Glossary of Casino Gaming

and

Casino Surveillance Terms

By Jim Goding

with thanks and acknowledgement to

Gary L. Powell

<<Note: This Glossary is a part of the Casino Surveillance Operations Manual. As such, it is copyrighted material. Unauthorized Duplication and Distribution is a violation of copyright law and of the proprietary rights of the author. >>

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Note: words in bold underline refer to entries in this glossary. If you encounter a word that is underlined and bold, and you do not already know this term, it is advised that you also read and understand the definition referred to. Ace: out of a standard deck of cards, there are four Aces. 1. In Poker games, these are the highest ranking cards, but can also be part of the lowest Straight (A-2-3-4-5)  2. In Blackjack, the Ace is valued at either one or eleven, and it makes half of a natural twenty-one, or Blackjack, after which the game is named.  3. In Dice, the side of the die with a single spot. Action: amount of currency or checks being wagered, or the sum of a player’s wagers over the course of play. Accountability: includes all items of currency, casino checks, coins, tokens, receivables and customer deposits. It constitutes the total amount for which the bankroll custodian is responsible at any given time. Advantage: 1. generally used to describe a player's expected value in a game; it can also be used to describe the casino's expected value. It is most often expressed in terms of percentage. A player may be said to have a 1 percent advantage in a certain game. This means that the player can expect to have a 1 percent return on all of the money bet in that game: If the player wagers, over a period of time, $10,000 in $100 wagers, he can expect to make $100. This also means that if the house has a 2% advantage, if a player wagers, over a period of time, $10,000, he can expect to lose $200. This is a LONG TERM advantage, and variations from this advantage may vary in major amounts over the period of time and amount of money wagered.  2. In Slots, the casino advantage is the same as the hold percentage. A machine that returns 98 percent of all the money played has a casino advantage or hold percentage of 2 percent. Advantage play: the exploitation by a knowledgeable player or team of a weakness in the nature of the game, casino procedures and rules, employee training or apathetic supervision, in order to develop a short-term or long-term advantage. (Bill Zender, Advantage Play for the Casino Executive) Advantage play is not cheating. See also card counting; hole-card play; shuffle tracking; key card location; slots bonus play. Agent: 1. an outside agent, such as a player or other conspirator, who engages in cheating or in helping an employee steal from the casino. The agent is not an employee of the casino.  2. an employee of a local or state gaming regulatory authority.  3. Another word for a Surveillance investigator All in: in Poker, the player is putting the entire amount of his table bankroll into the pot. He has no more money to wager and is betting that his hand will win the portion of the pot that exists at that time. If no further wagers are made, it is the entire pot. If raises or further betting occur after this point, the pot is split, as this player has no stake in any wagers made after he has no more money. See also split pot. Amateur marking: methods of altering the cards so that values can be determined without seeing the faces of the cards, by the person who marks them, the dealer or another confederate who comes to the game. “Amateur” methods are done while the game is in progress, and they can be done either by a player or by the dealer. See bend and wave; card marking; crimp; daub; nailing; nicking and sanding; professional marking. Ante: a fee or wager required before cards are dealt in some types of Poker and many carnival games. Its function is to begin wagering, so that even if all hands fold, there is a pot, however small. It encourages further betting. Asset misappropriation: one of the three classifications of internal theft and fraud. Asset misappropriations involve the theft or misuse of an organization’s assets. Common examples include skimming revenues, stealing inventory and payroll fraud. Audit: observation of an area to determine whether it is fully incompliance with the internal controls, regulations and company procedures, and the determine whether any theft or cheating is occurring. Regulatory or Surveillance audits often turn up information which results in closer supervision of individuals. (See close watch.) Audits are undertaken on each area under Surveillance or Regulatory supervision on a regular basis. Automated shuffling machine: a machine used by many casinos in Blackjack and other games to shuffle the cards after the game or shoe is finished. Its benefit to the casino is that shuffle tracking and false shuffles cannot be done on such a game. The shuffle is actually random. The casino also benefits from the absence of down time associated with dealer shuffling, because in most cases two complete decks or shoes are used: one is dealt while the other one is being shuffled by the machine. See also continuous shuffler. Baccarat: a casino table game in which the players wager one of two hands, Player or Banker, or on a tie between the value of the two hands. The winning hand is the one with the value closest to nine; face cards and tens are valued as zero. The rules of the game set out the actions which must be taken by the Player hand or Banker hand in every situation of hand value of both hands. This creates the unique situation that once the deck is shuffled and cut, all decisions for the game are already determined. It makes the game especially vulnerable to false shuffles, cooler decks and some other forms of dealer collusion cheating. The house edge on this game comes from the fact that there is a very slight edge on the Banker hand winning, and on every winning wager on the Banker hand, the house takes a 5 percent commission. Back count: (see card counting) to stand back from the game without playing and determine when the value of the remaining cards in the shoe is favorable to the player, at which point the card counter will join the game with large wagers. See also wonging. Back off: a method of handling of advantage players and troublesome players. They are simply told by a member of the pit management that they are no longer allowed to play. For advantage players it is generally permanent. It is also used for temporarily troublesome players, such as drunks, and generally allows them to return to the game later. Bad beat: in Poker, a jackpot that is offered to help bring players into the house. It is paid when a hand above a certain level (such as a full house) is beaten by a higher hand (such as a four-of-a-kind). It is generally a progressive jackpot, funded by the players from a specific rake (jackpot rake), taken by the house for this purpose. This progressive jackpot grows until it is paid off, and then starts over at a predetermined level, supported by the house until the rake is enough to support it. Bad beat jackpots are a target of certain types of card cheats, specifically card-switch and cooler-deck teams. See also high hand jackpot. Bank: 1. the chip tray (also called “float” tray) on a gaming table from which players are given chips when they buy in, into which the house places wagers that it has collected, and from which the dealer pays wagers won by the players. 2. the money for a cashier’s drawer in the casino cashier cage, satellite change booths, and other areas stocked from the main casino cashier cage. 3. the bankroll of the house, which in most gaming areas must have sufficient funds to pay all wagers which could be made in the casino.  4. the inventory of currency, checks, coin, chips, tokens, receivables and customer deposits in the cage, pit, gaming area, booths, and on the tables which is used to make change and pay winnings. 5. a number assigned to a location containing one or more playing terminals (slot machines, in Indian Class III gaming or non-Indian gaming).  See also impressed bank Banker: 1. on Pai Gow Poker, the player can play against the other players on the game, increasing his chance of winning more money, or of losing more money. On hands where the player acts as banker, the house is just another player on the game, and the banker wins on pushes. The house still takes a 5 percent commission (or vigorish) on each hand that the player-banker wins. 2. one of the two main bets on baccarat. The house takes a 5 percent commission on all winning Banker bets. Bankroll: the player’s money which he can use for gambling. It refers to the money on the table, but can also refer to the total amount the player has available to play. Bar: to stop a player from further play at that game or casino. It can be for legal purposes, such as refusing to show identification when required (as when the amount of money the person has wagered reaches a certain limit), or it can be for any other reason the casino does not want the player’s business. Barber pole: a wager on a gaming table made with multiple denominations of checks. Also called a “rainbow.” Dealers are required to break down such wagers into their denominations before paying, to avoid both under- and over-pay. The wager must be stacked with the largest denomination at the bottom and all checks in each color together. Base dealer: in Craps, the two dealers who pay and collect wagers. They are located on either side of the Craps bank and boxman. They handle buy-ins, place wagers for the players, and pay-outs on winning wagers. The base on the stickman’s right (boxman’s left) is called third base. The base on the stickman’s left is called second base. Basic Strategy: the optimum method of playing Blackjack according to the information normally available to a player: the individual player’s hand and the dealer’s up card. It is a series of decisions which have been mathematically worked out and proven to be the optimum decisions. Playing by Basic Strategy reduces the house advantage to a minimum. Basket: a wager in Roulette. The wager is placed in the corner where Zero, double-zero and 2 meet, and covers those three numbers. It can also (loosely) refer to 0-1-2, 00-2-3, but the term does not usually refer to these bets. It pays 11 to 1. In Single Zero Roulette, it can (loosely) refer to 0-1-2 or 0-2-3. It pays 11 to one. Bend and wave: a method of marking cards while the game is in progress. The cheating player bends cards to show values in a specific range: for example, on Blackjack, the high cards would be bent one way and the low cards another. See also card marking; amateur markings. Bet spread: the difference between the amount of a player's minimum and maximum bets. It can be expressed as a proportion (a 1-4 spread would mean the player's maximum bet is four times the minimum bet) or as figures ($25-500). Betting circle: not always a circle, may be a square or a casino logo or other shape. It is the area on table games where the player’s beginning wager is placed before cards are dealt. Big player: see money man. Big Six: an old-time casino game still in operation in many areas; it is also called the “Wheel of Fortune.” Wagers are based on the numbers around a large wheel which is spun until it stops, at which time a pointer indicates the winning number. It is called Big Six because there are six possible wagers: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, and a forty-to-one bet with various names. Each wager pays off according to the denomination of the number: one dollar bet on the $5 spot wins $5. There are normally fifty-six divisions on the wheel, and all payoffs are based on forty-to-one. Bill Validator: a device on a slot machine or change kiosk which accepts, reads, and either rejects currency or sends it into the drop can as valid, and which communicates with the computer in the machine how much money was inserted so that an appropriate amount of credit will be logged into the machine or the correct amount of change given. Also called bill acceptor, currency acceptor. Modern bill validators (referred to as TITO—ticket in, ticket out) also read and accept cash-out vouchers from slot machines in the same casino, by computer network connection to the slots computer system. Vouchers are checked for validity according to unique numbers assigned by the slots computer system, and as soon as the voucher is redeemed (either cashed out or accepted by another slot machine), the unique number is cancelled in the system. Bill validator drop: 1. all of the cash and vouchers contained in the slots bill validator drop boxes for a date or range of dates. 