Gambling Glossary

By Gambling Industry News - Friday 19th August 2022 12:41 AM

The iGaming industry is full of wonderful jargon, acronyms and terminology not found anywhere else. Our glossary will helps to explains key gambling-industry terms.

House Edge
Jackpot
Pay-line: Pay-line is the term used in the world of slot machines to describe the lines / configurations which count towards symbol matching on a slot machine to count as a “win”. A simple 1 pay-line slot with a 3×3 reel configuration pays across the center of the reel matrix – i.e. if three symbols match across the center reel.
Return to Player: Return To Player (RTP) is the effective theoretical long-term payout percentage of funds played on a game which is paid back to players of the game.
Progressive Jackpot: A progressive jackpot is a prize-pool on a gambling game (usually a slot machine) which has a prize-pot which increases progressively with every play.
High Roller: Also known as a “VIP Player” or “a whale”, this is a gambling establishment customer who fits a profile of generally depositing big, and spending large sums of money on gambling sites (land-based, or online) playing high stakes table games, poker and jackpot games
Face Cards: From a standard deck of 52 playing cards, face cards are those with a face shown on the card – Kings, Queens and Jacks. With 4 of each, there are 12 face cards in a standard deck of cards.
Double Down: A double down is a second bet of equal value to an initial wager.
Deposit: A deposit is funds or tokens deposited into a customer’s betting, casino or poker account in order to gamble.
Dealer: A casino employee who deals the cards to players participating in card-based gambling games like blackjack and poker.
Vigourish: Also known as “Vig” or “juice” – this is the fee which sportsbooks take for accepting a bet from a customer. The vig varies, depends on the current odds – and is always present. Vig is how sportsbooks guarantee profit. Smart bettors can look at odds from different bookmakers (line shopping) to understand the effect of vig has on the bottom line of their wagers.
iCasino: Online casino gambling (as opposed to land-based casino gambling in casinos, card-rooms, cruise-ships, bingo-halls etc).
OSB: An acronym for online sports-betting
Free Spins: Zero cost plays on a slot machine – often used as part of a promotion for new depositing customers by online casinos. With free spins, players can win real money however most casinos add a play-through requirement before a cash-out of funds won from free spins can be made.
No Deposit Free Spins: Real money plays on a slot machine which are given to a player by an online casino – without them having to first deposit any funds. This type of gambling promotion is a common one with online casinos – used to give customers an opportunity to play new game titles, and also in some cases to reward customer loyalty.
Rakeback: Rake refers to fees paid by poker players to the card room as fees when they enter tournaments, and as contributions from cash-game pots they win (a small % is usually deducted from each hand which goes to a flop for “the house”). Rakeback is an arrangement where the card-room or casino gives a player a rebate of a significant portion of their total rake contributions over a given time-period.
The Nuts: This poker expression refers to the best possible poker hand which a player can have on a specific board (flop, turn, or river) or run-out of cards in a poker game. In Texas Hold’em Poker, pocket Aces [pokercards cards=”Ah Ad” deck=”4 color”] is “the nuts” pre-flop (when players only have two hole-cards), while the nuts in any poker game is a Royal Flush [pokercards cards=”Th Jh Qh Kh Ah” deck=”4 color”]

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