Understanding Casino Gambling Terms for Better Play

Posted by cyntay on September 24th, 2010

If you are new to casinos and don't understand what the many terms mean here is a brief guide to the basic casino gambling terms:

When you hear about Bet the Pot, this is mainly in poker variants of the game.  It means that you can only bet the amount that is in the pot at the present time.  The maximum you can bet is the amount of money in the pot, if the pot was raised by a previous player you can add the amount you would bet as well.

Casino Advantage:   all casinos have a statistical edge over players in any game, this is a varied amount statistically worked out.  The casinos cannot make a profit and remain in business if the player is the only one making money. 

Daily Advantage: these consist of competitions, tournaments, deposit bonuses, special bonuses, depending on the casino. They are used to attract new players or keep existing players at the tables.

House Edge: this is a statistical calculation based on the expected player loss against the initial bet amount.  The house edge is a built-in casino advantage. This is not an exact or precise forecast.  An example is, a .05% Blackjack house edge, this means the player can expect to lose --content--.5c on every 0 bed he places.  This calculation does not take into account any additional money that is bet on ties, raises or doubling.

The Lobby:  this is where the player is able to access the games, find out about competitions, promotions, news items, rule of games etc and or anything the casino wish to impart to the player. 

Match play: usually in card game tournaments, and competition systems, games are played for points, each game played is worth a certain number of points, it varies from game to game, and usually the winner of the competition is the player that reaches a particular number of points.

Payout Percentage: this is a percentage of each dollar bet that is returned to the player by the casino. If the percentage is, for example, 84.2% that means the total money bet at the casino is paid out to the winners.  The percentage is higher at online casinos as their overheads are much smaller than land based casinos. The casino usually displays verification certificates so that players will know what the percentage is.

Weekly Promotions:  these are player rewards and benefits to attract new players, and keep existing players at the tables and coming back for more, it's usually updated weekly. These benefits include deposit match bonuses, competition prizes and free tournament entries.