If you’re confused by casino terms, and you don’t know a Martingale from a match bonus, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to all of the online gambling terms, slang, and jargon you’re likely to encounter when gambling online for fun or real money. This handy A-Z glossary of online casino terms is all you need to help you navigate the smooth slang of a card shark like a pro. So ante up, sidle up to the wheel of fortune, and give Lady Luck a kiss.
Gambling Terms A
Ace: The highest value card in poker, represented by the letter A and one of four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades). Aces are worth either 1 or 11 in Blackjack.
Action: The amount of money currently in play, usually in poker games, which increases with each additional bet.
Action Jackson: A gambling enthusiast and a regular player.
Active player: Any player who currently holds a stake (has bet money) at the table of an active game.
Aggregate limit: The maximum payout of a particular casino for a single game.
Aggregate winnings: The total winnings of a single player active in a specific game.
All in: In the game of poker, the act of betting all of a single player’s chips in one go. This is often a tactic used to scare other players out of the game (to fold), or challenge players to match bets (to call).
Ante: The minimum amount required to play a hand of poker (a buy-in), placed on the table before the hand is dealt.
Gambling Terms B
Baccarat: A card game where the winning hand is the one which is closest to a total of 9. All cards are worth their face value except face cards (Jack, Queen, King), which are worth zero.
Banker: The dealer in a game of poker.
Bankroll: A player’s total amount of cash used for gambling.
Bet: The amount of money laid down in a casino game. Poker is played with a series of bets, including raises on other players’ bets, and matching other players’ bets.
Bettor: The player who places a bet.
Blackjack: A casino card game where the aim of the game is to beat the dealer’s hand by getting the highest hand possible without going over 21. The highest-scoring hand in blackjack is two cards totaling 21: an Ace (scored as either 1 or 11) plus a face card (Jack, Queen, or King, each scored as 10).
Blind bet: In Texas Hold’em poker, a type of obligatory ante based on where players are seated in relation to the dealer. There are two types of blind bets, the big blind and the little blind.
Bluff: Half the strategy and all the joy in a game of poker is the bluff, an aggressive betting strategy designed to cause other players to fold. When done well, the player with the weakest hand can win. Common bluffs include going all in on a poker hand when nobody else has, or placing a huge wager without discarding or taking new cards, implying to other players that the bluffer has a pat hand.
Boat: Gambler’s slang for a full house hand in poker.
Bonus: Extra incentive money or gambling credit offered by casinos to players. Bonuses can be offered as a multiplied percentage of a player’s initial deposit, or a feature activated within a specific game (free spins in slots).
Bonus ban: If a player violates the terms and conditions of a bonus offer, this results in that player being banned from all future bonuses at the casino.
Bonus bet: A side bet.
Box cars: In craps, a roll of the dice resulting in two 6s.
Bust: In Blackjack, to receive a card from the dealer which causes the player to exceed at total of 21. If a dealer busts, the remaining players who did not bust automatically win.
Gambling Terms C
Call: A poker bet which matches the bet of the previous player.
Cap: The maximum amount of money a player may bet on any specific game.
Cash back: A certain percentage of a player’s losses paid back by the casino as an incentive.
Cash out: To convert a player’s online game winnings into cold, hard cash. Players need to complete a cash out request in the cashier section of an online casino.
Casino advantage (or house advantage): The probability edge the house has over players. Certain casino games afford a higher advantage to the house than others, and professional gamblers calculate which games offer the lowest house advantage.
Check: To play it safe by passing on round of betting in a poker game.
Come-out roll: In craps, the first roll of the dice in a phase.
Comp points: Loyalty points awarded by certain online casinos for attaining certain gambling levels or attaining VIP player status. Point rewards vary and may include bonus spins, extra cash, or gaming credit.
Complete hand: A poker hand which uses all five cards, such as a full house or a straight.
Craps: A popular dice game where players and observers bet on a single roll of the dice or a series of rolls, or phases. The object of a game is to match the initial roll of the dice before rolling a 7. Rolling a 2, 3, or 12 on a come-out roll is called ‘craps’ or ‘crapping out.’
Croupier: A dealer assigned to casino game tables of French origin, such as Baccarat and Roulette.
Gambling Terms D
D’Alembert Strategy: A roulette strategy which involves increasing your wager by one after a loss, and decreasing it by one after a win.
Deal: To distribute cards in game, usually starting in a clockwise direction from the dealer.
Dealer: A casino employee (sometimes a croupier) in charge of dealing cards and taking bets.
Deuce: Another name for the number 2 playing card.
Discard: After the initial deal in a game of poker, the act of disposing of unwanted cards.
