Table Talk Glossary

Games come with their own vocabulary, and a single unfamiliar word can make a set of rules feel harder than it is. This glossary collects the terms that appear most often across our guides, with short, plain definitions.

Card and tile games

• Boneyard: in dominoes, the face-down pile of tiles left after the deal, from which players draw when they cannot play.
• Block game: a domino game in which nobody draws; a player who cannot match simply passes.
• Deadwood: in gin rummy, the cards in your hand that are not part of a set or run.
• Double: a domino tile with the same number on both ends.
• Gin: ending a hand of gin rummy with every card in a meld and no deadwood at all.
• Knock: in gin rummy, ending the hand when your deadwood is low enough.
• Meld: a scoring group of cards, either a set of the same rank or a run in sequence.
• Pips: the dots on a domino tile or a die.
• Undercut: when the defending player in gin rummy has as little deadwood as the knocker, or less.

Step-by-step rules are in our guides to dominoes and gin rummy.

Casino and slots

• House edge: the average share of each stake a casino game keeps over the long run.
• RTP (return to player): the other side of the house edge; the share of stakes a game is designed to pay back over a very large number of plays.
• RNG (random number generator): the software that decides the outcome of each digital spin or deal.
• Variance: how widely results swing around the average; high-variance games have longer dry spells and rarer large wins.
• Wagering requirement: the amount you must bet before bonus money can be withdrawn.
• Live dealer: a table game streamed from a studio with a real person dealing.

Betting

• Odds: the price of a bet, shown as decimal, fractional or American figures.
• Implied probability: the chance of an outcome suggested by its price, before allowing for the bookmaker's margin.
• Margin: the extra a bookmaker builds into prices so that the book favours the operator.
• Spread: a handicap that evens out two sides, common in basketball and American football.
• Totals (over/under): a bet on whether a combined score lands above or below a set line.

Money and limits

• Bankroll: the money set aside for play, and no more.
• Deposit limit: a cap you set on how much can be added to a gaming account in a period.
• Self-exclusion: a tool that blocks your access to gambling sites for a chosen period.
• Chasing losses: betting again to win back money already lost; a common warning sign covered on Keep the Game Fun.