Casino glossary: table, live dealer and bonus terms explained

Key facts

House edge is the casino's average cut of every bet: 2.70% on single zero roulette and 5.26% on double zero.
Blackjack paid at 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2 lifts the house edge from about 0.46% to 1.82% in our six-deck calculation.
In baccarat, the banker bet carries a 5% commission and still has the lowest edge on the table: about 1.06% in our calculation.
A wagering requirement multiplies your bonus into required betting: a $100 bonus at 35x means $3,500 of bets before you can withdraw.
An overseas licence does not make an online casino legal in Australia, and ACMA blocks illegal casino sites.

How this casino glossary works

This casino glossary explains 67 terms you will meet at the table, in live studios, in bonus terms and in your casino account. Figures marked "in our calculation" are our own maths; the rest come from regulators, game makers or casinos' own terms. Where we have a full guide, the term links to it. For reels, features and jackpots, use our separate pokies glossary.

Casino maths and table basics

Every casino game is priced so the house wins over time. These are the words for how.

Term	Meaning
House edge	The casino's built-in average profit on each bet, as a percentage. Single zero roulette: 1 in 37, or 2.70%.
RTP	Return to player, the mirror image of house edge. A 2.70% edge means a 97.30% return over the long run.
Best odds games	The bets with the lowest house edge, such as blackjack with basic strategy or the banker bet in baccarat.
Random number generator	The software that shuffles virtual cards or spins virtual wheels in online table games. Live tables use real cards and wheels instead.
Shoe	The box that holds several shuffled decks for dealing blackjack or baccarat.
Continuous shuffler	A machine that reshuffles cards after each round. Victoria's regulator approved baccarat dealt from one without a cutting card at Melbourne's casino in December 2024.
Side bet	An optional extra wager next to the main bet, usually on a specific card combination, with its own payouts and its own house edge.
Push	A tie between you and the dealer. Your stake comes back and nobody wins.

Blackjack

Blackjack has the richest vocabulary and, played well, one of the lowest edges in the casino.

Term	Meaning
Basic strategy	The mathematically best play for every hand against every dealer card. With six decks, dealer standing on soft 17, double after split allowed and a 3 to 2 payout, it leaves a house edge of about 0.46% in our calculation.
Hit	Take another card.
Stand	Keep your hand as it is.
Double down	Double your bet in exchange for exactly one more card.
Split	Turn a pair into two separate hands, each with its own bet.
Surrender	Give up half your bet to fold a hand before it is played out, where the rules allow it.
Insurance	A side bet, offered when the dealer shows an ace, that the dealer has blackjack. It pays 2 to 1, and in our calculation costs about 6.8% of the stake on average.
Soft hand	A hand with an ace counted as 11, so one more card cannot bust it.
Hard hand	A hand with no ace, or with the ace counted as 1.
S17 and H17	Whether the dealer stands or hits on soft 17. Hitting raises the edge: 0.46% to about 0.67% with six decks, in our calculation.
3 to 2 versus 6 to 5	How a natural blackjack pays. On a $10 bet, 3 to 2 pays $15 and 6 to 5 pays $12, pushing the edge to about 1.82% in our calculation.
Bust	Going over 21. A player who busts loses even if the dealer later busts too.
Upcard	The dealer's face-up card. A dealer showing 6 busts about 42% of the time with six decks, in our calculation.
Card counting	Tracking high and low cards to estimate when the remaining shoe favours the player. Continuous shufflers, and online games that reshuffle every hand, make it useless.
Free Bet blackjack	A variant that gives free doubles and splits on some hands, offset by other rule changes. The VGCCC approved it at Melbourne's casino in March 2024.

Roulette

Roulette terms mostly describe where you put your chips and what the wheel looks like.

Term	Meaning
Single zero	A wheel with 37 pockets, 1 to 36 plus 0. Every standard bet has a 2.70% edge.
Double zero	A wheel with 38 pockets, adding 00. The edge rises to 5.26%.
La partage	A rule that hands back half of an even-money bet when zero lands, cutting the edge on those bets to about 1.35%.
Inside and outside bets	Inside bets cover single numbers or small groups on the grid; outside bets cover big groups such as red, odd or 1 to 18.
Straight up	A bet on one number, paid at 35 to 1.
Five-number bet	The 0, 00, 1, 2, 3 bet on a double zero wheel, paid at 6 to 1. At 7.89%, it has the worst edge on the table.
Martingale	Doubling your bet after every loss. It produces many small wins and occasional very large losses, and leaves the edge unchanged.

Baccarat and other games

Term	Meaning
Banker and Player	The two hands you can back in baccarat. In our eight-deck calculation, banker wins 45.86% of hands and player 44.63%.
Commission	The 5% the casino takes from winning banker bets. Even after it, banker's edge is about 1.06%, lower than player's 1.24%.
Tie bet	A bet that both hands finish level. At 8 to 1 its edge is about 14.36% in our calculation.
Punto banco	The common form of baccarat, where every draw follows fixed rules and players make no decisions.
Dragon Tiger	A two-card game where you bet on which side draws the higher card.
Video poker	A machine version of five-card draw that pays by hand strength, using a published pay schedule.
Hand rankings	The order of poker hands from high card up to royal flush.
Rake	The cut a poker room takes from each pot or tournament entry, since players compete against each other rather than the house.
Crash game	A multiplier climbs until it crashes; you must cash out before it does. Spribe lists its Aviator game at 97% RTP.
Online keno	A lottery-style game drawing 20 numbers from 80. Under the 2026 gambling reform law, online keno becomes a prohibited service from 1 January 2027.
Two-up	The Anzac Day coin game: two coins, and you bet on heads (both heads) or tails (both tails).