2. The action of removing the money-filled (hot) cans from the machines and replacing them with empty (cold) cans, and bringing all the hot cans to soft count. Bingo: a very popular lottery-style gaming activity in Indian country and in some overseas gaming environments, as well as in fund-raisers for religious and other organizations. One winner is selected from all players in the game at the time, by the series of numbered spots on each player’s ticket, matched by a selection of balls, or by a computer random number generator. Bingo is also the basic game for Class II machine operations. Black (action): $100 gaming checks are known as “black checks.” Black action refers to players in the $100-500 betting level. Black and whites: the original uniform of dealers: a white shirt and black trousers, with no ornamentation, except sometimes a black tie. Black Book: List of Excluded Persons, a list of people who are officially barred from casinos due to criminal activities or associations that would be a threat to the gaming industry. The term originated in Nevada and is a semi-official term. It is also used in many other areas to refer to the “barred from casinos” list. Blackjack: also known as “21,” the most popular and most common casino table game. There are many variations on the game, and even more variations on the specific rules of the game, between casinos. In this game the house dealer gives out two cards to each player and two to himself, then requires each player to make a decision to stand or attempt to improve his hand by receiving more cards (called “hitting”; other options exist, such as splitting pairs, double down on the wager and receiving a single card, or surrendering half the wager). The object is to beat the dealer. The player wants to reach the highest total possible without exceeding 21, which is called busting and is an automatic loss, or simply to still be in the game when the dealer busts. When the dealer busts, he pays all wagers which have not already lost. 2. A natural 21—the highest total which can be reached with two cards, is an ace and a ten or face card, and is called a blackjack, after which the game is named. A blackjack is an automatic winner, unless the dealer also has blackjack, in which case it is a push, or tie. Blind: in several forms of Poker, a small wager which is placed by the players immediately in front of the dealer button. It is called “blind” because the person is required to make the wager before seeing his cards. The dealer button rotates in position around the table one spot for each round of play, and each player in turn must place a blind wager. It serves the same purpose as an ante wager: even if all players fold, there is a pot, and money is coming out of each player’s hand in turn, which encourages further betting. Bonus wager: many carnival games include an optional Bonus wager, which pays much higher odds than the basic wager. Also, a number of bonus wagers have been designed and included in some casinos on Blackjack, for specific card combinations. Book: 1. accept a wager. 2. a race and sports betting area. Border work: see card marking. Several forms of professional card marking use the edges of the cards: lines and figures are enlarged or reduced in size in specific areas of the cards so that a player can read the value of the cards by looking at the back of the card. Boxing (the deck): part of a standard casino shuffle in which a section, usually a third, of the deck is taken from the top and placed on the bottom, before a riffle. Box person (boxman): the person on a Craps game who is responsible for the table bank and is also the first level of supervisor on the game. He coaches and corrects dealers and resolves player disputes, and has specific duties in watching the game. Break (bust): in Blackjack, to receive or be dealt cards whose value exceeds the total of twenty-one (highest possible value for two cards). Busting is an automatic loss. Break-in: originally referring to a dealer, it is the person with little or no dealing experience, still learning the trade, and expected to be somewhat clumsy and prone to errors. They are still in training, and casinos that train dealers from scratch or just out of school are referred to as “break-in houses.” “Break-in” can now also refer to any person new to the job he or she is performing, such as a break-in floorman. Break the deck: in Blackjack, to shuffle before the deck is dealt through. It is a method of discouraging some forms of advantage play. Bridge: a bent card or gap in the deck used to show a player where to cut the deck, or to show the value of the following card. It is part of a cheating method of dealer collusion with the player. Bug: 1. a device fastened beneath a gaming table (primarily Poker) to hold out one or more cards. It is usually made of metal and holds the card against the table by spring tension. 2. a slang term for the Joker in Poker games where a joker is used. Burn: to bury a card unseen after the shuffle in Blackjack, or after a round of betting and before the next card is exposed in several forms of Poker which use common cards. Bury the hole card: In Blackjack, to place the dealer’s second card under the first card so that it is completely covered. Bust: (also called break) in blackjack, to receive or be dealt cards whose value exceeds the total of twenty-one (highest possible value for two cards). Busting is an automatic loss. Button: in Poker, a marker which is moved one player to the right by the dealer after each round of play, to signify the last player to receive a card. It is the theoretical position of “dealer” in card games dealt by the house, and moves one position for each hand dealt. The position has strategic value, and also shows which two players must bet the small (next position) and large (third position)  “blind” wagers. Buy-a-line: a Slots term referring to machines with multiple paylines which are activated only when the player wagers more than the minimum bet. With each coin or group of coins, another line is activated for potential payout. These machines, like the buy-a-pay, often will only pay the maximum jackpot figure when all lines are in play at maximum wager. Buy-a-pay: machines for which each coin played activates a further set of jackpot symbols.  When more coins are inserted, the player is buying additional payouts. If less than the maximum coins are played, certain symbols, normally including the top jackpot, are not active. Examples include: video Poker, which pays 250 to 1 on the first four coins played for a royal flush, but pays 800 to one on all coins in action when the maximum bet is played. Megabucks cannot pay off the top jackpot unless the maximum wager is played. These machines are often confusing to novice slots players. The payout schedule on the face of the machine will show a different combination of winning symbols for each coin played Buy bet: in Craps, a true odds bet. The house charges a 5 percent commission (vig) on the amount of the wager. Buy-in: the amount of cash the player originally starts the game with. Players buy in with cash for casino checks. In common use today, the buy-in has come to mean the total amount of checks the player has bought during his play on the game. Cage: 1. the “bank” in a casino where players exchange checks for cash, where they cash in payouts from slot machines, and from which checks and cash are sent to other areas of the casino. The cage is in fact the center of the accounting for the entire casino. All smaller banks outside belong to the cage, and are simply money that has been loaned from the cage to the other departments. 2. a secured work area within the gaming operation for cashiers and a storage area for the gaming operation bankroll. Call: in Poker, to stay in the hand by adding money to the pot in an amount equal to the wager placed by each previous player in the betting sequence. Call bet: a form of table credit in which a person gets approval from the supervisor to make a wager without having any chips or showing cash to play. It must be either paid from winnings or from the player’s pocket immediately after the gaming decision on which the wager is made. See also “rim credit.” Call-out: an event to which the dealer must advise the floor supervisor, and sometimes get approval prior to completing the action. These vary from casino to casino, but generally include shuffles, buy-ins over a specified amount, check change and color-out, dealer errors, and certain unusual player actions. Can: 1. the locked box on each slot machine where cash goes from the bill validator. 2. see drop box Cap (a bet): a cheating move, adding to a wager after the decision is known, or when having information regarding the gaming decision, such as having been dealt a favorable hand. To place checks on top of a wager. See also past-post; pressing. Capping: one method of showing, when checks are cut on the table game surface, that the checks are in stacks of five: after sizing in with the final short stack, the dealer cuts off two from the bottom, then two again, and drops the fifth check on top of the other two, centered. See also splash. Card counting: a form of advantage play in which skilled Blackjack players can gain a small advantage over the house by knowing the proportion of remaining large and small cards to be dealt. A large proportion of tens and aces still to be dealt is advantageous to the player. Card games: as opposed to table games, are games in which the casino makes no wagers. The casino provides the table, environment, cards and chips. The dealer on these games controls the dealing of the cards and handles the player wagers but has no hand of his own in the game. The gaming operation is not party to wagers. The house makes its money from a per-pot rake, or by charging players by the amount of time played or an entry fee. Card marking: a form of cheating in which cards are altered so that the player, his confederate or the dealer can read the value of the card without seeing the face of the card. There are more than twenty different known methods of marking cards, according to the targeted game, method of dealing, and amount of information required or desired by the cheater, and by who is to read the marks. See also amateur marking; professional marking Card switching: a cheating move in which cards are exchanged between player hands in order to assemble a good hand at the position with the largest wager, or to assemble a jackpot or bonus hand, in some games. The player or players are changing the outcome of the game. Carnival games: a number of different games, including Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride and other Poker variations designed specifically for a casino table games environment, in which the players on the game play only against the dealer. The term includes Big 6 and a few other games that do not fall into the Poker category. These games generally have a higher house advantage than the older, traditional games such as Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and Baccarat. They attract customers because they pay at higher odds than blackjack. Case bet: the player’s last wager from his available funds. Cashier: any of a number of positions in the casino-hotel environment in which the person handles monetary transactions. Cash larceny: a form of asset misappropriation in which cash is stolen from an organization after it has been recorded on the organization’s books and records. It is distinct from skimming. Cash-out: 1. (also called color-out) exchanging quantities of lesser-valued checks for higher-denomination checks. 2. exchanging casino checks for cash at the cage. 3. taking the credits off a slot machine in exchange for coin, a cash voucher or other form of payoff. Cash-out ticket: an instrument of value generated by a gaming machine representing a monetary amount owed to a customer at a specific gaming machine. This investment may be wagered at other gaming machines by depositing the cash-out ticket in the machine bill acceptor. See also TITO; voucher. Casino Surveillance: see Surveillance Catch: 1. to see or receive information which is not generally available to a player, such as the dealer hole card or next card on the deck.  2. To receive a given card or hand which was needed in order to win: catching an ace as the second card to a ten on Blackjack, or the final card to a straight on Poker. Catwalk: the predecessor to casino surveillance by closed-circuit television. Two-way mirrors in the ceiling of the table games areas had walkways built above them so that supervisors, security and early surveillance people could watch the games without being seen to do so. Center field: the playing position near the center of the layout on a gaming table. Chain of command: a series of reporting and reported-to individuals. Information flows upward and orders flow downward through the individuals on the chain. People outside the chain of command may receive reports on an informational basis but may not pass orders to the people at any point of the chain. The chain of command is vital to a Surveillance or Security operation, because it helps to safeguard assets by keeping the observers isolated from orders to observe or not observe particular areas, or to observe something else instead. Chain of custody: in evidence handling, the series of people who have custody of evidence. Each person may be called upon to testify under oath that the evidence has not been tampered with in any way. Change booth: see slots change booth. Change person: employees who carry pouches with cash and (in casinos with coin operated slots) coin, who can make change for players. Often they  also have the ability to cash machine vouchers, and in today’s casino environment, have limited ability to resolve difficulties with machines, such as jammed ticket printers or bill validators. See also floor person. Chasing: bringing more money into the game in order to try and win back money that was lost. Often involves larger and larger wagers, in the hope that the lost money can be quickly won back. Cheat: 1. in Nevada law:  (NRS 465.015) “1. ‘Cheat’ means to alter the elements of chance, method of selection or criteria which determine: (a) The result of a game; (b) The amount or frequency of payment in a game; (c) The value of a wagering instrument; or (d) The value of a wagering credit.” 