Dean Maddox

Dean Maddox is the Pokies Analyst at Online Pokies Insider and writes from Perth, Western Australia. His background is in testing pokies: opening lobbies, spinning the games and reading the fine print that most players scroll past. On this site he does that work for every casino before it gets a score.

Each check starts from an Australian connection, because what a casino shows depends on where you connect from. Dean counts the pokies Australians can actually play, notes which studios are missing, and records whether a site shows a banner asking visitors to confirm they are outside Australia. He opens the info screen of popular pokies to see which RTP setting the casino runs, since studios release several versions and casinos can choose a lower one.

Then he reads the bonus terms in full: wagering, whether it applies to deposit plus bonus, the maximum bet while a bonus is active, excluded pokies and caps on winnings. In the cashier he checks deposit methods, minimums, stated withdrawal times and limits, and tests deposits and withdrawals where that is possible. Every figure is dated, and anything he cannot confirm is marked that way.

There are things Dean will never do. He will never recommend a VPN to get around a casino's location rules, because it can breach the terms and cost players their winnings. He will never hide or soften a wagering requirement to make a bonus look better, and he will never claim a casino pays out by PayID when none has confirmed it. His scores follow the same nine weighted checks for every site, whatever the commission.

Work by Dean

• Best Online Pokies Australia 2026

  Updated September 29, 2026

• Responsible Gambling

  Updated September 29, 2026

• How We Rate Pokies Casinos

  Updated September 29, 2026