Reel Talk Glossary

Casino games come with their own dialect. This glossary translates the words that turn up most often in our articles. Definitions are general; the rules shown in a particular game or by a particular operator always take priority.

Slots

• Bonus round: a separate feature inside a slot, often triggered by special symbols, with its own rules.
• Demo mode: a play-money version of a game that shows how it looks and behaves without any real stake.
• Free spins: spins that cost nothing extra, usually awarded by a feature. Their wins are part of the game's overall return, not a gift on top of it.
• Paytable: the screen listing what each symbol combination pays and how features work. The first place to look in any new game.
• Payline: a pattern across the reels on which matching symbols must land to win, in games that use lines.
• RNG (random number generator): the software that decides each outcome at random. Whatever came up before has no say in what comes up next.
• RTP (return to player): the share of all stakes a game is designed to pay back over a very large number of rounds. It says little about a single session. See our RTP explainer.
• Scatter: a symbol that counts wherever it lands, often used to trigger features.
• Volatility (variance): how a game spreads its payouts, from frequent small wins to rare large ones.
• Wild: a joker-like symbol that substitutes for others to finish a winning line.

Table games

• House edge: the share of each stake a game keeps for the operator over the long run.
• Fan: in fan-tan, a bet on one single number from 1 to 4.
• Kwok: in fan-tan, a bet covering two neighbouring numbers.
• Nim: in fan-tan, a bet where one number wins and a second number returns the stake.
• Shoe: the box that holds several shuffled decks at games such as Dragon Tiger.
• Side bet: an optional extra wager next to the main game, usually costlier than the main bet. Our Dragon Tiger guide shows examples.
• Tie: a result where both sides are equal. Tie rules often decide how much a game costs.

Poker

• Blinds: forced bets posted by the two players left of the dealer button to start the pot.
• Board: the community cards dealt face up in the middle.
• Hole cards: a player's private cards. Omaha gives four and requires exactly two to be used.
• Pot-limit: a betting structure where the largest raise equals the size of the pot.
• Rake: the fee a poker room takes from pots or tournament entries.
• Showdown: the moment remaining players reveal their hands to decide the pot.

Tech and safer play

• HTML5: the web standard that lets games run in a browser without plugins.
• Deposit limit: a cap on how much can be paid into an account over a set period.
• Self-exclusion: a tool that blocks your access to gambling for a chosen period. More on Keep It a Game.