Live casino

Term	Meaning
Live dealer	A real table with a human dealer, filmed in a studio and streamed to players who bet through on-screen software.
Studio	The facility live tables are filmed in. Evolution lists studios in Riga, Malta and Tbilisi among its locations.
Evolution	A major live casino supplier, which says it runs over 2,000 live tables. Australia is not on its published licence list.
Game show	A live title built around a presenter and a big wheel or board rather than a card table.

Bonuses and promotions

Bonus language is where most casino disputes begin. Read these before you accept anything.

Term	Meaning
Deposit match	Bonus money equal to a share of your deposit, such as 100% up to a cap.
Wagering requirement	The betting you must complete before bonus money becomes withdrawable. A $100 bonus at 35x needs $3,500 of bets.
Bonus terms	The rules attached to an offer. One casino's general terms we read allow only one active bonus at a time and say deposit bonuses do not stack.
Sticky bonus	Bonus money that stays in the account until you withdraw, then is removed. Only winnings above it can be cashed out.
Max bet rule	The largest stake allowed per round while a bonus is active. Breaking it can void your winnings.
Excluded games	Games you cannot play with a bonus. One set of terms we read excludes every game from several entire providers.
Reload bonus	A deposit bonus for existing players, often weekly.
Cashback	A refund of part of your losses or deposits, usually as bonus money with its own wagering. One daily offer we read paid 5% of the day's deposits with 30x wagering.
No deposit bonus	Bonus credit or spins with no deposit needed. Winnings are usually capped; one casino's cap was AUD 80.
One bonus per household	A clause in terms we have read that limits offers to one per person, family, address, device or payment account.
VIP program	A loyalty scheme with levels. In one casino's terms we read, withdrawal limits rise as you move up the levels.

Accounts, payments and the law

Term	Meaning
KYC	Know your customer: checks of identity, age, address and payment ownership before a payout.
Withdrawal pending	A cash-out the casino has received but not yet approved or sent.
Withdrawal limit	A cap on how much you can take out per day, week or month.
PayID	An Australian bank payment address, such as a phone number or email, linked to an account. Your bank's daily payment limit applies.
Crypto withdrawal	A payout in cryptocurrency. Moneysmart warns crypto transactions are not easy to recover if something goes wrong.
Licence check	Confirming a casino's claimed licence on the regulator's own register.
Curacao licence	The licence claimed most often by the offshore casinos we have reviewed. Its regulator says player disputes are outside its mandate.
MGA	The Malta Gaming Authority, a European regulator with a public licensee register.
Interactive Gambling Act	The 2001 federal law under which online casino games and online pokies cannot be offered to people in Australia. It is not an offence to play.
ACMA block	An instruction to Australian internet providers to block an illegal gambling site. ACMA says 1,822 illegal gambling and affiliate websites had been blocked by September 2026.
Self-exclusion	Barring yourself from gambling services. Ask any casino you use for self-exclusion, not just a short cooling-off period.

Pundit tip: two numbers from this page decide most outcomes: the house edge of the game and the wagering requirement of the bonus. Know both before you deposit.

Casino games are paid entertainment. If you are chasing losses, free help is on 1800 858 858, 24/7, and on our gambling help Australia page. For odds and racing terms, see the betting glossary.

Our partner sites

Terms checked 8 to 9 October 2026

We earn a commission if you join through these links; it pays for the site and does not change the facts we show. Listed in no particular order. Every detail comes from the casino's own terms, except ACMA notes, which come from ACMA's blocked list. These are offshore casinos without an Australian licence, so BetStop and Australian dispute services do not cover them: read whether online pokies are legal in Australia and our affiliate disclosure.Commission links. Offshore sites with no Australian licence or BetStop cover: is it legal?

LuckyOnes

Partner · termsTerms checked 9 Oct 2026

Visit LuckyOnesVisit 18+ Affiliate link · T&Cs apply

Withdrawals: AUD 6,000 a day
Max bet (bonus): AUD 8
Min deposit: AUD 30

Names no licence or operating company in its terms or footer
luckyones.com, luckyones1.com and luckyones7.com are on ACMA's blocked list (8 Oct 2026)Main domain on ACMA's blocked list

Wild Tokyo

Partner · termsTerms checked 8 Oct 2026

Visit Wild TokyoVisit 18+ Affiliate link · T&Cs apply

Withdrawals (entry): AUD 800 a day
Max bet (bonus): AUD 8
Monthly cap (entry): AUD 13,000

States a Curacao eGaming licence (no number shown)

18+ Offers and terms change often; the casino's own terms always apply. Never gamble money you need. Free help: Gambling Help 1800 858 858, 24/7.

Frequently asked questions

What does house edge mean in a casino?

The average share of each bet the casino keeps over the long run. On a single zero roulette wheel it is 1 in 37, or 2.70%, so $1,000 of bets costs about $27 on average. It is built into the payouts, not the dealer's luck.

What is la partage in roulette?

A French roulette rule that returns half of an even-money bet when the ball lands on zero. It halves the edge on those bets to about 1.35%, in our calculation.

What is a sticky bonus?

A casino bonus that can be played with but never withdrawn. The bonus amount is removed when you cash out, so only winnings above it can leave the account.

What does KYC mean at an online casino?

Know your customer: the identity, age, address and payment checks a casino runs before paying out. One casino's terms we read give players 30 calendar days to send documents or lose their winnings.

What is a live dealer casino?

Real table games run by human dealers in a studio and streamed to your screen, with bets placed through software. Evolution, a major supplier, says it runs over 2,000 live tables.