Don’t Pass: A ‘don’t win’ or a ‘wrong’ bet in craps. When a player does not match his initial dice roll before rolling a 7.
Double down: After drawing two cards in blackjack, a player has the option to double their wager and take one final card.
Double up: Betting twice the amount of a player’s win on the outcome of the next hand or spin.
Draw: After a player discards one or more cards from the initial hand, the second hand dealt is the draw.
Gambling Terms E-F
E-wallet: The online casino account enabling a player to deposit, store, and withdraw funds.
Encryption: Rigorous security measures using encoded computer processes that only specific computers can interpret. Online casinos use encryption technology to ensure the safety and fairness of every transaction.
Face card: A playing card showing a face. In poker, the face cards are the Jack, Queen, and King. Face cards hold the highest value of all cards, next to the Ace. In Blackjack, face cards are hold a value of 10.
Fibonacci Strategy: A roulette strategy using the numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence of numbers developed by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci in the 1200s.
Flop: The first three cards dealt face up on the community board in Texas Hold’em poker.
Flush: A poker hand made up of five cards of the same suit (clubs, hearts, diamonds, or spades).
Fold: When a player quits a hand of poker by laying the cards face down on a table. A player who folds loses the poker hand. Players who fold may continue playing on the next round of dealing.
Four of a kind: A poker hand made up of four cards of the same value, i.e., four Jacks or four twos.
Free spin: A bonus feature offered in slot games.
Fruity / Fruit machine: UK English for a slot machine.
Full house: A poker hand made up of three of a kind and a pair.
Gambling Terms H-I
Hand: The cards held by players in a game.
Hard hand: A blackjack hand which contains an ace valued at 1.
High card: The highest ranking card in a poker hand. A high card is often used in the case of two matching pairs, i.e. two players with a pair of 10s. The player with the highest single card (also called the kicker) in addition to the 10s wins the hand.
High Roller: A gambler who deposits a high amount of cash into an online casino account, or tends to bet a large amount of money on each hand or spin.
Hit: To take another card in blackjack.
Hold: The opposite of a discard in poker. The cards kept after the initial deal.
Hole: The first two cards dealt to each player face down in a game of Texas Hold’em.
House: Another word for the casino, used in the context of ‘house rules’ or ‘house advantage.’
Inside bets: A wager placed in the numbered section of a roulette table (the inside). Inside bets include betting on a single number, or a combination of numbers in lines and rows.
Inside straight: A poker hand where a player requires a card in the middle of a run to score a straight.
Insurance: A special blackjack bet where the dealer’s up card is an ace, and a player bets that the dealer will make blackjack.
Gambling Terms J-K
Jack: A face card in poker represented by a royal figure and the letter J.
Jacks or Better: A poker variant where the minimum winning hand is two jacks.
Jackpot: The top prize paid out by a video slot game. Fixed jackpots contain a fixed amount which can be won by the player, progressive jackpots increase in value over time.
Keno: A popular casino game much like a lottery, where players pick a series of numbers and place bets on the chances of scoring some or all of the winning numbers. Classic casinos used numbered balls chosen from a spinning hopper, and online casinos use random number generators.
Kicker: A single card of higher value used to break a tie between two hands of poker.
King: A face card in poker represented by a king figure with the letter K.
Gambling Terms L-M
Line bet: The activated paylines in video slots with multiple paylines.
Live chat: A customer support service offered by online casinos which uses direct messaging between players and support, usually to answer questions or resolve issues.
Martingale Strategy: A betting strategy used in roulette where a player doubles their bet on every losing spin until they win. It is most commonly used with even money bets such as red/black or odd/even, due to the near 50% chance of winning each bet.
Match bonus: A bonus offered by online casinos when players deposit money into their accounts, usually a percentage of the total deposit.
Multi-hand poker: A type of poker which allows a player to play more than one hand at the same time.
Multiplier: A slot bonus feature which multiplies payouts for a certain spin results.
Gambling Terms N-O
No pair: The lowest hand in poker, where no two cards match.
No deposit bonus: A casino bonus given to players without a deposit requirement. There is usually a maximum cash-out applied to these bonuses.
Odds: The chance of winning a particular bet or game based on a specific outcome. Usually expressed in a ratio, i.e. the odds of obtaining a Royal Flush in straight poker (with no wilds) are 649,740:1.
One-armed bandit: Slang for an old style slot machine which rarely paid out, one which favored the house to a large degree.
Outside bets: Wagers placed in the betting area outside the numbered area on a roulette table. Outside bets include even/odd, black/red, dozens, and columns of numbers.
