Gambling Terms - Glossary of NZ Casino Terms
In the year 2026, the world is embracing a more modern and trendy vibe, including the gambling industry. Casinos are incorporating unique gaming “lingo” at tables and on their websites. Embrace these words to stay ahead in the gaming scene!
| Action | The total sum of all wagers; or gambling activities as a whole. |
| Against the spread | Betting on the underdog and the points given to it by the oddsmaker in a sports bet. |
| Aggregate Limit | Total payout liability of a casino during any one game. |
| Aggregate Winnings | Cumulative or total winnings in your account. |
| All-in | In poker, betting your entire stack of chips. |
| Ante | A bet that a player can make before other players. |
| ATS | See ‘Against the spread’. |
| Bad beat | To end up losing a bet when odds seem to be heavily in your favour. |
| Banker | In card games, it refers to the dealer. Sometimes, each player becomes a banker/dealer in turn. |
| Bankroll | All amounts of money to be used for placing bets; or the amount of money stocked at a game before the start. |
| Barber Pole | A wager made with a stack of various bets. |
| Beard | See ‘Runner’. |
| Betting Limit | The specific limit a player can bet with. |
| Black Chip | $100 chip. |
| Blind Bet | Used in poker when a player bets without knowing what card will show next. |
| Board | The community cards in a poker game that everyone can comprise their hand from. |
| Bonus | Money given to players as an incentive to keep playing at the online casino. |
| Bookmaker | Someone who takes and manages bets and payouts for sports and other events. Also called a bookie. |
| Break-Even Point | The point at which if you played forever, the bets you made would equate to payoffs you would receive. |
| Brick | A card that is unable to help a player’s poker hand. Also known as a blank. |
| Buck | A $100 wager. |
| Bug | A joker. |
| Burn | After shuffling, the burying of the top card of the deck before dealing. |
| Buy points | Paying an additional amount of money to receive additional points or more in your favour in a pointspread bet. |
| Buy-in | The amount it costs to play in a card tournament. |
| Call | Used in poker, it refers to the act of matching a bet made by the previous player. In bingo or keno, a call is the drawing of numbers. |
| Camouflage | Anything a well seasoned gambler does to conceal any and all activities from a casino. |
| Cap | The maximum wager a player can make on any single game. |
| Card counting | Mainly in blackjack, a strategy used to determine what cards are likely to be dealt next by keeping a running tally of which high-value cards have been dealt versus which still remain the deck. While not explicitly illegal, many casinos will eject players they suspect to be counting cards. |
| Card Sharp | A person who is an expert at cards and card games. |
| Chalk | In sports betting, slang referring to the favourite. |
| Check | With several casino games, a check is another name for chip. In poker, to check means to stay in the game without betting. |
| Chips | Also known as tokens they are round, plastic or digital and used on casino tables in lieu of cash. |
| Cold | Referring to a table, machine, or person that is no longer lucky. |
| Colour Up | Refers to chips you receive from various games. If you are colour up, you want to change the smaller valued chips for larger ones. |
| Community cards | Cards dealt in the center of the table of which all players can compose their hand from. |
| Cover | In sports betting, a win by beating the pointspread by the set number of points. |
| Cowboys | Two King cards. |
| Credit | Bets may be expressed through credits. 1 credit equals 1 unit. |
| Crimp | Bending or otherwise making a small defect on a card to be able to identify what it is when face down. |
| Croupier | A dealer in a gambling game. More commonly used to refer to those dealers operating roulette and baccarat games. |
| Cut | The practice of allowing the player to the dealer’s right to take a random segment of the deck off the top and have it moved to the bottom. Used to prevent possible cheating and purposeful ordering of the cards by the dealer. Once the cut is complete, the cards are dealt. |
| Dealer | The person who shuffles and deals the cards. |
| Dime Bet | A $1,000 wager. |
| Dog | In sports betting, the underdog, or the team as determined by the oddsmaker as most likely to lose. |
| Down To The Felt | Completely out of money, broke. |
| Draw | In card games, staying in a hand with the hopes that you will improve or complete your hand. E.g., holding two spades and having two come out on the flop would be a flush draw. |
| Drop | Money lost. |
| ECOGRA | e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance, better known as eCOGRA. It provides trust to players through independently regulating online casinos. An eCOGRA seal will be shown on the homepage of approved sites. It says the operator is committed to player protection, fair gaming and overall responsible conduct. |
| Edge | Having an upper advantage over an opponent or player. |
| Encryption | Security measure to ensure all transactions are completely safe. |
| Even money | A bet with 1:1 odds where the player and the house have the same probability of winning the bet. |
| Expected value | The amount a player could expect to win or lose if betting the same amount on the same odds repeatedly. Sometimes referred to as EV. |
| Face Cards | The Jack, Queen, and King of any suit of cards. |
| Favourite | The team or competitor most likely to win in a sports bet, as determined by the oddsmaker. |
| Firing | A person who is wagering large sums. |
| Fish | If you are new to online gambling, you may be called a ‘fish’. It’s not to be taken as an insult, but just another way to describe a new bettor. |
| Flop | The first three community cards dealt in a poker hand. |