2. various fraudulent acts by which a player unlawfully wins, or increases the amount won by fraudulent means, either with or without aid from the dealer (see NRS 465.015 through 465.085 attached to the end of this glossary for sample legal definitions) 3. altering any part of the gaming equipment 4. use of a device to calculate odds or aid in making playing decisions. Check: 1. casino tokens in specific denominations and imprinted with the casino logo and other identifiers, used in table games and Poker play. The denominations are normally $1 (whites), $2 (blues), $5 (reds), $25 (greens), $100 (blacks), $500, $1000, $5000 and so on. The colors on high denomination checks vary from casino to casino, but the first four denominations usually conform to these colors. See also chips. 2. in Poker, to make no wager and pass the decision as to whether any wagers will be made to the next player. If all players check, the next card will be dealt. If any player decides to wager, then all players who have “checked” must call the wager in order to remain in the hand. Check change: buying smaller-valued checks with larger valued ones: getting a stack of twenty $5 checks for one $100 check, for example. Checkout sheets: paperwork that provides a form for cashiers to fill in amounts to make a consistent record of the amounts of currency, change and payout records, for beginning and ending shifts. It is an accounting form that must be handled by the person who is checking the cashier out and taking over the bank. Check rack: Also called “float tray” and “bank: the tray in the table in which casino checks are held. Losing wagers go into the tray, and the checks in the tray are used to pay winning wagers. When a player buys in, the checks come from the tray and the money is dropped into a locked drop box. Check racker: in Roulette, an assistant to the dealer whose job it is to sort and stack the chips swept in from the last round of play and stack them according to color. The check racker also prepares payoffs for the dealer, and watches the layout when the ball is dropping. Also called “mucker.” Check-raise: in Poker, a strategic move where a player has passed the betting decision to the next player, and then when the betting decision comes back to him, raises the wager. It is used to raise the amount of the pot and see how confident other players are about staying in the hand. “Checks Play”: a required dealer call-out in most casinos, to inform the supervisor that large wagers are being placed. Cheque(s): see check. Chips: 1. tokens of no specific value which can only be played on the game where they are purchased. Chips are used on Roulette and in Poker for tournament play. 2. Checks. Chip cup: a cheating device made and painted to look like a small stack of low denomination checks. It is hollow and just large enough to go over several larger denomination checks. The cheating dealer collects it from the outside agent player as a lost wager, and places it over larger-valued checks, so that what looks like a small stack of reds in fact hides three or four greens or blacks. It is then given back to the outside agent when he next wins a wager. Class I Gaming: in Indian Gaming law, Class I gaming means social games solely for prizes of minimal value or traditional forms of Indian gaming engaged in by individuals as a part of, or in connection with, tribal ceremonies or celebrations. Class I gaming is regulated solely by the tribe concerned. Class II Gaming: is regulated by the tribe itself, with oversight by the National Indian Gaming Commission, a federal agency. 1. the game of Bingo, whether or not electronic, computer or other technologic aids are used in connection, which is played for prizes, including monetary prizes, with cards bearing numbers or other designations and in which the holder of the card covers such numbers or designations when similarly numbered objects are drawn or electronically determined. The game is won by the first person covering a previously determined arrangement of such numbers. 2.  Card games that are allowed by the laws of the state in which the Indian casino is located. Class II Gaming does not include games in which the casino has a stake. It includes games such as Poker or other games where players are competing with each other, but not where the casino is wagering against the players. Class II Gaming does not include electronic or other facsimiles of any games of chance, or slot machines which do not fit the definitions of electronic aids to bingo. Class III Gaming: is regulated by the tribe, in accordance with a compact between the tribe and the state within which the gaming facilities are located. It includes all forms of gaming not included in the definitions of Class I and Class II. Clean money: refers to chips taken directly out of the checks tray to pay a winning wager. See also dirty money. Clearing hands: exposing the palms of the hands open to the supervisor and cameras, so that it can be seen that there is nothing concealed in them. This is required in casinos, especially of dealers but also including anyone else who handles cash and checks. Clearing hands is normally required after handling cash or checks and before touching the body or taking the hands out of view, before leaving a game or money handling area, and usually also before handling any wagers that are not being collected (as to break down a bet into denominations or stacks to show how much is there). Clicker: a slot cheating device designed to fool the coin-in function of a coin-operated gaming device. It holds a coin on a string, attached to a spring-loaded device which allows the slot cheater to pop the coin up and down multiple times through the coin acceptor, so that one coin is counted many times. Close watch: in Surveillance, observation of an individual, area, activity or department, that is maintained for an established period of time to determine the existence of cheating, theft or procedure violation. See also audit. Coin in: the total amount wagered on a slot machine. It includes actual cash inserted as well as credits won and played back in. Slot machines have a meter that totals the amount wagered per spin; it totals the cumulative amount of coins or credits played. If a player bets $1.25 per spin, and plays 1000 games (about 2 hours), the “coin in” is $1,250.00.  If the player got back $1,125.00, then the machine kept 10 percent of the coin-in. The return percentage is 90 percent and the hold percentage is 10 percent.  Slot departments use a machine’s cumulative coin-in to determine which models of machines receive the most play and which are winning. Coin out: the total amount paid out by a machine, including both cash and credits added during play. Coinless (slot machines): most casinos and manufacturers have now converted all of their slot machines to “coinless,” meaning they neither accept nor pay out in coin. They accept cash in the form of bills to a bill validator unit and pay in the form of a voucher, which can be converted to cash at the cage, slot change booth or kiosk. See also TITO. Coin room: see “Hard count.” Collusion cheating: helping the player to win, either because he is tipping very well or because of a prior conspiracy to defraud the casino. The actions involved are almost infinite in their variety, including giving the player information about concealed cards or cards to be dealt; attempting to help the player place winning wagers or make his wagers win; allowing or aiding in past-post wagers; changing the outcome of the game in the player’s favor; overpays on buy-ins or cash-outs, or when paying off wagers. It is one of many forms of internal theft in the casino. Color change: exchanging small value checks for larger valued checks. Also called “color out.” Come: a wager in Craps made after the come-out roll. It is the same wager as the Pass line wager, except that it applies to numbers that are rolled after the point has been established. Seven and eleven are winners, and two, three and twelve are losers. The Come bet wagers are moved after each throw to the number just rolled. The wager is that that number will roll again before a seven is rolled. Come-out roll: in Craps, there are only two types of roll: the come-out roll, and every other roll. The come-out roll is the first roll of a hand, in which a point is established. Players then wager on whether or not that number will occur again before a seven is rolled. Comp(s) (complimentary): goods and services given at casino expense in order to entice players to stay and spend more money, gamble longer. It can include anything from complimentary drinks—available in many casinos for the asking—to high-ticket meals, shows, concerts, rooms or suites, up to “full RF&B” (room, food and beverage), meaning that the person who receives it gambles so much that the casino will cover all of his expenses in order to keep this player. Comp scams: forms of internal theft or abuse of privilege in which employees who have comp ability (or who have acquired the ability to write comps using someone else’s name) provide themselves and their friends with services and goods at casino expense, or provide them to others in exchange for kickbacks or other favors. Confederate: an accessory, or co-conspirator in a criminal activity. It can refer to an outside agent, or to a person who cashes casino checks that were received as a part of a theft or cheating activity. Continuous shuffling machine: a machine used by some casinos in Blackjack games to shuffle the cards after every round. The dealer inserts the cards dealt from the previous round into the machine, which then mixes them up with the rest of the cards, supposedly at random. Although the Basic Strategist fares better in these games due to the fact that each hand starts out at a count of zero, the card counter and the shuffle tracker can no gain an advantage on the game. The casinos also benefit from the absence of down time associated with regular dealer shuffling. See also Automatic shuffling machine. Cooler deck: a cheating method in which a deck (or more commonly, a full shoe of six or eight decks) has been arranged in a specific sequence, known to the cheating team, and exchanged for the house deck or shoe. With the sequence of all the cards known, the cheating team knows exactly how to bet and play their cards. It has been used on Baccarat and blackjack for devastating losses to the house. It can be and has also been used on various carnival games, Pai Gow Poker, and Poker, in order to give a bonus-paying hand to the cheater. It requires dealer and most often floor supervisor cooperation. Corner bet: a wager in Roulette, covering four numbers. It is placed on the junction (corner) where four numbers meet. It pays eight to one. Corruption: one of the three classifications of internal theft and fraud. In corruption scams, the employee wrongfully uses his or her influence in a business transaction in order to procure some benefit for themselves or another person, contrary to their duty to their employer or the rights of another. Common examples include accepting kickbacks, bribes, and engaging in conflicts of interest such as selling the parent company inventory or supplies through a company owned by the person involved, or a relative or other associate, at inflated prices. In the casino world these scams are often found in areas such as Purchasing and Receiving, Promotions, marketing, and in decision making positions such as Slots top management, Human Resources, Table Games Management, and the top executive structure of the company. Cosmetics: see daub. Cost per play: in slots, a term that describes the amount it costs the player for each round of play. It is calculated by multiplying the amount wagered for each play by the theoretical casino advantage. Example; on a machine with a theoretical 5 percent advantage, if the player is wagering $3 per spin or round, his costs per play is 15 cents. This applies to the long term. Count: 1. the total funds, in cash, checks and paid markers, for a particular game, shift or other period. You can have a count for a date, a game, a pit, or the entire casino. 