The Vocabulary Page

Casino games come with their own language, and a single unfamiliar word can make a rules card hard to follow. This page collects the terms that appear most often in our articles, with short, plain definitions. It is written for readers aged 18 and over.

Words that apply to every game

• House edge: the share of each bet a casino expects to keep on average over a very large number of rounds. It is the price of playing.
• True odds: the real chance of an outcome, written as the ratio of ways to lose against ways to win.
• Payout odds: what the casino actually pays on a winning bet. The gap between payout odds and true odds is where the house edge comes from.
• Push: a result in which the bet neither wins nor loses and the stake is returned.
• Side bet: an optional extra wager placed next to the main bet, usually with a larger payout and a larger house edge.
• Bankroll: the money you set aside for gambling, which should always be money you can afford to lose.

Slots

• RNG (random number generator): the software that decides the result of every spin.
• RTP (return to player): the percentage of all stakes a game is designed to pay back over a very long run. One hundred minus the RTP is the house edge.
• Volatility: how a slot spreads its return, from frequent small wins to rare large ones.
• Hit frequency: the share of spins that return anything at all, even less than the stake.
• Payline and ways: the patterns along which matching symbols count as a win.

Blackjack

• Soft hand: any total in which an ace is being counted as 11, so one more card cannot push it over 21.
• Hole card: the dealer's face-down card.
• Double down: doubling the bet in exchange for exactly one more card.
• Basic strategy: the computer-derived chart of least costly decisions. It lowers the house edge but does not remove it.

Baccarat

• Natural: a two-card total of 8 or 9, which ends the round at once.
• Commission: the 5% the casino usually takes from winning Banker bets.
• Shoe: the box that holds several decks and deals the cards.

Asian table games

• House way: in pai gow poker, the fixed method the dealer uses to set a hand.
• Copy: in pai gow poker, a hand that exactly matches the dealer's; copies go to the dealer.
• Triple: in sic bo, all three dice showing the same number, which makes Big and Small bets lose.

Each term is explained in context in our guides, for example how to play sic bo and how to play pai gow poker. For the arithmetic behind payout odds and true odds, see Odds Made Simple.