Gambling Terms

Every gambler worth a hill of beans needs to understand the lingo of the game. While the gambling world is full of lingo, today I'll present some of the more common and interesting words and phrases you should know.

Action - The action is the total amount of money that's wagered. It's also a term that can be used to signify that an amount of money is in play.

Ante - This is a poker term that means the amount of money one needs to pony up to get into the action. You'll see it in regular poker, Caribbean Stud and other games.

Bankroll - Your bankroll is the amount of money you have to gamble with. It could be an amount of money for the night, a week, a sports season or whatever.

Betting Right or Wrong - At the Craps table, you are betting right when you're betting with the dice-a pass line wager. And you're betting wrong when you're going against the dice.

Biased Wheel - A Roulette wheel that seems to be favoring one part of itself-ball seems to land in one section a bit more often than other sections.

Burn Card - This is the first card of a new deck that's discarded before play begins.

Cage - It's the cashier's cage. This is where you cash in your chips, cash checks and so forth.

Face card - The Jacks, Queens and Kings of a deck of cards.

Field Bet - In Craps, a field bet is a one-roll wager that wins if the combination of the dice is a 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12.

Greens - Green casino chips valued at $25 each. Dealers, etc will typically talk about chips by their color-greens, blacks, reds, etc.

Hole card - In Blackjack, this is the dealer's card that's face down on the felt.

House Advantage - This is the difference between the actual (or real) odds and the payout. The house maintains an advantage in all games, but some are way more than others. For instance, the Pass Line wager in Craps has a much smaller house edge than playing Roulette and thus that wager in Craps is better for players over the long run.

Random Number Generator - Also called the RNG, it's a little computer program that constantly picks random numbers. These numbers then generate an outcome-like in a slot machine. When you go to play the slot machine, a number is spit out randomly. This determines if you win or lose. And there you have it. Some interesting gambling terms that you should know.