2. (see card counting) the value of the remaining cards in a Blackjack deck or shoe, expressed as a positive (favorable to the player) or negative (favorable to the house) figure for the purposes of wagering and playing decisions. 3. The action of counting cards in order to take better advantage of favorable decks. Count room: the area in a casino where the table games and slots revenue are taken out of their locked boxes and counted in preparation for adding to the main cage funds. Count rooms now are mainly called Soft Count. Hard Count was the area where coin was handled, weighed, rolled and bagged. As most casinos now no longer handle coins in their slot machines, many casinos have phased out the hard count room. Soft Count is where paper money from table games and other sources is counted, and is now the main or only count room in all casinos. CPU: the computer device on a gaming machine which includes the random number generator which determines the symbols that will appear on each play of the machine, which tracks the number of credits accepted, wagered or won, and the value of a single credit, and thus the value of a payout in terms of the number of credits. See also EPROM Crap out: on craps, rolling a 2,3, or 12 on the come-out roll. All Pass Line wagers lose, though the player may still shoot the dice if he replaces his pass line wager. Craps: also called “dice,” a game played with dice. A variety of bets can be made. All payoffs depend upon the frequency of eleven possible numbers which can be rolled. There are thirty-six possible combinations of the dice, of which the most common possible number to be rolled is seven. 2. the numbers two, three and twelve; if thrown on the come-out roll, Pass line wagers lose. Credit: 1. a term used in the casino just as it is in the regular world of finance. The casino, after verifying that a player pays his debts and can be trusted to do so, will loan money to the player so that he can play. This is a courtesy to players who either prefer not to carry large amounts of cash, or who cannot due to restrictions on crossing borders with a large bankroll. The player is expected to pay back any money he loses. 2. a number stored in a slot machine that signifies the amount of money that was placed in the machine, the number of units bet on each play, and the amount won or lost. A credit on a slot machine normally is valued at one unit for the denomination that machine is being played at: 100 credits is $5 on a nickel machine, and $25 on a quarter machine. 3. the action of removing checks from a table game and returning them to the main casino bank (cage). This is done when there are excess checks on a game, and when the game is to be shut down for any reason, such as being removed, or a new layout placed on the table, or changed to a different style of game. Credit meter: the digital meter on the front of the gaming device that tells the player or observer how many credits, in whatever denomination, are available on the machine for play or to be cashed out. It may be either a physical meter or a section of the video screen. It increases when the player wins, and decreases by increments according to the number of credits the player has chosen to wager on each individual game played. Credit meter blaster: a device for fraudulently increasing the number of credits available for play or cashing out. It accesses the CPU of the gaming device through a radio signal and tells the credit meter to increase its numbers, with no actual win or by increasing any win that has occurred. Such devices can be used on slot machines and possibly change kiosks. Possession of such devices is generally illegal in gaming jurisdictions. Credit slip: paperwork that is used to document a table credit—when checks are removed from a table and returned to the cage. It is an accounting requirement. Crimping: a method of marking cards while the game is in progress. The cheater puts a barely-visible crimp in the card by bending over the thumb or fingernail, in various positions in order to show the value of the card. See also card marking. Crossroader: a cheat or hustler, even an advantage player. Someone who is willing to bend or break the rules of the game or the house in order to get an edge. Often they consider themselves professional gamblers. They will take any advantage available to the maximum possible benefit to themselves. This term also includes hustlers and thieves who take advantage of your patrons and guests. Croupier: old-time name for a dealer; it now mainly refers to the dealer on Baccarat who handles the cards. Currency acceptor: see bill validator. Cut: to divide the deck so that the top or front is moved to the bottom or back of the deck. Cut card: a plastic card used to divide the deck, and to signal to the dealer and players that they have reached the end of the cards to be dealt. Daub: a substance that is put lightly on certain cards in various positions to reveal the value of the cards that are marked. A variety of common substances are used, such as lip gloss, hair oil, or various combinations invented and made up by the dauber. Most daubs show up on the cards as a very light shadow or a dull spot. See also card marking. Dead card: a card that has been taken out of play, for any of a number of reasons: inadvertently exposed is the chief reason. Dead hand: when the dealer makes an error on a hand, the players are generally offered the option of calling it a dead hand. Nobody wins or loses,  lost wagers are refunded, and the hand starts over. Dealer: 1. an employee who operates a casino table game, either as a part of a crew (as on Craps and Baccarat) or as an individual (as on blackjack). He runs the game, ensures players follow the rules, makes payoffs to winners and collects losing wagers, and distributes chips to players when they buy in to the game. The term also in many jurisdictions includes the boxman on Craps games. 2. in casino Poker games, the position which receives the last card dealt ande is the last to make a fold/call decision. This position has strategic value, so in casino Poker games it rotates around the table, moving one position to the right with each hand dealt. Decision: 1. the subject of a wager. It is the outcome of an event or series of events governed by specific rules, whether it be the fall of the cards, the spin of a ball, the roll of the dice or the outcome of a sporting event, upon which people wager. If you flip a coin, you have heads or tails, and which way the coin falls is the decision. 2. a playing decision, such as whether to stand or fold, or take more cards. Deck: a standard deck of 52 cards, ace through king, with four suits. Some Poker variation games use one or more jokers, a wild card that can be used in various ways. Dedicated camera: a video camera which, with its recording device, continuously records a particular activity or area. Common areas for dedicated cameras are major progressive slot banks, certain carnival games with high bonuses, cashier areas, count rooms, points of sale, or any other area which is especially vulnerable to theft or other threats. Device: 1. any device to assist in projecting the outcome of the game; in keeping track of the cards played; in analyzing the probability of the occurrence of an event relating to the game; or in analyzing the strategy for playing or betting to be used in the game; illegal in Nevada law and in many other jurisdictions.  2. any device known to have been designed for the purpose of and suitable for opening, entering or affecting the operation of any gambling game, cashless wagering system or drop box, or any electronic or mechanical device connected thereto, or for removing money or other contents, outside of the normal operating tools and keys legitimately in possession of employees or contractors of the gaming establishment. Dice: 1. cubes made from plastics to very close specifications, each side being numbered from one through six by spots representing the number, used in the game of Craps in casinos, and in various other games. ( The singular form of this word is “die.”) 2. the game of Craps. Digital video recorder (DVR): a computer operated device for recording video in any media that can also be played back through a computer, or converted to a format for playback on other modern video equipment. It includes various sizes of hard drives and also equipment for recording video to permanent media such as DVD. Dirty money: losing wagers being collected by the dealer. It is called “dirty” as it is often in mixed denominations, and thus cannot reliably be used to pay winning wagers. Most casinos forbid paying winners with losing wagers—dirty money. It is an easy way for a dealer to overpay an outside agent on the game. Dirty stack: a stack of checks having more than one denomination. See also Barber pole. Discard rack: a plastic tray in which the dealer places cards after the current round of play, or after players have lost the hand. It holds the cards until the next shuffle. The rack is normally red, because this color shows up certain forms of daub that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Distract and grab: a method of stealing from the guests. It can be run solo but is more often done by a team of two or more, especially when the intended victim (target or mark) is known to have a significant amount of money or valuables. One person creates a distraction, such as dropping money on the floor and calling attention of the mark to it. The other steals the purse, wallet, cash, valuable property or machine credits. Very common in crowded casino environments. Don’t Pass: in Craps, a wager that a seven will be thrown before the number established on the come-out roll. The Don’t Pass wager can be decreased or taken down, but it may not be increased. Odds bets can be added to it; on the Don’t Pass, the odds wager pays less than the amount wagered (true odds) according to the number on which the bet is placed. Double deal: sending two cards together rather than a single card. This can be an error on the dealer’s part or a method of cheating, by sending out an extra card that the player can hold out for later use in the game. Double down: in Blackjack, an option of the player to double his bet and receive a single card. It is an advantageous bet in certain circumstances. Double street: a wager in Roulette. It is placed on the junction spot between two rows of numbers on the Roulette layout, and covers six numbers. It pays five to one. See also street Double zero: one of the wagering positions in Roulette. Roulette has a wheel divided into 38 positions, 1 through 36 plus 0 and 00. The two zeros give the casino its edge, because all payoffs are based on 36 for 1, with the two zeros provided two more numbers that can be hit. Down cards: 1. cards dealt face down. 2. cards that have gone off the table surface. Dozens: three wagers than can be placed on Roulette. They cover, respectively, 1-12, 13-24, and 25-36. They pay 2 to 1. All three wagers lose when the ball falls into 0 or 00. Drop: 1. the cash placed in locked boxes on each table game. 1a. the total amount of cash and chips contained in the drop box plus the amount of credit issued at the table. 1b. the total amount of money, cash-out tickets, or coupons contained in the currency acceptor drop boxes on each gaming machine. 2. the total amount of cash taken in for a game or area or casino in a specific time period.  3. the action of removing the locked boxes from table games, Poker, and slot machines for removal to the count room and later adding to the casino revenue. Drop box: the box where the money goes on each table game. It is a locked box which is only accessible with a limited number of keys which are controlled by the cage. Money is pushed into the can by a dealer. It also holds a number of accounting forms. It is removed daily, or sometimes at the end of each shift, and sent to the count room for the cash to be emptied and counted and added to the main bank. Drop cut: a skilled technique used to pay winning wagers. The dealer drops a specific number of checks from a stack held in the hand. Mostly used on Craps and Roulette. Dual rate: a person who is a supervisor part time, and a dealer the rest of the time. It also refers to other areas in which a person supervises only part of the time. Dump (dumping the game): emptying the checks out of the rack. It refers to a dealer who is known or suspected of overpaying and various other cheating moves that cause the checks to go out far faster than normal, resulting in the game losing money very rapidly. Edge: the advantage in favor of the house or the player. 