| Future bet | A sports bet on the outcome of a future event, such as the winner of a sports championship before the season or competition begins. |
| Gambler’s conceit | The idea that a gambler will be able to stop risky behaviour (i.e., continuous gambling) while they are participating in it. A common example would the expression “I’ll quit when I’m ahead.” |
| Gambler’s fallacy | The (false) idea that if a result has happened rarely in the past, it is more likely to occur in the future. |
| Grind Player | A gambler who bets very conservatively in small amounts; thereby slowly working through the bankroll. |
| Hand | Cards a player holds in a game. |
| Handicapping | In sports betting, the act of the oddsmaker configuring the odds to try and get even action wagered on both teams or all competitors. |
| Hard Hand | Used in blackjack and refers to a hand which contains an ace valued at 1 instead of 11. |
| High roller | A gambler that wagers large amounts of money. |
| Hit Me | Used in blackjack to tell the dealer you want another card. |
| Holding Your Own | Winning a sufficient amount to break even. |
| Hole Card | Card that is dealt face down. |
| Honeymoon Period | New players who are winning all the time; also known as Beginners Luck. |
| Hot | A player on a winning streak or casino game which pays out a lot or regularly. |
| House Edge | Built in advantage at the casino, typically gained by paying less than the odds. |
| Inside Bet | A roulette bet placed on a number or combination of numbers. |
| Juice | Knowing the right people in the casino industry. If you are well connected, you have ‘juice’. |
| Kicker | In poker, the high card that breaks a tie between otherwise identical hands. |
| Ladies | Two Queens. |
| Laying the odds | A bet in which players would win more than the amount they wagered. The opposite of taking the odds. |
| Live Hand | Used in poker, it refers to a hand that has the potential to win the pot. |
| Load Up | Playing a slot machine with the maximum number of coins per spin. |
| Loose | A slot machine which has a higher average payout. |
| Martingale system | A betting system in which you follow up a winning bet with a bet of that same amount, and a losing bet with a bet double the amount you just lost. |
| Moneyline | Betting on the outright winner in a sports event, as opposed to betting the pointspread. |
| Muck | In poker, ‘mucking’ refers to throwing your unwanted hands into the middle of the table or ‘muck’ pile. |
| Multi-Player Casino | A feature offered by online casinos that lets you play against other players. |
| Nuts | The best possible hand you can hold in a given situation. |
| Odds | The possibility of winning a gambling bet. In some games and in sports betting this is often written as a series of two numbers (e.g., 2:1 odds). This means betting the second number (C$1) will win you the first number (C$2). |
| Off-suit | Pocket cards that are not the same suit. |
| On Tilt | A bad reaction to an unlucky hand or string of plays which results in uncontrolled wild play. |
| One Eyed | Three cards: the Jack of Hearts, the Jack of Spades, or the King of Diamonds. |
| Opening line | The initial odds offered for wagering on a sporting event. |
| Over-pair | In Texas Hold ‘Em, having a pair of hole cards that is larger than all of the community cards. |
| Overlay | A situation which favours the gambler. With an overlay, you can win more money than you bet when and if you do win. |
| Paint | A face card which is a Jack, a Queen or a King |
| Parlay | In sports betting, a bet on at least two teams in which every bet must be correct for a payout. |
| Pay Cycle | An estimated statistical guess of the number of plays a machine must cycle through to configure wins and non-wins. |
| Pay Table | Displayed in games, it details the combinations players need to make to win. |
| Payback | Return received on any bet or wager. |
| Payline | Line(s) on a slot machine which symbols and reels must align on to win. |
| Payout Percentage | Takings that a game or casino returns to players as winnings; the higher the better. |
| Pit boss | The manager of several gaming tables in a casino. |
| Pocket cards | The cards you hold that only you can see. |
| Pointspread | In sports betting, the margin of victory for the favourite as determined by the sportsbook. Can be bet against or with. |
| Pot | The total amount accumulated in every hand of poker and the money which the winner will receive. |
| Pot committed | Pot committed- A situation in poker where you have put so much money into the pot that it doesn’t make sense to fold. |
| Press | Press- Betting an amount larger than you normally would. |
| Progressive jackpot | A certain amount of money taken from select games which is put towards one collective jackpot. The more players, machines, or casinos involved, the larger the jackpot. Some lucky person will eventually hit it and win – usually a six, seven, or eight digit number. |
| Proposition bet | Odds offered by a sportsbook on the likelihood of various occurrences to happen during a game or event. |
| Punter | A gambler. |
| Push | When a bet ends in a tie and no money is exchanged. Most commonly seen in sports betting. |
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| Raise | Betting more than the minimum required to bet. |
| Rake | Money charged by the casino for every hand of poker. In general it is a flat fee or 5-10% of every round. |
| River | The last of the five community cards dealt in poker. |
| RNG | Random Number Generator or RNG generates complete randomness by assigning the outcome of every result. It’s used at online casinos and independently monitored for fairness on the top sites. |
| Rollover | A rollover is another way to refer to ‘playthrough’ or ‘wagering requirements’ often found in bonuses and promotions. |
