Gambling terminology covers many topics, but understanding the important terms is the foundation of any betting experience. It ensures that responsible, safe gambling is the basis of your gaming, given that knowledge is one of the pillars of the type of sensible attitude you should have when approaching gambling games.
You can find a gambling guide for specific elements of online gaming, but today, we’re focusing solely on the terminology. While we don’t expect you to commit them all to memory today, it’s helpful if you’re watching tutorial videos for certain casino games or you’re speaking to other gamblers.
If they use terms you have not heard before, then understanding these terms will help you navigate the experience more smoothly.
Casino gaming terms to remember
Given the casino gaming industry’s size and scope, we will divide the terms into relevant sections. Four main casino games account for the lion’s share of a casino’s revenue and action.
Poker
Of all the games you can find at a casino, poker has its own etiquette and emphasizes strategy and mentality that other games do not. There are variants of the game; whether you’re facing off against people in a land-based casino, playing a virtual game, or playing online at a table, there are different elements to each.
However, one thing that does remain the same is the terminology. Here are some of the main terms and phrases to look out for:
- Small blind – The player that is sitting directly to the dealer’s left. They must bet before cards are dealt, which is usually 50% of the maximum bet available at the table.
- Big blind – The second player to the left of the dealer who is also the player to the left of the small blind. This player must place a bet before seeing their hand, equivalent to the small blind’s bet.
- Under the gun – The player sitting to the left of the big blind. This term is more commonly used in games like Texas Hold’Em.
- Bluff – When a player psychs out the others at the table with their betting patterns, while keeping a poker face. Their goal is to give the impression that they have a much better hand than they do in a bid to force other players to bet less rationally or throw them off their strategy.
If you want to start playing poker and gambling real money, we strongly recommend that you take a much deeper look into the game and explore literature, gambling blogs, and other tools before doing so. These are just some of the most common terms.
Roulette
Important terms in roulette include inside and outside bets. Outside bets are on the bigger sections of the table, such as red, black, odd, or even, while inside bets refer to individual numbers.
You will also hear terms like street bets, which cover three numbers across a horizontal line, and corner bets, which are the intersection of four numbers, where a quarter of the value of your betting chip is allotted to each number.
Blackjack
The two most used terms in blackjack are stick and twist; stick means to stay with the hand you’ve been dealt, while twist means to request another card from the dealer. If you exceed 21, you’re bust,. You can also double down, which involves doubling your bet Splitting your hand can be done when your two cards are the same and creates two hands,
Slots
Slots is a universal term, but in places like Australia and New Zealand, they’re known as pokie machines or just pokies. Paylines are the number of possible ways to win implemented into the game, and bonus features refer to higher-paying features such as free spins and minigames.
Generic casino terms to understand
You’re most likely to hear terms like ‘the house’, which simply refers to the casino, and the ’house edge’, which refers to the statistical winning chance each casino game has — ultimately making casinos profitable. Players are often referred to as ’punters’ and ’bettors’.
Sports betting terms and phrases
With over 100 active professional sports betting markets available online, we won’t review each one and pick out every specific piece of terminology. We’ll first go through the generic ones that apply across the sports betting market, and then we will drill into some of the more popular markets.
Popular sports betting terms
Some of the most popular betting markets have universal terms and reflect the highest levels of activity, such as:
- Outright markets – Betting on a team or individual to win a competition. For instance, Carlos Alcaraz to win Wimbledon again, as he did in 2024, would be an outright market. Manchester City winning the Champions League is another example.
- Single/straight bets – Betting on an individual match, such as Manchester City beating Chelsea on the opening day of this season’s EPL.
- Accumulator or multi-bet – A betting slip that combines two or more selections.
- Over/under – Predict whether the number of points/goals will be over or under the sportsbook’s stated number.
- Correct score – Predicting the final result of the game or match.
- Individuals Predicting that a specific player will score a point or goal.
Soccer
Soccer is the biggest sports gambling market in the world and all the terms we touched on in the last section are applicable. You will also find other terminology, such as Asian handicap, where you bet on the margin of the win such as a team to win by at least three clear goals. BTTS is an abbreviation for a bet on both teams to score, and HT/FT refers to placing a wager on the result at half-time and full-time.
American football
As the most popular sportsbook in a growing US market, the NFL has a relatively large sports viewing figure in the US. As in many other countries, the most popular sport in viewership will often translate into the most popular sports betting market.
While there are other terms people use when discussing the NFL betting market, these are the three current top markets:
- Player props – Individual markets relating to a specific player to score X amount of points or a touchdown.
- NFL parlay bet – A popular type of wager that combines several bets. Also referred to as an accumulator.
- Point spread – Similar to a handicap, this is a bet on a team to win by a specific number of points.
Metrics, phrases, and acronyms used within the industry
Industry experts and business leaders are often split when discussing which metric is the most important when measuring customer activity. It’s crucial not to neglect any, but here are some of the more common ones you may come across:
- Social media engagement is pretty self-explanatory. It measures the number of views and interactions a post on X, YouTube or Facebook might get and the number of people it has reached.
- NGR (net gaming revenue) – Profit for the platform once winnings are paid out.
- PLTV (player lifetime value) – Total value a player brings in during the duration of their registration.
- GCR (game conversation rate) – The rate at which players sample new games.
- PRR (player retention rate) – How many players return to the site and place bets.
- PAR (player acquisition rate) – Measures new sign-ups.
- ARPU (average revenue per user) – Measures how much revenue each player generates for the platform.
Unless you have an eye for the metrics and the business side of casino gaming, you won’t come across these terms often, aside from generic terms like social media engagement. However, it’s good to have an idea –what terms like GCR mean, as sometimes new games will use it as a point of reference to signal how well their new game is performing.
Units and tools used as measurements in betting
Moneylines, decimals, and fractional odds are the formats used to display and advertise betting odds in sports. The moneyline is more commonly used in the US market. It works as a multiple of $100.
For instance, a +200 means you would receive $200 back for a $100 bet. If a selection has a minus, this means it’s the favorite. So, a -200 moneyline bet means you must bet $200 to receive $100 back.
Fractional odds operate differently. For instance, the +200 moneyline bet in fractional odds would be 2/1. For every $1 wagered, you’d receive $2 back in winnings. For decimal odds, this same market would be advertised as 3.0.
Conclusion
Obviously, we didn’t have time to delve into every specific gambling term out there, but we have covered all the common phrases and metrics you can expect to see when you place a bet online at a sportsbook or a casino gaming platform.
Some terms are localized, especially when talking about slang terms like pokies, which are only used in Australia and New Zealand to describe slot machines. However, once you are familiar with the generic terms, especially in sports betting, you will have a good idea of how several of the top markets work and what the terminology is referring to.