Gambling Terms P
Pai gow poker: Also known as double-hand poker, pai gow poker is a variation based on Chinese dominoes. Paig gow poker uses a standard card deck of 52 plus a joker. Players are dealt 7 cards, and they must create two separate poker hands with the cards: a five-card hand and a two-card hand.
Pair: Any two matching cards in a game of poker, i.e. two 5s or two jacks.
Pat hand: A perfectly complete hand dealt on the first deal.
Payline: In slots, a line or row which pays out when winning combinations line up.
Payout: The amount of money paid by casino slots for winning combinations.
Pay table: The area within a casino slot which defines all the winning combinations.
Pokies: Australian English for slot machines.
Progressive jackpot: A jackpot which continues to grow until somebody wins the jackpot.
Gambling Terms Q-R
Queen: A face card in poker represented with the figure of a queen with the letter Q.
Raise: A bet in poker which matches the previous bet, then adds additional money on top.
Rank: The value of a card or a specific hand in poker.
Reels: The wheels containing symbols which spin in a slot game. Online slot games often contain 3 or 5 reels with multiple paylines.
River: The third and final phase of dealing cards in Texas Hold’em. The dealer lays one final card face up in the community cards section of the table.
Roulette: ‘Little wheel’ in French; a casino game invented in France in the 18th century. A game of chance with completely random odds of winning, as there is no way to predict in which pocket of the spinning wheel the ball will land.
Royal flush: The highest value poker hand. The 5 top-ranking cards in consecutive order and in the same suit, i.e. 10 of Spades, Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, King of Spades, and the Ace of Spades.
RTG: Acronym of Realtime Gaming, a software company which designs casino games to play online or download.
Gambling Terms S
Scatter symbol: The slot player’s best friend. A special symbol in a slot machine (usually unique to the slot game’s theme) which triggers bonus features when it appears. Multiple appearances of the same figure result in higher bonuses and payouts.
Select lines: The number of paylines a player selects in an online casino slot.
Showdown: The point in a poker game where all remaining players compare cards to name the winner.
Shuffle: To mix up a deck of cards to completely randomize them.
Snake eyes: A roll of two 1s in craps.
Soft hand: A blackjack hand with an ace valued at 11.
Slots: Slang for a slot machine, an old machine based on spinning reels activated by the pull of a lever (stone casinos) or by clicking the spin button (online casinos). Lining up special symbols in a row when the reels stop spinning results in a player winning points, bonuses, and/or money.
Spin: The act of pressing a button in an online casino game of slots or roulette to start the action. In stone casinos, a croupier spins the roulette wheel, and a slot player pulls a lever on a slot machine.
Split: A bet which covers two adjacent numbers in roulette. Also a blackjack bet where a player takes two cards of the same rank (i.e. two 10s) and splits them to create two separate hands.
Stand: To stop taking additional cards in blackjack.
Sticky: A bonus amount which an online casino player is not permitted to withdraw.
Straight: A poker hand made of any five cards in a row, but not all of the same suit.
Straight bet: This is a bet on a single number in roulette which yields the highest payout, but also incurs the maximum risk.
Straight Flush: The second-highest ranking poker hand. A hand with five cards in a row of the same suit, but not the Royal Flush.
Street: A roulette bet which covers a column of three numbers on the wager grid.
Suit: One of four symbols (clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades) which appear on all cards in a standard deck.
Gambling Terms T
Terms and Conditions (T&Cs): The rules governing the use of an online casino site, its games, services, bonuses, payout rules, and who is eligible to play.
Texas Hold’em: The most popular poker variant in the world. Players are each dealt only two cards face down (hole cards). Five additional cards are dealt face up in the center of the table (community cards) in stages, and each player tries to build a winning poker hand using both their hole cards and the community cards.
Three of a kind: Three matching cards in a poker hand, i.e. three 8s or three kings.
Trigger: To activate a bonus or special feature in a video slot game.
Trips: Slang for three of a kind.
Turn: The second stage of dealing community cards in Texas Hold’em, where a single card is dealt following the flop stage.
Two Pair: Two sets of two matching cards in a poker hand.
Gambling Terms U-W
Up card: The dealer’s card which is facing up in a game of blackjack.
VIP: A very important person. A player who receives special treatment, hospitality, and bonuses from a casino.
Wagering requirement: The minimum amount an online casino requires to be played before a player can make a withdrawal from a player account. Wagering requirements are usually based on a bonuses received.
Welcome bonus: New players often receive bonuses for joining an online casino site and setting up an account.
Wild: In card games, the wild card is a joker or another special card used to complete a hand. In slots, the wild symbol completes a row of symbols on a payline.