| Runner | Someone that places a bet on the behalf of someone else. |
| Scared Money | Money that a player cannot afford to lose. |
| Shark | A player that is especially good at cards/gambling and prays on weaker players, sometimes called ‘fish’. |
| Sharker | A cheater. |
| Sharp | A clever bettor. |
| Shill | A shill acts as a filler player. They are paid by the house to sit at games and make numbers. You’ll most often find shills at poker games. |
| Short Run | Short series of bets or game events. |
| Sit and go | A poker tournament where there is no set start time. Play begins when a designated amount of players (usually around 10) have all “sat” and paid the buy in. |
| Skin | A dollar. |
| Snake Eyes | Rolling a two in the dice game of craps. |
| Soft Hand | Used in blackjack and the opposite of Hard Hand. It is any hand which contains an ace counted as eleven. |
| Spinner | A winning streak. |
| Splashing the pot | Throwing chips into the pot recklessly as opposed to placing them in neat stacks that are easy to count. |
| Sportsbook | An organization that creates the odds for sports wagering and accepts bets for sporting events. |
| Steam | Heavy action on one particular team or competitor in a sports bet. |
| Straight up | In sports betting, a wager for a team or competitor to win outright (as opposed to on a pointspread). |
| String bet | Making a bet in a card game in multiple motions as opposed to all at once. Strictly prohibited. |
| Suit | One of four categories playing cards are separated into: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. |
| Suited | Cards in a hand that are of the same suit. |
| Table limit | The minimum and maximum amount of money players can wager in a casino game. |
| Taking the odds | A bet in which players would win less than the amount they wagered. The opposite of laying the odds. |
| Taking the points | In sports betting, wagering on the underdog and the points “given” to it in the pointspread. |
| Tapping Out | Losing the entire bankroll causing you to discontinue gambling. |
| Tell | An unintentional clue provided by a card player that hints at what cards they may or may not be holding. |
| Ticket | A card. |
| Totals bet | A sports bet that predicts the combined point total of both teams. |
| Trips | Three of a kind. |
| Turbo | A type of poker tournament where the blinds increase at a faster rate than normal. |
| Turkey | A turkey refers to a person who is behaving badly or unpleasantly to a dealer. This is often because they are losing or think they know everything including all the rules. You will only come across turkeys on the live casino games. |
| Turn | The fourth and second-to-last community card dealt in a poker hand. |
| Underdog | The team or competitor most likely to lose in a sports bet, as determined by the oddsmaker. |
| Underlay | A bad bet. Particularly, with sports betting, it refers to an event which has more money bets on it actually being true than can be justified through reasonable logic and probability. |
| Unit | Also known as betting units, this is a term used to express the smallest amount of money used in betting without specifying any currency. A players actual bet may be C$1, but the betting unit may be one chip. |
| Vigorish | See ‘juice’. |
| Wager | Any type of bet. |
| Whales | A term used to describe players who can gamble as much as they want and lose millions without shedding a tear. Whales are rare at casinos, but can be found on some of the larger sites. |
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Gambling terms and jargon are integral parts of the casino experience in New Zealand. Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the scene, understanding these terms is essential for navigating the world of gambling.
Let’s delve into the gambling terms surrounding various casino games. In games like blackjack, terms like “hit,” “stand,” “double down,” and “split” are commonly used. These terms refer to the actions players can take during their turn to either improve their hand or stay with their current cards.
Similarly, in games like roulette, terms like “inside bet,” “outside bet,” “straight bet,” and “split bet” are frequently heard. These terms describe different types of bets that players can place on the roulette table, each with its own odds and potential payouts.
Moving on to the world of pokie machines, players encounter terms like “reels,” “paylines,” “wild symbols,” and “scatter symbols.” These terms describe the various elements of a pokie machine and how they contribute to the overall gameplay experience.
In the realm of casino bonuses and promotions, terms like “welcome bonus,” “free spins,” “loyalty program,” and “VIP rewards” are commonly used. These terms refer to the incentives that casinos offer to attract new players and retain existing ones, often including free play credits, extra spins, and exclusive perks.
When it comes to financial transactions and account management, terms like “deposit,” “withdrawal,” “bankroll,” and “wagering requirements” come into play. These terms describe the processes involved in funding your casino account, cashing out your winnings, managing your funds, and meeting the conditions attached to bonus offers.
Finally, in the broader context of gambling regulation and responsible gaming, terms like “self-exclusion,” “problem gambling,” “responsible gaming,” and “licensing authority” are of utmost importance. These terms relate to the measures taken by casinos and regulatory bodies to promote safe and responsible gambling practices and protect players from harm.
Familiarising yourself with these gambling terms will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the casino experience in New Zealand. So whether you’re hitting the tables, spinning the reels, or claiming bonuses, knowing the language of gambling will undoubtedly enrich your gameplay.