86: to bar a person from entering the property. Also referred to as Trespass. “en prison” rule: in some Roulette games, chiefly in Europe although also occasionally in north and south America, the 0 and 00 do not automatically win outside bets. The player is given the option of surrendering half the wager, or leaving it in place, “en prison,” for the next spin of the wheel. EPROM: “erasable programmable read-only memory.” The computer chip which provides the programming for gaming machines. Even money: 1. any wager which pays the same amount of money as the bet. 2. in Blackjack, most casinos allow a player to ask for “even money” if the player has a blackjack and the dealer is showing an ace. This is the same amount of money exchanged as if the player were to add an “insurance” wager. Evidence: verifiable information, in any form, which establishes the truth in any court proceeding. Evidence can be in the form of testimony, physical evidence, documentation or recordings, or combinations of these, that show exactly what occurred. Expected win: the cost per play multiplied by the number of games played. It gives the casino a way of estimating the amount it should win over any period of time on any type of machine. Exposed card: a card that is accidentally exposed during play that would not normally have been seen by the players. Eye in the sky: Casino surveillance. Face card: king, queen or jack. It can also, in blackjack, refer to the ten, which has the same value as the face cards, or “paints.” False cut: a cheating move that appears to divide the deck and bring the top portion of the deck to the bottom, but does not. False deal: any deal in which any other cards but the correct ones are sent to players or dealer. See also seconds False jackpot: a method of internal theft in which a person with authority creates paperwork (and computer records) for a jackpot that never occurred. It is used to steal funds matching the amount of the fictitious jackpot. A form of fraudulent disbursement. False shuffle: a section, or the entire deck, is left unmixed, with the cards remaining in the same sequence they were picked up from the table. This is a sophisticated cheating move that can cost the casino large sums on a number of different games, including blackjack, Baccarat, and carnival games, or favor a player on Poker. Fill: 1. when a table game runs low on checks, they are replaced from the main cage, with accompanying paperwork for accounting the transfer of money. 2. when slot machines used coin and tokens, it meant that money was being added to the machine. 3. the term is now used loosely to mean adding money to any outlying bank (such as a Poker room or sports book) from the main cage. Fill slip: a required accounting form that shows how many checks in each particular denomination are being transferred to the table, so that the dealer, floor supervisor and security can verify the amount. The fill slip is signed when the checks are counted, and dropped into the table drop box. The Accounting department uses the fill slips and other accounting forms to calculate how much the game won or lost. Finance: the department which is responsible for coordination of all monetary activities within the casino, including enforcement of financial internal controls, count rooms, main casino bank and all satellite bank operations. First base: the number one position on the blackjack table, to the left of the dealer, to which the first card is dealt. Fixed camera: a camera which has no ability to move or look more closely at anything but is fixed on a specific area. These are often used on dedicated shots—such as cage windows, high-payout slots, or specific table games—to prevent the camera being focused on another area at a critical time. See also dedicated camera; PTZ. Flash: exposing the top card on the deck, or the hole card. This gives the player valuable information on how to play his hand. It can be either intentional or accidental, through sloppy dealing procedures or lack of training. When done deliberately, it is cheating. Flat bet: 1. on Craps, the wager made on the Pass line, Come, Don’t Pass or Don’t come, which pays even money. Pass and Come wagers may be increased but not reduced or taken down once a point has been established. Don’t Pass and Don’t Come wagers can be taken down at any time. Each of these wagers may have odds wagers placed with them, up to a limit set by the house, which pay true odds. 2. to restrict a player from varying his wager either up or down. It is a method of discouraging advantage players on Blackjack. 3. not varying the bet, but making the same wager on each round of table games play. Flats: dice which have been illegally modified by shaving one or more sides to alter the odds on certain numbers. Flats are no longer perfect cubes: two sides are larger than the other four. Flea: a low-action player, especially one who expects the maximum in comps for his negligible action. Generally betting low-action slots and table games at minimum bet level. A derogatory term which should never be used on the casino floor where customers might hear. Float: a table games checks tray; an amount loaned by the cage to the specific game for purposes of making change or paying winners. If it empties out it is filled, and if gets too full some gets sent back to the cage. See also rack; fill; credit. Floor person (floorman): 1. the first level of supervisor in the table games area. They are one step up from the dealers. Also called floor supervisor, floor boss, pit boss (not strictly correct), and by dealers, other names not suitable for inclusion in this glossary. 2. In slots, the normally uniformed attendants who make change for players, answer questions about the games and resolve minor difficulties with machines. They have access to the machine coin areas, ticket printers and bill validators, but cannot get into the drop box area or command the computer which runs the machine, though they do have access to machine records through the computer. Flop: in Poker, the first three community cards to be exposed in games such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha. Flush: in Poker and its variations, five cards of the same suit, non-sequential. Fold: in Poker and certain types of carnival games, to opt out of any further wagers and refuse any right to win a portion or all of the pot. Food and Beverage (F&B): the bars and restaurants, which are very vulnerable to internal theft in various forms. Foreign checks: checks from other casinos. They are usually taken as cash, as a courtesy to the player, but only up to a certain value. It is not required of any casino that it accept the checks from another casino. Fraud: all multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise, and which are resorted to by one individual to get an advantage over another by false suggestions or suppression of the truth. It includes all surprise, trick, cunning, or dissembling, and any unfair way, which another is cheated. (Black’s Law Dictionary.) Fraudulent acts: in Nevada law, several forms of fraud practiced on casinos which are defined within the crimes associated with casino operations. See the excerpt at the end of this glossary for the crimes classified in this category. Fraudulent disbursements: a form of asset misappropriation in which the perpetrator causes his organization to disburse funds through some trick or device. Common examples include submitting false invoices or forging company checks. The chief example of this in the world of the casino floor is the false jackpot, in which an apparently legitimate payout is created in the accounting system. Fraudulent statement: one of the three classifications of internal theft and fraud. Fraudulent statements generally involve falsification of an organization’s financial statements. Common examples include under- or over-stating revenues, liabilities or expenses. Front loader: refers to a dealer who buries the hole card from the front, often exposing the card to one or more players in the center of the table, whether accidentally or not. Front money: cash placed on deposit at the cage, from which a player can draw smaller sums in order to play. It is a good way for a person to leave large amounts of cash in a safe place. Full house: in Poker and its variations, three cards of equal value plus a pair. Also called “boat.” Gaff: to alter equipment in order to create an advantage. In dice, it refers to various methods of altering the dice. The word can also refer to marked cards, a Roulette wheel which has been illegally modified, an altered shoe which reveals cards to the players, or some methods of cheating slot machines. Gaming Regulation: in both state and tribal jurisdictions, the regulatory agency which oversees gaming operations in casinos for compliance with regulations and laws and internal controls. George: a player who tips very well. Going south: 1. slang term for theft. A person hiding checks or cash in his or her clothing is said to be “going south with” it. 2. loosely, it also refers to a player who pockets checks out of his bankroll on the table in order to conceal the amount he is winning. It is a common indicator for cheaters, outside agents and some kinds of advantage players, who know that they will attract attention if they appear to be winning too much too fast. Green: 1. $25 casino gaming checks. Green action refers to players who rarely venture beyond the $100 betting level, betting at most $200.   2. inexperienced. It refers to an inexperienced dealer, supervisor or other employee, and is one of the more polite terms. See also break-in. Griffin Investigations: an investigatory firm hired by many casinos to identify and track cheats. They also identify and track advantage players, as well as perform other investigative tasks for their clients. Grind: the small cash and wagers, usually referring to $5-100 action on table games and low denomination slots play. Grind joint: a casino where almost all, or all of the action, is low level, with low betting limits. Gross revenue: the total win for the casino operation. It is calculated by subtracting all gaming losses from the total amount taken in, prior to any adjustments pertaining to other operating expenses. Group I, II: in Nevada law, licensed and regulated casinos are divided into two groups for purposes of deciding which level of internal controls and taxation the casino falls into. For current figures, and the actual law involved, see Nevada Gaming Regulations, Regulation 6: Accounting Regulations. Group I: casinos having gross revenue over $5 million dollars annually (the actual amount is adjusted annually according to an economic formula, but falls into the $5 million range). Group II: casinos having gross revenue less than $5 million annually. Hand: 1. the cards dealt to a specific player, or to the dealer.  2. a round of play, in Poker and casino table games. Handle: the total amount wagered on a game, whether a table game or slot machine, over a period of time. It vry specifically does include money won by the player and wagered back on to the game. Hand pay: a slot machine win which is paid out by an employee, rather than by the machine. This is normally for a jackpot above a low but taxable figure, or for progressive jackpots which are rounded up to the nearest dollar. Hands per hour: the number of decisions made on a casino table game in an hour of play. It is a means of measuring the speed of the game, in order to be able to evaluate dealer and game efficiency, and to be able to point up those people who need additional training, so as to increase revenue by faster activity on the games. Various systems are in use for measuring this. Hard: 1. refers to coin, as in “hard count.”  