About Near Pokies Endless
Last Saturday, I was meeting friends in St. Kilda and wanted to suggest a place with pokies that wasn’t a total dive. I remembered seeing this app featured in the App Store with decent ratings, so I grabbed it. For three days, it’s been a weird mix of genuinely helpful and kind of sketchy. It does what it promises—shows you venues nearby—but the whole experience feels like it’s built on collecting more about you than it needs to. I’m the guy who reads permission pop-ups and gets annoyed when a flashlight app wants my contacts. This app set off those same alarms almost immediately.
Features & Highlights
The venue finder is the main draw. I opened it up near Chapel Street and it listed four places I’d walked right past without noticing. The filters for things like “has a bar” or “open late” are actually smart. I also like the little notes from other users; someone had mentioned that the Queen’s Arms has two old-school Aristocrat machines in the back corner, which is exactly my thing. There’s a session tracker, basically a diary where you log your spend. I used it twice to note down a $40 budget for the night. It’s a simple idea, but seeing the numbers in a list does make you think twice before heading out again.
User Experience
Using the app is mostly straightforward. The maps load fine on my iPhone 14, and tapping a venue pulls up the info quickly. But the ads are aggressive. They’re not just banners; a full-screen video ad played after I saved my first journal entry. It’s free, so I get it, but it breaks the flow. My bigger issue was with the journal itself. On Sunday, I tried to log that I broke even—spent $20, won $20 back. The app wouldn’t accept a zero for the “net” field. I had to fake it and put in a $0.01 loss. It’s a small thing, but it shows a lack of real-world testing. Apps that handle money, even play money, should get the basics right.
Pricing
It’s free. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases to unlock core features. You pay with your attention to ads, which pop up frequently. I’d honestly prefer a one-time fee of a few bucks to turn them off and maybe feel a little better about where the developer’s revenue comes from. The fact that everything is “free” always makes me wonder what the product really is. In this case, I’m leaning towards the product being us, the users, and our location habits.
Updates & Support
This is where I got really frustrated. I noticed the app was asking for my precise location constantly, even when I wasn’t using it. I went into my iPhone settings and saw it set to “Always.” I changed it to “While Using the App,” but then some features glitched. I emailed support through the address listed on their App Store page, asking if the app needed constant tracking to function. That was three days ago. I got an auto-reply saying my ticket was received. Yesterday, I got a one-line response: “The app functions best with full location permissions.” No explanation why, no addressing my privacy concern. It felt dismissive and left me feeling totally unsupported.
Security & Privacy
The privacy policy is a long, vague document. It talks about sharing data with “analytics partners” and “third-party service providers” for “functionality and marketing.” When you first open the app, it pushes hard for you to sign in with an email or social media account to “unlock the community features.” I refused and used it as a guest. Even then, the permissions list is intense: precise location, coarse location, and identifiers linked to your device for advertising. For an app that’s basically a directory with a notepad, that feels excessive. There’s no clear reason why it needs to track my device ID or have my location when the app is closed. It makes the useful parts feel like a trap for your data.
How does the venue finder in Near Pokies Endless work?
The app uses your location to show nearby venues with pokies, complete with filters like 'has a bar' or 'open late.' It also includes user notes, such as which machines are available, making it easy to find a spot that suits your preferences.
Can I track my spending with the session tracker?
Yes, there's a built-in diary where you log your spend and wins. However, note that the 'net' field won't accept a zero—if you break even, you'll have to enter a small loss like $0.01 to save the entry.
Why does the app show full-screen video ads, and can I remove them?
The app is free, so it relies on ads, including full-screen videos that can interrupt your flow after actions like saving a journal entry. There's no option to remove ads, as the app has no subscription or paid version.
The journal won't let me enter a zero net result. How do I fix this?
This is a known bug in the current version. As a workaround, you can enter a tiny loss, such as $0.01, to bypass the validation. The developer hasn't patched it yet, so be aware of this limitation.
How does Near Pokies Endless compare to other pokie finder apps like PokieMate?
Near Pokies Endless offers a cleaner interface and better filters (like 'open late') than PokieMate, but it lacks the ad-free experience and reliable journaling that PokieMate provides. If you value accurate spend tracking, PokieMate might be a better choice despite its clunkier design.
