Casino Glossary

Casino Glossary E - P

• Inside Bets – In Roulette. A bet placed on any number or small combination of numbers.
• Insurance - In Blackjack. A side bet that the dealer has a two card hand of 21 points, called a natural. Insurance is offered only when the dealer’s facing-up card is an ace. The insurance bet wins double if the dealer has a natural, but loses if the dealer does not.
• Jackpot - On a slot machine. A big win.
• Jacks or Better - In Videopoker Games. The payout starts at a certain level of hands. When playing ‘Jacks or Better’, if you get a pair of Jacks or a higher ranking, you win. There is no win on a pair of tens or lower.
• Joker – The Court Jester or the 53rd card in a deck, sometimes used as a wild card.
• Juice - (USA) Vig. or Vigorish. Commission taken by the house
• Kicker - In Draw Poker. An odd high card that doesn’t fit in to a straight or a flush, usually an ace or a king.
• Ladderman – This is a casino employee who oversees the baccarat game. This game has two Dealers who are seated together at the center of the table, a Caller standing at the table across from the dealers, and the Ladderman, who supervises the action from a high chair above the table.
• Laying the Odds - There are two basic systems of wagering, 'taking the odds' and 'laying the odds'. In most forms of sports betting, some odds in favour of the likely winner are so high that winning wagers get paid less than the amount wagered, and this is what is meant by 'laying the odds'. In most casino games the player is 'taking the odds' by wagering an amount less than they will receive if they win, that is; if they wagered $1 they would win more than $1.
• Layout – The covering, usually cloth on a gaming table which is marked with the betting layout.
• Load up - To play the maximum allowable number of coins on a slot machine or video game.
• Long Run – This is the number of rounds of play needed for the ratio of wins to losses to reach a point where they will change very little by the cumulative effect of future plays.
• Loose - Slot machines that have a generous payout.
• Low Poker - Also called ‘Lowball’. A poker game in which the pot is awarded to the hand with the lowest value.
• Marker - An IOU note. A check written at the gaming table by a player who has established credit with the casino.
• Martingale - Betting system in which the player doubles-up after each loss.
• Match Play - A system used in tournaments, usually card games, where two participants play a series of games and which ends when one player accumulates the required number of points. A game could be worth one, two, or more points.
• Mechanic - Slang for ‘a dealer who cheats’.
• Mini-Baccarat - A reduced version of Baccarat played with fewer players, dealers, and formality but which follows the same system and rules as Baccarat.
• Money Put In Action – The amount of money you ‘turn-over’ in bets in a game. It is not the amount of money you bring to the table to play with. This is one of the criteria some casinos use to assess your rating and eligibility for complimentary gifts.
• Natural - In Blackjack. A two-card hand of 21 points. In baccarat a natural is a two-card total of 8 or 9.
• Negative Expectation – The amount you figure to lose on average after a considerable time of play or after a large number of repetitions of the same situation.
• Net Winnings - Total payout less the original bet.
• Non-value Chip - A chip whose dollar value is determined by the amount when buying and the amount of chips taken. Thus, a buy-in of $250.00 for 50 chips equals a value of $5.00 per chip. The amount is usually established by the "Table Minimum Bet" amount displayed on the table in roulette.
• Number Pool – The range of numbers from which you select. A Lottery pool ranges from 1 to 60, and a Keno pool from 1 to 80.
• Nut - The overhead costs of running a casino. The fixed amount that a gambler decides to win in a day.
• Odds – The ratio of probabilities. The casino's expectation of a player’s chance of winning. The figure or fraction by which the casino offers to multiply a bettor's stake, which the bettor is entitled to receive if he wins.
• On tilt - Going 'on tilt' is a bad reaction to a hand resulting in uncontrolled wild play.
• Open - In poker, the first player to bet.
• Outside Bets - Roulette bets located on the outer part of the layout. They involve betting on groups of 12 or 18 numbers with a single chip.
• Overlay - A bet where the player has an edge over the casino.
• Paint - A Picture or Face card, such as jack, Queen or King.
• Palette - The rake-like tool used in Baccarat to move cards on the table.
• Pass - To not bet or to fold in a card game.
