Top 10 gambling slang words every poker player should know

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Tadas Peckaitis

Tadas Peckaitis has been a professional poker player, coach and author for almost a decade. He is a manager and head coach at mypokercoaching.com where he shares his experience, and poker strategy tips. Tadas plays poker, mostly online, but also manages to play live events while travelling through Europe and the U.S. He is a big fan of personal effectiveness and always trying to do more. Tadas regularly shares his knowledge about both of these topics with his students, and deeply enjoys it. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, or visit www.mypokercoaching.com

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Top 10 gambling slang words every poker player should know

9 May 2022
By Tadas Peckaitis

Poker players have arguably the biggest library of slang, with many of these terms being exclusive to this card game, and you can’t hear them in other gambling environments.

That said, there are other general gambling terms that aren’t exclusive to poker players but that every poker player should know. This article will go over the top 10 casino slang terms and share helpful examples.

10. Wagering Requirement
The term “wagering requirements” is mostly found in online casinos when claiming bonuses and promotional offers. In short, wagering requirements are stipulations that require you to wager a specific amount of money before you can withdraw the bonus money to your real money account. More precisely, wagering requirements often list how many times you have to bet through the bonus and how much time you have to do so.

For example, let’s say that you’ve claimed a welcome bonus worth $200 with 30x wagering requirements. This means that you’ll need to wager through a total of $6000 ($200 x 30) before withdrawing any bonus money.

The house edge is a percentage of every bet that the casino takes. (photo by Rawpixel)

9. House Edge
The house edge is a percentage of every bet that the casino takes. In other words, this is a tactic that the casino uses to ensure profits over time. From the gambler’s perspective, the house edge indicates the average loss of their original bet. This can be during a single hand, one gaming section, or longer periods.

The house edge is fixed for most casino games and bet types. That said, in some games, the house edge can vary based on specific rules, the number of decks used, and your betting decisions.

As a casino player, you can’t eliminate the house edge in any casino-approved way. But, the best strategy to minimize it is to pick good games and make smart bets.

8. Deposit Bonus
A deposit bonus is a promotional offer you can claim in online casinos and poker sites by depositing your money into the platform. Nearly every online gambling site has deposit bonus offers, an excellent marketing strategy to attract new customers and keep the old ones coming back.

For instance, you might find a 100% deposit bonus worth up to $300. In simple words, this means that the gambling site will match your deposit 100% up to a total bonus worth $300, so if you deposit $300, you will get another $300 making your bankroll a total of $600 for the time being. Just be certain to always read the T&Cs before claiming one since there are always some strings attached.

7. Return to Player
The term Return to Player, often listed just as RTP, refers to the total sum of money a particular casino game pays back to the player over time and is always presented in. For example, if a slot variation has an RTP of 98.5%, its house edge is 1.5%.

Return to Player percentages are always calculated for the long long-term. This is because, in the short run, anyone can win a big jackpot with a small wager. But, when averaged out over a more extended period, RTP numbers become more accurate. For instance, RTP percentages are drawn from millions of spins in casino slot games, as that’s the only way to get reliable numbers for this.

6. Random Number Generator
A Random Number Generator (RNG) is a computer program that produces random and fair results based on an algorithm. While no casino software can be genuinely random, RNGs generate many sequences and patterns per single casino game round, making results indecipherable and entirely unpredictable.

Random Number Generators are a crucial part of the gambling industry. As most casino games are luck-based, casinos need software that can ensure neither the employees nor the gamblers can affect the outcome of a virtual roll of a dice, roulette wheel, or slot machine spin.

5. Bookie
A bookie, short for bookmaker, is an organization, sometimes an individual professional that accepts wagers on sports matches and various events. The bookie sets the odds, and the bettors place money, choosing one of the offered odds they want to bet on. Bookies are also commonly called bookmakers or sportsbooks. The latter is especially prevalent in online betting, where multiple regular, dedicated for specific sports and even crypto betting sites are available today.

When you’re betting on the odds the bookie offers you, you’re not actually betting against the bookie. This is because the bookies, much like casinos, always profit. In this case, bookies do so by balancing the odds on both sides of the bet. So, while you may win a bet, the bookie is still covering any potential losses with the money it gets from other losing bettors.

4. Handicap
A handicap in sports betting affects how the odds of two sides are presented. It’s frequently used in many sports. In short, handicap betting involves turning the odds into an even money contest by giving the favorite a disadvantage and the underdog an advantage. This way, bettors get betting value where they otherwise wouldn’t find any.

For example, let’s say that the first placed football team is playing a team ranked in the middle of the standings. The bookie expects the favorite to win, so it places a -1.5 handicap on it and a +1.5 handicap on the underdog.

In this example, you can bet on the underdog to win at even money odds. Even if the underdog loses by one goal or the result is a draw, you still win the bet. Contrarily, to win the bet by betting at -1.5 on the favorite, the favorite team has to win by at least two goals.

3. Martingale System
The Martingale is the most popular betting and gambling system in the world. It works best for even money bets and has a very straightforward concept. The basic idea of the Martingale System is to increase your bet after every loss and revert to your initial bet size after a win.

For example, let’s say that you’re playing a roulette game and place a $10 even money bet. If you lose, you should double it to $20 for the next spin. If you lose again, the next time, you bet $40, and so on. When you eventually win, you’ll automatically recoup your losses and should revert to your initial bet size. Beware of this strategy, however, as many bettors have had their bankrolls cleaned by betting “the bounce.”

2. Progressive Jackpot
A progressive jackpot is a jackpot reward that keeps growing until a player triggers the winning combination. These games differ from regular jackpots because they don’t have a maximum ceiling. So, they can often rise into millions of dollars before a lucky gambler hits the jackpot.

The way progressive jackpots fund such amazing jackpot prizes is by taking a small percentage of every player’s bet and putting it into the jackpot pool. So, the more players there are playing the game, the quicker the progressive jackpot grows. The progressive jackpot slot often has a minimum jackpot amount it reverts to whenever it pays out.

Free spins are the most popular slot bonus. (photo by Pixabay)

1. Free Spins
Free spins are a bonus feature you can find in both land-based casinos and online slots casinos. They are the most popular and most widely used type of slot in-game bonus. As the name gives it away, this bonus gives you free spins you can use in the slot to win real money without risking any of your own.

In most slot games, gamblers can trigger free spins bonuses by landing special bonus symbols or scatter symbols across the game’s reels. What’s more, many slots offer differently-valued free spins bonuses based on how many symbols you line up. Some slots even allow you to retrigger more free spins while playing with free spins, providing you with great added value.

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