Casino Glossary

• Hard Hand

  Blackjack

  Any hand where an ace cannot be valued as 11, e.g. A95. The opposite of a soft hand, e.g. A6.

  Antonym: Soft Hand

• Outstanding in your Field

  Craps

  A bet that the next roll will be a 12.

• Middle Pair

  Poker

  A pair using the middle-ranked card in the community cards in hold'em.

• Face Up

  Blackjack

  A variation on blackjack where all cards are dealt face up. The rules are somewhat different to compensate for this player advantage.

• Fruit machines

  Slots

  
  

  UK slang for a slot machine. Some slot machines contain fruit images, such as cherries and lemons, on the spinning reels, hence the name. The original slot machines are also called one-armed bandits because they were operated by the lever on the side of the machine, and people lost money to them. Today almost every online casino provides reel slots that look similar to the slot machines. Some software providers even copied the fruit images used in the original fruit machines to make the online gambling experience as close to the traditional game as possible.

  There are pubs in the UK that still offer fruit machines for their customers' entertainment. However, their return is set  around 80% payout, which is lower than 90-95% payout in their online counterparts.

  Examples:

  I like to play fruit machines for their images.

  Yesterday I lost all my money playing fruit machines in the casino.

• Any Twelve

  Craps

  A craps bet that the next roll will be a 12, paying 30 to 1.

• Bonus Multiplier or Wild Slots

  Slots

  A slot machine with wild symbols, scatter pays and/or free spins. Betting the maximum results in better payouts.

  Synonym: Bonus Multiplier Slots

• Jackpot

  Slots

  A large win.

• Sailboats

  Poker

  A starting hand of a pair of 4s, since a 4 looks like a sail.

• Going Down

  Casino

  Losing money gambling.