2. in Blackjack, refers to a hand which does not contain an ace, and has only one possible value. See also soft. Hard count: the room in a casino where coins from slot machine drop buckets are weighed or counted, rolled and bagged for return to circulation on the slots floor. With the general conversion to coinless slot machines, most casino hard count rooms have been phased out. The income from slot machines now is counted in soft count, where the bill validator cans are emptied and the revenue is processed. Hard ways: bets in Craps on the pairs: deuce-deuce, three-three, four-four and five-five. These bets pay at eight to one or ten to one when the pairs are rolled, and lose when the “easy ways” roll: the same amount in a non-pair combination. They also all lose when a seven is rolled. So, a hard eight bet stays up until four-four rolls, when it is paid eight to one, and it loses when any other combination totaling eight or seven is rolled. Heads up: playing one-on-one with the dealer. This is favorable for many kinds of advantage play, and necessary for some forms of cheating. Heat: minor forms of harassment practiced by casinos when they suspect a player may be an advantage player. It can range from very mild forms—such as one or more pit bosses intently watching a player—to more overt forms, such as paging the player by name on the PA system. High hand jackpot: an amount won in some Poker rooms for achieving a high hand, such as a four of a kind or straight flush. It is funded in fact by the players, as Poker rooms that do this rake a dollar out of every pot that goes to the jackpot fund. High-low count: one of the simplest systems for card counting in Blackjack. Face cards, tens and aces are counted as minus one and 2-6 are counted as plus one, as they are dealt. This gives the counter a method of tracking whether the advantage on the remaining cards to be dealt lies with the house (negative deck, with many high cards already dealt) or with the player (positive deck, with many high cards yet to be dealt). It gives a numerical proportion of how much advantage either side has. Though many more complex systems of counting exist, the high-low system can detect any of them, in use by Surveillance or Pit supervisors. High roller: a premium player, who is known to wager large amounts. Contrasted to “grind.” Hit: in Blackjack, to request another card, or the card so dealt. Hit card: in Blackjack, the top card on the deck, the next card to be dealt. See also top card. Hit frequency: a numerical representation of the percentage of plays that a machine will pay out. A machine programmed with a hit frequency of 20 percent will hit a winning combination approximately one play out of five, over the long term. The short term will vary wildly, perhaps hitting once of out ten or twenty, and then hitting several times in a row. Hold, or hold percentage: 1. a figure representing the percentage won on a gambling game. It is calculated by dividing the amount of money won by the amount taken in (in the tables games drop box or bill validator can). It can be applied to a single game, a group of games, a time period, or the entire casino. It can be a positive figure (the casino won) or a negative figure (the casino lost). Also referred to as “PC.” It is a key indicator for casinos, and can be used to find where crooked activity is taking place. A low hold, by comparison to benchmark figures, shows that something may be wrong. A suddenly dropping hold, a declining or continuously low hold, and a hold which drops at specific times are all indicators of different possible problems.  2. in Slots, the percentage of coins played that is  kept by the casino. It is the opposite of return percentage. A machine with a 98 percent return has a hold of 2 percent.  For every 100 dollars played into the machine, on average, 98 dollars is returned to the player and two dollars is kept by the casino as a long term percentage. Over the short term, the win and return  percentages can deviate greatly from the long term percentage Hold’em: a form of Poker in which each player is dealt two cards, and there are five community cards which the players can combine with their own hand to create a Poker hand. Hole card: 1. in Blackjack, the dealer’s second card, dealt face down and concealed from the players. 2. in Poker, the cards held by each player and concealed from the others. The hole cards determine which player will win, and are the actual subjects of all wagers. 3. in many variations of Poker played as casino table games, the face-down cards dealt to the dealer position, which may be either community cards or the dealer's hand, depending on the game. Hole-card play: 1. a form of advantage play in which the player takes advantage of the inadvertently exposed hole card of the dealer. The dealer’s sloppy procedure and/or lack of training results in the hole card being flashed to the player either as the card is buried, as it comes out of the shoe or when the dealer checks under an ace or ten-value top card for blackjack. If the hole card is exposed accidentally or by the actions of an unskilled dealer, this is not considered to be cheating in most jurisdictions. 2. a form of cheating in which the dealer deliberately tips off the hole card to the player, either through deliberately flashing it or by signaling to the player after checking under an ace or ten (on blackjack). Host (casino host): an employee who provides a personal point of communication to premium players. His job is to bring in and retain players. His tools include the authority to provide complimentary services, and personally overseeing such activities as casino credit applications and how the player is treated in the casino. Hotel: the area of the casino/hotel enterprise concerned with hotel operations. Front desk, where people pay for their rooms, is vulnerable to various forms of internal theft. The hotel cleaning and preparation staff are potential thieves from guests, as well as from hotel stocks of supplies. And the environment itself is a risk area for external theft from both the casino and its guests, both internal and external. See also Food and Beverage; table games; slots; cage. House: the casino; also called “joint.” House dealer: a dealer who genuinely wants to win for the house, and actively tries to do so. House way: in Pai Gow  and Pai Gow Poker, the specific rules by which the dealer must handle the house hand. The house way varies slightly between casinos, according to how aggressively the house wants to play. House way is arranged so that the casino will have a majority of hands as pushes. Hustle: verbally or otherwise encouraging a player to tip, or suggesting that a tip is an expected exchange for good service, or that a tip will give the player some kind of advantage. Hustling is normally heavily discouraged or forbidden in modern casinos. Hustler: a gambling cheat or con artist. IGRA: the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1989, which legally enabled Indian nations to run casinos on their reservations, and which also created the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal agency for coordinating regulation of Indian gaming between various state jurisdictions. Impressed bank: a specified amount of money loaned from the main cage to an outlying area. It is the starting funds for the satellite bank. It is counted at the beginning of the shift, and the exact amount of money must be in it or accounted for by correct paperwork at the end of the shift. Example: a slots change bank has $150,000 in various denominations of cash at the beginning of the shift. At the end of the shift, there must be $150,000, including cash plus accounting forms for anything paid out of the bank: jackpots, payoff vouchers and other paperwork. Other such banks would be Poker room bank, Poker tables, bartender change funds, sports book, and the individual drawers for each cashier in the cage. Shortages and overages in impressed banks are indicators of possible internal theft. Inside bets: in Roulette, wagers that are placed covering combinations including from one to six numbers. See straight up; split; basket; corner; street; double street; top line. See also outside bets. Inside straight: in Poker, a four-card straight which is missing any one of the inside cards, such as a hand of 7-6-5-3, or A-K-J-10. Staying in the game on such a hand is a very risky proposition, as only four cards of 52 (13 to one odds) can make the hand. Insurance: a side bet in Blackjack. When the dealer’s top card is an ace, the players are given an opportunity to bet that the dealer has a Blackjack—ten in the hole. It pays 2 to one, and can be made up to half the amount of the player’s original wager. If the dealer has a blackjack, the amount of payoff equals twice the insurance bet, thus canceling out the player’s loss. If the player has a blackjack and the dealer is showing an ace, the player is usually given the opportunity to take even money (rather than 3 to 2) on his blackjack hand. This is the same as “buying insurance.” Insurance wagers lose if the dealer has no blackjack, and then the hand is played out normally. Internal Audits: a department and function within a casino corporation which performs objective evaluation of all areas examined. Internal Audits sends its reports to management but is not under the control of the managing body: they cannot be told by any member of management either to look at or ignore any specific areas. Its reports go to top management, and may or may not be shared with other investigatory departments such as Surveillance or Gaming Regulation. Internal control(s): actions which must by law be taken for any and all transactions involving casino assets. Internal controls generally require the accountable presence of two or more people, often from two or more departments, in any monetary transaction, from opening a slot machine to remove the drop box, to filling a machine or table with more money, to counting and verifying funds. Internal controls have as their general purpose the prevention of theft by requiring two or more people to account for any money or negotiable instrument that moves from one position in the casino to another, or changes custody. Internal theft: we are using the term internal theft to cover all of the forms of occupational fraud that can occur within a casino or other organization. Occupational fraud is defined by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners as “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets.” (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2004 Report to the Nation) See also asset misappropriation; corruption; fraudulent statement. IT: short for “Information Technology,” the department responsible for coordination of all computer activity within the casino-hotel enterprise. Jackpot: a major win. Specifically, the top amount paid on a specific machine, bank of machines, or inter-casino linked progressive machines. It is normally hand-paid by employees when the figure reaches a taxable amount. Jackpot rake: in Poker, many casinos offer payouts for specific high hands, or when one high hand is beaten by an even better one. This payout is supported by the players. The house takes a rake out of every pot which is set aside to pay when one of the jackpots hits. See bad beat; high hand jackpot. Joker: a wild card which can be used to substitute for any desired card in the deck. In Pai Gow Poker, it can be used to represent an Ace or any card to build a straight or flush. Juice: 1. another word for the commission on certain bets on Craps, and on winning hands on Pai Gow, Pai Gow Poker and the Banker bet on Baccarat. It is normally 5 percent. See also vigorish (vig).  2. influence with a person in a decision-making position. Knowing the right people, to one’s advantage. Kelly progression: in card counting, a skilled counter will increase his wager one unit in relation to each point of the true count when it is positive. Thus, at plus-one, the skilled counter will be betting two units. Some systems and players begin increasing at a plus-two count, but the progression remains the same. The wager reflects the relative advantage the player has over the house. Keno: a lottery game. Twenty numbers are selected from a possible eighty, either by a device containing eighty numbered balls, or by a random-number generator in a computer. Players wager by marking which numbers they think will be selected on the next round of play on a ticket, and are paid in proportion to the number of correct selections and the amount of their wagers. Key card location: a form of advantage play in which the player tracks one or more cards identified during the play, shuffle or cut procedure, and plays with the advantage gained by knowledge of this card. It is a method of exploiting a weakness in dealer procedure. Kickstand: a device used on coin operated gaming devices to hold open the output device so that more coins would be disbursed than would legitimately have been paid out. It is made from heavy-duty steel wire, and must be tailored to the individual machine type. Kiosk: a computer operated device, housed in a cabinet on the casino floor, which reads and converts slot machine cash-out vouchers to cash. They often also provide change for large bills. The bills or vouchers are passed in through a bill validator, which reads and verifies that the bill or ticket is real and that the voucher was in fact printed by one of the casino’s own slot machines and that it has not already been redeemed. It validates vouchers by consulting a computer data base of vouchers created and cashed. The kiosk has an impressed fund of $100, $20, $5 and $1 bills, as well as change. For accounting purposes, the kiosk operates exactly the same as a cage cash drawer or slot change booth. They are generally emptied and refilled on a daily basis. They are less vulnerable to internal theft than a cash drawer. They can be