• Pat - In Draw Poker, a hand that does not need any more cards or hands. In Blackjack, a hand worth at least 17 points.
• Payline - On a slot machine the line across the window on which the symbols from the reels must line up. Slot machines may have many paylines, although most have only one or three.
• Payoff - The return or payback that a player receives for his bet when he wins.
• Payoff Odds - The odds that are conventionally displayed in casinos. The payoff odds specify how much will be paid for each winning wager or chip that was bet. The casinos post the 'payoff odds' in terms of the number of chips won relative to the number of chips bet.
• Payout Percentage - The payback percentage of each dollar played in a video or slot machine that the machine is programmed to return to the player. Payback percentage is 100 percent minus the house edge.
• Payout Table or Payoff Schedule – The sign on the slot or video-poker machine that tells you what each winning hand will pay for the number of coins or credits played.
• Pigeon - A gambler who is uneducated, naive, or unsophisticated.
• Pit – That area of a casino where a group of table games is arranged, or where the central area is restricted to dealers and casino personnel.
• Pit Boss – The supervisor who oversees a gaming area. He will usually supervise more than one table.
• Pit Manager - A manager who is in charge of all the table games and enforcing casino policy. He deals with any problems that may arise during the shift where a gambling or playing decision must be made. He deals with dissatisfied players. He handles Complimentary gifts and avoids customers who are trying to get free Room, Food or Beverages.
• Playing the Rush - A poker term referring to a player who is having a winning streak and winning large amounts of money in one hand or winning several hands in close succession. If this player subsequently begins to play more loosely or more aggressively, they are said to be 'playing the rush'.
• Plug – This is a shuffling technique sometimes used in card games where the game is dealt from a multi-deck shoe. When freshly shuffled cards are added to the shoe, a substantial portion of the cards are kept out of play by the insertion of a cut-card at the back of the shoe. This card marks the place where play will be stopped for the cards to be shuffled again. During the play, used cards are stacked in the discard tray. When the cut-card is reached, the game is stopped and the remaining undealt cards are inserted somewhere into the middle of the cards in the discard tray. The cards so inserted are referred to as a 'plug'. Such action is called 'plugging the deck’.
• Pocket Cards - In Poker. Pocket cards are those dealt to a player face down.
• Point (The Point) – In Craps. The number that is set for the Come-Out roll. Only the place numbers 4,5,6,8,9,10 can become the point. The shooter will try to repeat throwing the point before throwing a 7 in order to win that round of betting.
• Poker – An old card game with many variations. The majority of poker games share some common features such as betting in rounds and the ranking of hands. Poker is played both in cardrooms in casinos and in private home. The games played in cardrooms are divided into stud games, draw games and flop games. In home games anything goes, including games that seem to have no reason to be called poker. The varieties played in home games probably number in the hundreds. Some common cardroom games include Texas Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, Omaha, Razz, Lowball, and Pineapple.
• Pot - In a poker game the amount of money that accumulates in the middle of the table as player ante, bet and raise. The pot goes to player who wins the hand.
• Press a Bet - Adding winnings to a current bet, or ‘letting the winnings ride'.
• Pressing - A player is pressing a bet when he lets the winnings ride by wagering them along with the original bet.
• Probability – The calculation that establishes the likelihood that an event will occur. Probabilities are expressed as numbers between 0 and 1. The probability of an impossible event is 0 while an event that is certain to occur has a probability of 1.
• Progression Betting - A system of betting where the size of the bet is changed up or down across a series of rounds of play according to a predetermined formula.
• Progressive - In Slot Machine. A machine whose jackpot increases with each coin that is played. When the progressive jackpot finally hits, the amount resets to the starting number.
• Pull Tab, Pulltab - A game similar to a lottery game. Tickets sell for 25 or 50 cents or more and typically offer prizes ranging from free tickets to $500. Tickets have perforated windows which open showing symbols similar to those found on slot machines or lottery games.
• Punch Board - Another lottery-type game. The player has to punch out a slot on a board for a chance to win a prize. Prizes are merchandise or cash.
• Punto Banco - European name for Baccarat; Punto stands for Player and Banco for Bank
• Push - A tied hand between a dealer and a player. Also a round of play where neither the player nor the casino wins.