CASINO TERMS. CASINO DICTIONARY. CASINO GLOSSARY. CASINO SLANG.

Gambling Information > Casino Terms. Casino Dictionary. Casino Glossary. Casino Slang.

Here are some commonly used casino terms - a special casino slang that is used by experienced players and casino staff.

• Bad Beat - A jackpot set up in some poker rooms, paid out when one very high hand is beaten by an even higher one. Most Bad Beats require a Full House or better to be beaten by a Four of a Kind or better, as well as a certain amount of money in the pot for the hand. Bad Beat Jackpots are split up in different ways depending on the house, but often go along the lines of: 15% to the winner of the hand, 75% to the person who was beat, and 10% split up among all the other players at the table. A small amount (25 or 50 cents) is taken out of every hand played to fund the Bad Beat Jackpot.
• Bingo Bus - A tour bus that brings a group of tourists, usually retirees, to a casino for a day.
• The Book - Race & Sports Book, the place where you place bets on sporting events.
• Breaker - A dealer brought in to "break" a player's luck.
• Break-In House - A Dealer's first job. A casino where Dealers go after finishing Dealer School, to learn the hands-on things that the schools can't teach effectively.
• Bust Out - Go broke ("I busted him out in under ten minutes!")
• Burn a card - In Blackjack, putting a card directly into the discard pile without it having been used or seen by the dealer and players. This is most common at the beginning of a new shoe, (one to three cards), and when changing dealers (one card). Any card that falls off the table is usually burned, too.
• The Cage - The cashier's booth. Called the cage because they usually have iron bars over the window.
• Checks - Casino chips.
• Comp - A free benefit given to someone who plays a lot, ranging from a free buffet to show tickets to a room at the hotel. Short for "complimentary."
• Comp Card - A credit-card-like card that casinos issue to players for tracking purposes. You get comps for using your comp card.
• Drop - Lose ("I dropped forty at Roulette last night.")
• EO - Early Out. The privelege of going home from work early. Day shift never gets EO's. Swing and Grave do. Dealers, Cocktail waitresses, and change runners can sometimes get EO's.
• Foreign Coin - Chips from another casino.
• The Pit - The area of gaming tables where Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, and other non-Poker games are played.
• Rock - Used in Poker rooms. Refers to an extremely conservative player who folds most hands, playing only the most certain of winning hands. Usually attempting to be present for a Bad Beat.
• Shoe - A plastic rack designed to hold several decks of cards (usually 6 or 8, but I've heard of 10-deck shoes). This allows for longer gameplay without interruption - and also messes with card counting systems.
• Side Action - The table games with a high house edge, like Chuck-A-Luck, War, and the Big 6 Wheel.
• Sweeping - Going around looking for unattended slot machines with coins in the trays. This will get you kicked out if you're caught doing it.
• Tokes - Tips.
• Toke Box - A place where all of the Dealers' tokes are collected so that they can be evenly split among all of the Dealers.
• Tracking - The casino keeps a log of how much a player plays, for how often, and how he or she plays.