus among them. A few, like Mega Moolah and Deal or No Deal Megaways, have no demo build at all, which matters if you want to test mechanics before wagering.
| Pokie | Provider | RTP | Volatility | Max Win | Bonus Buy | Demo | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Road | InOut Games | 98% | Variable | 3,203,384x | No | Yes | Crash-style, not a pokie |
| Book of Ra Deluxe | Novomatic | 95.1% | High | 5,000x | No | Yes | Original build runs 92.13% |
| Plinko | BGaming | 99% | Variable | 1,000x/drop | No | Yes | Highest RTP on this list |
| Aviator | Spribe | 97% | Low-Med | A$10,000/bet | No | Yes | Provably fair, social multiplayer |
| Deal or No Deal Megaways | Blueprint Gaming | 95.83% | Med-High | 10,000x | No | No | Cascade-triggered bonus, not scatter |
| Gold Rush | Pragmatic Play | 96.5% | Med-High | 2,500x | No | Yes | Operator can drop RTP to 94.5% |
| Frozen Fruit | BGaming | 96% | V.High | 6,600x | Yes | Yes | Pre-Bonus customisation, up to 6 screens |
| Piggy Bank Hold & Win | BGaming | 96.98% | Low-Med | 2,500x | Yes | Yes | 30% hit frequency, above average |
| Sugar Rush 1000 | Pragmatic Play | 96.53% | V.High | 25,000x | Yes | Yes | Multiplier cap raised to 1,024x |
| Sugar Rush | Pragmatic Play | 96.5% | V.High | 5,000x | Yes | Yes | Original 2022 cluster-pays build |
| Mega Moolah | Microgaming | 88.12% | Med (jackpot extreme) | Progressive | No | No | Jackpot seeds at A$1,000,000 |
| Gates of Olympus | Pragmatic Play | 96.5% | V.High | 5,000x | Yes | Yes | 28.82% hit frequency |
| Sweet Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.51% | High | 21,175x | Yes | Yes | Bomb multipliers summed, not multiplied |
| Gates of Olympus 1000 | Pragmatic Play | 96.5% | V.High | 15,000x | Yes | Yes | #1 globally played pokie in 2024 |
| Starburst | NetEnt | 96.09% | Low | 5,000x | No | Yes | Most common welcome FS pokie |
| Big Bass Splash 1000 | Pragmatic Play | 96.52% | High | 25,000x | Yes | Yes | 13.64% hit frequency, low |
Which pokies pay the most — RTP and volatility explained
Ranking by RTP alone is misleading. Plinko sits at 99% and Chicken Road at 98%, but neither is a pokie — they're arcade games with player-controlled risk, so the comparison to a 5x3 reel game isn't direct. Among actual pokies, the range runs from Mega Moolah's 88.12% (deliberately low — a cut funds the progressive jackpot) up to Piggy Bank Hold & Win's 96.98%.
High RTP doesn't mean frequent wins. Gates of Olympus pays 96.5% but hits on only 28.82% of spins — most of that RTP is banked in occasional large wins, not steady small ones. Compare that to Starburst at 96.09% with far more regular, smaller payouts. The scatter plot below maps every title on this page by RTP against volatility tier, so you can see where the outliers sit.
Author's tip from Ryan Gallagher, Online Casino Reviewer: "Before you punt real money, check the in-game paytable RTP, not what a review site quotes. Level Up — like every offshore operator — can legally run a lower-RTP build of the same pokie."
High volatility pokies — biggest wins, longest dry spells
Three titles stand out for punters chasing size over frequency. Sugar Rush 1000 tops the list at 25,000x max win with a 96.53% RTP, but expect long stretches without a meaningful hit — the base game is built to feed the free spins feature, not pay out on its own. Frozen Fruit runs a genuinely novel Pre-Bonus system where you pay to customise your bonus parameters before it starts, at 96% RTP and 6,600x max win. Gates of Olympus 1000 tripled the original's max win to 15,000x but needs a bigger bankroll — Pragmatic Play's own guidance recommends 750x your bet in reserve, up from 500x on the original.
| Pokie | Volatility | Max Win | Suits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Rush 1000 | Very High | 25,000x | A$200+ session bankroll | Multiplier spots persist all free spins |
| Frozen Fruit | Very High | 6,600x | A$200+ session bankroll | Pre-Bonus customisation is unique |
| Gates of Olympus 1000 | Very High | 15,000x | A$200+ session bankroll | Recommended 750x bet in reserve |
Demo mode — try these pokies for free
Fourteen of the eighteen titles on this page run in demo mode without registration, including every one of the high-volatility Pragmatic Play grid games. Demo balances are fake credit, reset on refresh, and can't be withdrawn — but every mechanic (tumbles, multipliers, free spins triggers) runs identically to real-money mode. Mega Moolah and Deal or No Deal Megaways are the two exceptions on this list with no demo build at all.
- Use demo mode to check whether the base game hit frequency matches what's listed before committing a session bankroll
- Bonus buy features work in demo too — useful for checking a feature's variance without spending real A$
- Demo RTP settings can differ slightly from real-money mode on some platforms — treat it as a mechanics preview, not an RTP test
| Pokie | Demo | Registration Needed | Differs From Real Play | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starburst | Yes | No | Fake balance only | Identical mechanics |
| Sweet Bonanza | Yes | No | Fake balance only | Bonus buy testable in demo |
| Gates of Olympus 1000 | Yes | No | Fake balance only | Same orb mechanic as real play |
| Mega Moolah | No | N/A | N/A | Progressive jackpot pool, real stakes only |
| Deal or No Deal Megaways | No | N/A | N/A | No demo build available |
Author's tip from Ryan Gallagher, Online Casino Reviewer: "Bonus buy is unrestricted in Australia, but that doesn't mean it's cheap. A Sugar Rush 1000 buy at 100x your stake on a A$2 bet is A$200 gone before a single free spin lands."
Providers behind these pokies — Pragmatic Play, BGaming and others
Pragmatic Play dominates the high-volatility end of the catalogue — nine of the eighteen titles I reviewed carry their name, from the entire Gates of Olympus and Sugar Rush families through to Big Bass Splash 1000. BGaming supplies the arcade side: Plinko, Frozen Fruit, and Piggy Bank Hold & Win, all with above-average RTP for their category. NetEnt's Starburst remains the low-volatility anchor most welcome offers are built around, while Novomatic's Book of Ra Deluxe and Microgaming's Mega Moolah represent the older, more established end of the library. Spribe (Aviator) and InOut Games (Chicken Road) sit outside the traditional pokie format entirely.
Author's tip from Ryan Gallagher, Online Casino Reviewer: "If you're new to crash games, start with Aviator's early cashout range — 1.2x to 2x. It's the closest thing on this page to low-volatility pokie behaviour, just in a different format."
None of this replaces your own judgement about what you can afford to lose. Level Up's catalogue is large enough that you'll find something matching almost any bankroll or risk appetite — the trick is checking RTP and volatility before you commit, not after. Play is 18+, and setting a deposit limit before your first spin costs nothing and saves a lot of second-guessing later.
Check the current pokies lobby and promotions directly at Level Up to confirm live RTP builds and demo availability before you play.
