Vegas terms: the language of the casino floor

The words you hear on a casino floor

Casino vocabulary comes from two places: the mathematics of the games, and the floor itself. The second half rarely appears in a glossary of online terms, and it is the half that makes a live room legible.

• The house edge - The casino’s built-in mathematical advantage on a bet, expressed as a percentage of the amount wagered. Every game has one; the only question is how large.
• The grind - Playing low-edge bets for long stretches, letting the small advantage do the work. Applies to the house as much as to the player.
• Whale - A player betting at a level where the casino will negotiate terms — comps, credit lines, private rooms.
• High roller - A large-stakes player, though the threshold varies by property from four figures to seven.
• Comps - Complimentary goods and services awarded for play: rooms, meals, flights. Calculated from theoretical loss, not from what you actually lost.
• Theoretical loss (theo) - Average bet × hours played × decisions per hour × house edge. The number that decides your comps, whatever your session did.
• Rating - The floor supervisor’s record of your average bet and time played, which feeds the theo.
• Pit - The area enclosed by table games, staffed by the pit boss.
• Pit boss - The supervisor responsible for a group of tables, dealers and disputes.
• Eye in the sky - The surveillance system above the floor.
• Cage - The cashier where chips become money and credit is arranged.
• Marker - A line of credit extended by the casino, repayable as a cheque. Legally enforceable debt, not a courtesy.
• Colour up - Exchanging many small chips for fewer larger ones before leaving a table.
• Toke - A tip to a dealer, often placed as a bet on the dealer’s behalf.
• Shoe - The box holding several decks at a card table.
• Burn card - A card discarded before dealing, used to frustrate tracking.
• Cooler - Casino folklore: a player said to bring bad luck to a hot table. There is no mechanism behind it — the table was never hot in the first place, because each round is independent.
• Georgy (George) - Floor slang for a generous tipper; its opposite is a «stiff».
• Drop - The total money exchanged for chips at a table, one of the two numbers the pit tracks.
• Hold - The share of the drop the casino keeps. Distinct from the house edge, which applies per bet rather than per visit.
• Handle - The total amount wagered, which is far larger than the drop because the same money is bet repeatedly.
• Junket - An organised trip for players, arranged against an agreed level of play.
• Card counting - Tracking the ratio of high to low cards in blackjack. Legal, but grounds for being asked to leave a private property.
• Barred - Excluded from a property. A casino may do this without giving a reason.
• Gambler’s fallacy - The belief that a run of one outcome makes the opposite «due». Independent events have no memory; this is the single most expensive idea on any floor.

Frequently asked questions

What is a cooler in a casino?

Floor folklore: a player supposedly brought in to break a winning streak at a table. There is no mechanism behind it — each round is independent of the last, so no one can end a streak that never had momentum in the first place.

How are comps actually calculated?

From theoretical loss, not real loss: average bet multiplied by hours played, decisions per hour and the house edge. A player who wins can still earn comps, and a player who loses on a short session may earn almost none.

What is the difference between hold and house edge?

The house edge applies to each bet; the hold is the share of all money brought to a table that the casino keeps by the end. Hold is much larger, because the same chips are wagered over and over.

Is card counting illegal?

No, but a casino is private property and may refuse service without giving a reason. Online the question rarely arises, because standard blackjack reshuffles after every round.

The mathematical terms — RTP, volatility, wagering requirements and the rest — are in the casino terms glossary.