Jargon, Decoded

Casino games come with a vocabulary of their own, and it can make simple ideas sound complicated. This glossary covers the terms that appear most often in our articles. Each entry is kept short; where a fuller explanation exists, we link to it.

Money and odds

• House edge — the share of each stake a game is built to keep over a very long run. It is the cost of playing, and it applies to every bet.
• RTP (return to player) — the share of all stakes a slot is designed to pay back across its lifetime. RTP and house edge add up to 100 per cent. See What Is RTP in Slots?
• Volatility — how a game spreads its payouts. Low volatility means frequent small wins; high volatility means rarer, larger ones with long gaps between.
• Odds — how payouts are expressed, such as 1 to 1 or 8 to 1. The payout odds and the true chance of winning are not the same thing; the gap between them is where the edge lives.
• Bankroll — the money you have set aside for gambling and nothing else. Explained in What Is Bankroll Management?
• Wagering requirement — the amount you must stake before bonus money or winnings from it can be withdrawn.

Slots

• RNG (random number generator) — the software that decides every spin. It has no memory of earlier results.
• Payline — a pattern across the reels that counts as a winning line.
• Wild — a symbol that stands in for others to complete a win.
• Scatter — a symbol that usually triggers a feature wherever it lands.
• Progressive jackpot — a prize that grows as a small part of each stake is added to it.
• Near miss — a losing spin that shows top symbols just off the line. It looks close; it is not.

Blackjack

• Natural — an ace and a ten-value card as your first two cards, also simply called blackjack.
• Soft hand — a hand with an ace counted as 11, which cannot bust on the next card.
• Hard hand — a hand without an ace, or with an ace that must count as 1.
• Upcard — the dealer's face-up card, which drives most decisions.
• Double down — doubling your bet in exchange for exactly one more card.
• Split — turning a pair into two separate hands with a second bet.
• Basic strategy — the set of best-play decisions for every hand and upcard. See our simple guide.
• Shoe — the box holding several decks dealt together.

Baccarat and table games

• Punto banco — the common casino form of baccarat, in which all drawing is fixed by rule.
• Commission — the cut taken from winning Banker bets in baccarat, typically 5 per cent.
• Push — a tie in which your stake is returned.
• Felt — informal word for the table surface, and by extension for table games.

Poker

• Kicker — the highest unpaired card used to break a tie between similar hands. Tie-breaks at a stud showdown are covered in Seven-Card Stud Rules.
• Rake — the fee a card room takes from each pot or tournament entry.
• Hole cards — the cards dealt face down to each player.
• Board — the shared cards dealt face up in hold'em and Omaha.
• Range — the set of hands an opponent could plausibly hold.

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