For years POLi was the easy way for Australians and New Zealanders to pay online straight from their bank account, no card needed. Casino players liked it for the same reason everyone else did: pick your bank, log in, done.
The picture is different now. Australia Post closed POLi in Australia at the end of September 2023, so Australian players cannot use it at all. In New Zealand the service carried on, run by a local partner.
Below are the casinos tagged with POLi, followed by what happened, how the payment works where it still exists and which methods players use instead.
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Can you still use POLi at online casinos?
Not in Australia. Australia Post shut down POLi's Australian service on 30 September 2023. In New Zealand the service continued after that date through the local distributor Merco, so some casinos serving New Zealand players may still offer it for deposits. Withdrawals go by bank transfer or another method.
POLi was born in Melbourne in 2006, under a company called Centricom. The pitch was that you could buy something online by paying from your internet banking, with no card and no account to register. In December 2014 it became part of Australia Post, through its payments business SecurePay.
It spread quickly. Airlines, government agencies, schools, sports clubs and plenty of online casinos put a POLi button in their checkout, and for a while it felt like a standard part of paying online on both sides of the Tasman.
Casino players had their own reasons to like it. A deposit took seconds, there was no card number sitting in a gambling site’s database, and the money came straight out of the account you already watched every week. For people who did not own a credit card, it was often the only instant option at all.
In July 2023 Australia Post announced that POLi’s Australian service would close, and it stopped on 30 September 2023 after more than 17 years.
Australia Post had been looking for someone to take POLi off its hands. When that did not happen, it chose to switch the service off rather than keep running it.
A POLi logo in an Australian facing cashier today is a leftover. The payment will fail or send you somewhere else. Pick another method rather than trying again.
The New Zealand side of POLi did not close with the Australian one. Merco, the local distributor, took on merchant support and the payment service itself, so New Zealanders could keep paying with it after September 2023.
That is why you may still spot POLi at casinos that accept Kiwi players. Treat it as a deposit option, check that your bank actually shows up in the list, and have a second method ready in case it does not.
Do not assume it will be around forever either. The service no longer has a big owner like Australia Post behind it, and banks have never been keen on it. A cashier that still lists POLi today may quietly drop it tomorrow.
Where POLi is still offered, a deposit goes like this:
No registration, no card and no stored account. That simplicity is exactly what made it popular, and it is also the root of the criticism in the next section.
POLi works by logging in to your online banking on your behalf, using the credentials you type into its window. Several big banks in both countries objected to that.
Banks including ANZ, ASB, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and Kiwibank warned customers that entering their banking password outside the bank’s own site could breach their terms, and Kiwibank said it could void its internet banking guarantee.
A POLi payment is a bank transfer you approved yourself. Unlike a card payment, there is no chargeback to fall back on if something goes wrong with the merchant. At a casino that matters, because a deposit at a site that later refuses to pay out cannot be clawed back through your bank.
POLi was only ever a way to pay in. Even at its peak, casinos could not send winnings back through it, so payouts always went by bank transfer or whatever alternative method the casino supported.
In practice that means adding your bank details to your casino account, passing the identity check, and waiting for the transfer. New Zealand banks usually show it within a working day or two once the casino has released it. If you used POLi to deposit, withdrawing to the same bank account keeps things simple.
The two countries treat online casinos very differently, and that shapes where a POLi button is likely to appear.
| Country | Online casinos | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Offering online casino games to Australians is banned under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The regulator ACMA blocks offshore sites. | Only licensed betting is legal, and POLi is gone anyway. |
| New Zealand | An online casino law passed in 2026 creates a licensed market with up to 15 licences, expected to open around the turn of 2026 and 2027. | Offshore sites without a licence will have to stop serving New Zealand once the regime is running. |
For New Zealand players that shift is worth following. Licensed sites will have to meet local rules on harm prevention and consumer protection, and they will choose their own payment partners.
Most former POLi users have moved to one of a handful of options:
Whichever you choose, check the withdrawal side before you deposit. A method that only pays in leaves you sorting out a payout route after you have already won.
No. Australia Post shut down the Australian POLi service on 30 September 2023.
The New Zealand service continued after the Australian closure, run locally by Merco. Check the casino cashier to see if it is offered.
No. POLi only ever handled deposits. Winnings are paid by bank transfer or another method.
It works by logging in to your bank for you, and several banks warned that sharing your banking password this way could breach their terms. Payments also cannot be reversed with a chargeback.
No. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 bans offering online casino games to people in Australia.
A debit card, a bank transfer, or a wallet such as Skrill, Neteller or MiFinity, depending on what the casino offers.
Every method we have tested at a licensed casino, with the deposit floor, the payout route and the cost written out for each one.
81 methods
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