scammed with devices that are created to fool the bill validator. Laced (or interlaced): the cards after being riffled are pushed together only partway, in order to show the supervisor and camera that they have in fact been riffled together and mixed. Lammer: a small chip, having a number but no value, used by casino personnel to mark a value or amount. Lammers are used to show that a specific amount has been issued to a player on a marker, to show the value of non-value Roulette chips, that a fill is being put on a game, and to tally the amount of money dropped on a table, as well as a multitude of other uses. Lammers are only tally markers showing an amount and cannot be cashed. Large: the part of the table games drop which comes in, in large-denomination ($100) bills. Or, $100 bills (“Five large” would be $500.). Compare to grind. Lay bet: in Craps, wagering that a seven will roll before the number wagered on. A player can “lay odds” on his flat bet on Don’t Pass or Don’t Come, or he can “lay against” a number at true odds. The house charges a 5 percent commission (vig) on the amount the player can win on this wager. Layout: the surface of the gaming table, usually a felt cloth with betting areas printed on it, as well as information about the game. Licensee: the owner of the gaming license for the casino, whether this is a person or a corporate entity. (For Nevada levels of nonrestricted license, see group I, II) Limit: minimum and maximum bets on a table. Linked progressive: slot machines that are linked together, as in a progressive bank where any of the machines will pay the same amount when a specific jackpot is hit, or an inter-casino link that may cover many machines all over a state, or even internationally. All of the linked machines share the same progressive meter. Live card: a card that has not yet been put into play. Locator: a card in a deck that has been marked to indicate the beginning of a particular clump of cards. Used in false shuffle/false cut cheating. Loose machine: one that returns more to the players over the long term. A “loose machine” can also be affected by volume of play. See also hold percentage; tight machine. Low-ball: a form of Poker in which the pot is won by the player with the lowest hand on the table. In this game, straights and flushes are disregarded, and the lowest possible hand is A-2-3-4-5.  Some forms of Poker have variations in which the pot is split between the lowest hand and the highest, according to specific rules. Mark: a victim or intended target of any con game or of a pickpocket or theft team. Marker: a credit instrument. The player is drawing against credit previously arranged with the casino, or against front money placed on deposit with the cage. He asks for a “marker” in a specific amount, and is issued chips in this amount. He then signs a check made out to the cage, on casino accounting forms, for the amount he has been issued. The marker can be paid back at the table from winnings, in which case the player is given back the original check. Or if he cannot or does not wish to pay it at the table, he must then pay it back to the casino cage. The marker slip, if not paid at the table, is placed in the drop box and forwarded to the cage with the cash and other accounting paperwork at the end of the day. Marker play: to gamble using funds issued on credit or against funds placed on deposit at the cage. Mechanic: a person who is very skilled at manipulating cards through shuffles and sleight-of-hand moves. MICS: Minimum Internal Control Standards: those rules set up by a regulatory body, designed to safeguard the revenue of all financial operations, which must be met, as a minimum, in order for the operation to maintain its gaming license. Mini-light: a device designed to fool coin-operated gaming machines at the payout end. Many machines used an optical coin counter to regulate the number of coin paid out during a cash-out; it operated by counting the number of times a coin interrupted a light beam. This type of device was designed to be inserted into the machine and throw a strong light at the receiving end of the coin counter, so that coins did not interrupt the light at the receiving end, and thus were not counted. Many more coins could thus be disbursed to the slot cheater. Misdeal: a faulty deal in which cards are missing, too many cards are sent, or cards are dealt out of sequence. It normally results in a dead hand and a new deal. On Baccarat, it can result in a new shuffle of the cards. Money man: a big-money player, a member of an advantage play team who is signaled in to the game. It is one method that advantage players use to disguise card counting and shuffle tracking activity. The money man or “big player” often acts as if drunk or crazy, but in fact simply plays according to the signals from the actual card counter stationed on the game. Money management: 1. the skill a player exhibits in managing his bankroll for loss reduction and maximizing win. 2. any of a number of wagering systems which attempt to increase wins and manage losses. These systems include progression wagers, either increasing the bet when one is winning or increasing when one has lost, according to mathematical formulas. “Money plays”: a dealer call-out that cash wagers have been placed. It requires a floor supervisor approval for the dealer to begin sending cards. Many casinos now forbid this practice because of federal regulations on large amounts of cash, causing difficulties in accounting. Motion activated dedicated camera: a video camera and recording device that only records when there is motion within the area of the camera field of view, or when some other specified action takes place, such as the opening of a door. Muck: 1. (a cheating maneuver) to conceal cards and remove them from the game surface, out of view. This can be done in order to hold the card out for later use or to switch it with a card similarly mucked off by another person, in order to build a very good hand in one particular position. See also card switch. 2. in Poker, the cards which have been sent in by players who have folded their hands.  3. to sort out and stack the chips at a Roulette game, after each spin. Mucker: see check-racker Multipliers: Machines on which the number of coins played multiplies the winning payoffs. See also buy-a-pay; buy-a-line. Nail: to catch individuals cheating or stealing Nailing: a cheating technique for marking cards by putting a dent in the card with a sharpened fingernail, or a device such as a pin or clip. Natural: 1. on Blackjack, a face card and ace dealt as the original cards on a hand. It totals twenty-one, and is also called a blackjack. 2. on Craps, a seven or eleven thrown on the come-out roll. 3. on Baccarat, a total of eight or nine as the first two cards to either the Player or Banker hand. Nickels: slang for $5 casino checks (reds). NIGA: the National Indian Gaming Association, an organized association of tribal gaming operations. The NIGA has several regional divisions, and is responsible for helping to devise internal control standards for Indian casinos. NIGC: the National Indian Gaming Commission, a federal institution created by the Indian Gaming Control Act of 1989, which is responsible for federal regulation of Indian gaming. No hole card: Blackjack games in which the dealer’s second card is not dealt until all player decisions have been made. It prevents “hole card play” either as advantage play or as cheating. The rules of the games vary as to whether players who make additional wagers (such as double down or split wagers) lose if the dealer ends up with a Blackjack. These games are common in Europe but rare in the United States. Non-restricted license: 1. in Nevada gaming law, a license which allows the owner to provide any games allowed within Nevada law, provided the casino follows the applicable laws and minimum internal control standards. It also refers to licensees having more than a specified number of gaming machines. For classifications of the different groups of Nevada licensees, see group I, II Non-value chips: roulette chips that have no specific value until assigned by the dealer according to color when the player buys in on the game. Chips are normally valued at table minimum, but can be assigned a higher value at player request. The chips are marked on the wheel rim with a lammer that tells the value of a stack of twenty: 100 for $5 chips, etc. Non-value chip scam: a Roulette cheat in which the scamming player buys non-value chips at minimum value and conceals one or more stacks of chips or passes them to a confederate. Later, the person or a confederate returns to the game and attempts to buy the same color chips at a higher value, after which he will cash in all of the chips including those stolen earlier. Nudge: a Slots  term describing a machine which features jackpot symbols which will pop into a winning payline position after the initial stop of the reels. The most common type of “nudge” machine is the “Double Diamond,” in which the reels will pop up or down according to the position of the “diamond” symbols showing when the machine stops. Nuts: in Poker, the best possible hole cards to combine with the community cards. For instance, if the community cards were K-Q-J-10-7, the “nuts” would be any ace. If the community cards included two aces, the nuts would be the other two aces. Odds: the ratio between the number of ways that a wager can win or lose. For example, in Roulette there are 38 numbers. A wager placed on a single number has 37 ways to lose and one way to win. Payoff odds are often less than true odds. In Roulette, the true odds are 37 to 1; payoffs are all based on 36 for 1, which is how the house makes its money on the game over the long term. In Big 6, payoffs are based on 40 to 1, though the true odds are 56 to 1. True odds are paid on Craps odds bets. The house makes its money from the fact that the Pass line and Come flat bets pay even money and can be lost on the come out roll. Odds are expressed in two ways: “for” and “to.” A wager that pays 35 “to” 1 is the same as a wager that pays 36 “for” 1. The difference is that when expressed as a “for” amount, the payoff includes the amount of the original wager, which remains on the table unless taken down by the player. Omaha: a form of Hold’em Poker in which each player is dealt three cards, and all players share five community cards, using two of their own cards and three of the community cards to make their Poker hand. Opportunist: an undesirable person on the casino floor who takes opportunities to steal from the guests of the casino or from the casino itself. This is different from the person who is there to create his own opportunities for theft, such as the distract-and-grab thief or pickpocket. Outside bets: in Roulette, wagers that cover either 12 or 18 numbers, and cannot include the 0 or 00. The outside line wagers red/black, even/odd and first-18/last-18 each cover 18 numbers and pay even money. The dozens and column wagers each cover 12 numbers and pay 2 to 1. All of these wagers lose when either the 0 or 00 hit, except in a few locations where the casino allows the “en prison” rule for the even money, 18-number bets. Paddle: the device used to push cash and accounting paperwork into the drop box. Pai Gow: also referred to as Pai Gow Tiles, in order to distinguish it from Pai Gow Poker. A game using a set of special dominoes which are set according a pairs, the numbers one through nine, or by a specific set of rankings. The players (and banker, usually the dealer hand) set their hands of four tiles in the highest average they can according to ranks of the tiles, pairs and other criteria. The house hand must be set in a specific manner, called the House Way. Pai Gow Poker: a Poker variation in which the players play only against the banker, either the dealer acting as house banker or a player who has opted to be the banker for one hand. Each hand is dealt seven cards, from which the player assembles a high (best) poker hand, and a second-highest or “low” hand. The house is required to set its own hand in a particular manner (house way). The banker’s hand normally wins in the event of "copies" (equal-value cards). For a player to win the wager, both high and low hands must beat the dealer. A majority of hands are pushes. The house takes a 5 percent commission on every winning hand. This commission, and the fact that the dealer wins ties on individual high or low hands, gives the house its advantage on the game. Paint: face cards (jacks, queens and kings). Painter: a cheat who daubs the cards during play. He may not be the person who plays with benefit of knowledge from his markings. See also “daub.” Pair splitting: see split Par: the house advantage on slot machines; sometimes also used to refer to the hold on table games. It means the percentage of each dollar wagered that is won by the casino. It can be very precisely calculated on slots over a large amount of play, but is less accurate when a short period is considered. For instance, in the week that a large inter-casino linked jackpot is hit, the par will be in the negative range, but over the course of a full year it will be very accurate. Parlay: 1. to combine winnings and the original wager to make a larger wager. 2. in sports wagering, a parlay combines the partial winnings from the first of a series of wagers to make a larger wager on the following parts of the series. This gives potentially very large winnings from a relatively small bet, but a majority of the series of wagers must win for there to be any payoff. Pass line: in Craps, a wager that the point established on the come-out roll will come up again before a seven is rolled. The wager can be increased but it cannot be taken down once the point has been established. The Pass line bet itself, called a flat bet, pays even money. Players may place odds bets, which pay at true odds. Past-post: a form of cheating in which wagers are placed, increased or decreased after information has been received regarding the decision on which the wager was placed. Examples: on Blackjack, the player is dealt a sixteen and the dealer is showing an ace: the cheater reduces his wager. On Roulette, when the ball drops and shows the number, the player places a wager on the correct column bet or removes or reduces his wager on the even-money bets. Past-post can be done on any casino table game, and with help from employees, also on race and sports wagers and even on keno, bingo and slot machines. Pat (hand): in Blackjack, a hand which does not require a hit (seventeen or more for the dealer). In Poker games, a hand on which the player is staying in the game and does not require a draw (draw-Poker forms). Payline: a Slots term referring to the line of symbols which will pay when activated and when specific symbols stop on that line. Older slot machines had only the center line as a paying line. Newer machines often have many lines which can pay, depending upon the number of credits in play. Payoff: the amount of cash or checks paid to a player on a winning wager. Payout schedule: information posted or distributed by the casino that lists the possible winning combinations or decisions on a game, together with the amount that is paid for each combination. Such a schedule is available for each slot machine, either on the machine face or as a special screen accessible to the players. Payoff schedules are generally posted on games where the payoffs are not considered “common knowledge” or where they may vary between casinos. They are common in Keno and Bingo areas and are usually posted in race and sports books. Pay table: see payout schedule. PC: see Hold. Penetration: the depth to which the cards are dealt on a Blackjack game. It refers to the proportion of the deck that is dealt before reaching the cut card. Greater penetration increases the advantage of card counters. However, greater penetration also aids the casino by allowing a larger number of hands dealt per hour by cutting down the time spent shuffling; this increases revenue by proportion. Pick up a marker: pay off a marker at the table where it was issued. Pinch: to remove money from a wager after information is received regarding the gaming decision on which the wager is placed. A form of past-post, this is considered cheating. Pip: the corner spot that shows the denomination and suit of the cards. Pit: 1. a group of table games in a specified area. 2. the personnel and department of the casino concerned with table games. Pit boss: the supervisor of the pit. Originally it meant the top person in that pit, who might have two or more floormen under him. Today it generally can mean anyone from dual rate up to someone supervising two or more pits (pit manager). Pit critter: slang for any of the “suits” in the table games area, from floor supervisors up to the casino shift manager. Pit clerk: a person who is responsible for handling paperwork in the casino pit to free up supervisors to watch the games. The pit clerk sends fill and credit requests to the cage, posts player rating information in the player tracking computer, posts marker information and handles other duties. Player club: casinos now maintain a data base of players, for promotional and player tracking purposes. The player’s action within the casino is tracked in slots and table games areas, and the player earns “points.” The amount of points earned in any period is used to calculate the amount of comps and other promotional benefits he may receive. Pocket: in Poker, the term used for the cards the player has in the hole, concealed. Point: in Craps, any of the numbers 4,5,6,8,9,10 which is thrown on the come-out roll. Players are betting whether or not the point will roll again before a seven is rolled. Poker: a game in which the casino itself has no stake. The casino makes its money from this game either by charging an hourly fee to the players or by taking a rake in the amount of 5 or 10 percent from each pot. There are many forms of Poker, including Texas Hold’em (currently the most popular Poker game worldwide), Omaha, Hi-lo (in which the pot is split between highest and lowest hands according to specific rules), Low-ball, Stud Poker (seven-card and five-card), and draw Poker, as well as other variations. Pot: in Poker, the total amount wagered by all players in a given hand. Power of the pen: the ability and authority to write comps, without needing any higher approvals. Preferential shuffle: intentionally shuffling the cards early in order to remove any possible advantage which may have been gained by the players. It is used to discourage card counters and to eliminate their playing advantage. Press: to increase a wager. 1. it can be a legitimate move, in which the wager is increased after a win and after the payoff, in preparation for the next gaming decision. 2. (see also cap)   a cheating move in which the bet is increased after information is received regarding the gaming decision on which the wager was placed, in order to receive a larger payoff. A form of past-post. Very technically, this means to add larger-denomination checks to the bottom of the wager. Procedure(s): a series of actions which must be taken for any casino transaction involving cash or other assets. The procedures may include specific signatures and positions which must be present, such as when a table fill or jackpot is handled, or may be as simple as the requirement that a dealer “clear hands” before touching his body. Procedures help to safeguard the casino from cheating and theft, both internal and external. See also internal controls. Progression: betting systems in which the player increases his wager after each win. A “losing progression” player increases his wager after each loss, attempting to chase a wager until it is won back. “Win progression” players add to the wager from winnings and then reduce to a minimum after a loss. Progressive slot machine: a machine or group of machines which has a payoff amount that continues to increase with all play until it either reaches a ceiling figure or is won. At that point the progressive amount starts over from a base figure. The machine (or group) takes a percentage of the amount played and adds it to the progressive figure with each round of play. Proposition bets: 1. in Craps, wagers that are only good for one throw of the dice. They either win or lose each time the dice are thrown. They are all in the center of the table and are handled by the stickman, and paid at his direction by the base dealers. Proposition player (prop): 1. (Poker) a person paid a fixed sum by a gaming operation for the specific purpose of playing in a card game. A proposition player uses his own funds to make wagers, retains his winnings and absorbs his own losses. See also shill. 2. often Poker managers or supervisors are allowed to sit in on a game that is losing players, in order to keep the game running longer. They also must use their own funds, and generally must follow specific rules as to call or raise. PTZ: a video camera with capability to Pan (move from side to side), Tilt (move up and down) and Zoom (focus on a smaller area, thus increasing the relative size of what is being viewed). Pull tab: an electronic aid to a form of lottery game in which the player receives a “tab” or ticket with an arrangement of symbols which have the potential to win a prize. Pull tab games are allowed on reservations which have Bingo games. See also Class II. Push: a tie: both hands have the same value, and there is no winner or loser. On a very few casino games, the house wins on pushes. Pushing off: giving chips to an outside agent or confederate that were not legitimately won. A form of collusion cheating, and a form of internal theft. Quick change “artist”: a con artist who asks for change from a roving change person or cashier, for a large bill, and then through sleight of hand changes one of the bills given for a smaller denomination bill. Or he might ask for a bill that will work in a slot machine in exchange for a mutilated $100 bill, and when given a fresh bill, switches it for a smaller bill and claims an error on the part of the cashier or change person. Rack: 1. the checks tray on a table game, also called the float tray. 2. a plastic tray that holds table games checks or slot tokens. Radio device: a generic term for any of a number of devices designed to fool gaming machines. They communicate with the machine computer through a radio signal. They might tell the machine that a jackpot has just occurred, that more credits should be “run up” on the meter, or that the bill validator has broken. Rainbow: see barber pole. Raise: in Poker, to add an amount to what was wagered by the previous player in the betting sequence. For example, if previous players had wagered $5, the next player has the option to raise the wager by throwing $10 into the pot, and each player must equal that wager to stay in the game. Rake: the fee collected by the house from a Poker pot. In casino Poker, the house has no stake in the game itself, but collects a 5 percent or 10 percent fee on each hand, normally with a maximum figure of $4 or $5 per hand dealt. If all hands fold before the flop, there is no rake. In some Poker rooms, players are charged by the hours played instead of the casino taking a rake from the game. Random number generator: a computer device that generates numbers with no pattern from one to the next. It is used in slot machines to generate the combinations, or possible combinations where players make decisions on the game (such as in video Poker). The number generated determines whether the particular game is a winner or loser, and in what amount. For example, a random number generator determines whether a hand dealt in video Poker will have the potential of being no-win, a pair, a straight, or a royal flush. Random number generators are used in all modern electronic slot machines, including reel machines, video Poker, keno, and all of the video “reel” machines. The generator continuously generates combinations, whether the machine is being played or not. It generates new numbers in milliseconds. Rat-holing: a player removing chips from the table and pocketing them, attempting to conceal the amount of win from supervisors. It is also used to conceal when a player is being overpaid deliberately by the dealer. It is common amongst various types of advantage players as well, to avoid attracting attention to the fact that they are winning consistently. There is nothing illegal about the move: It is simply used as one of the indicators of advantage play and some forms of cheating and collusion theft. Rating: evaluation of a player’s action for the amount wagered over the hours of play, for the purpose of deciding what level of comps he can receive (how desirable a player he is). Red(s): $5 checks. Red action refers to players who rarely venture past the $25 betting level. Relief dealer: the dealer who rotates between, usually, three games, in order that the other three dealers can take a break. Dealers on casino table games normally work one hour and take a twenty-minute break. The relief dealer is usually assigned to three games and works twenty minutes on each. Return percentage: the amount the slot machine returns on average for every dollar played.  An advertised pay 98 percent return means that the machine will return to players 98 dollars for every one hundred dollars played over the long run. This does not mean that the machine will always pay off exactly 98 dollars for every 100 dollars played. Sometimes the machine will pay back more, sometimes less, even nothing. After many hours of play, the return percentage will balance out to 98 percent. Riffle: the point in a shuffle procedure in which the cards are interlaced between two stacks (or groups of two stacks, in a multiple-deck game). Rim play: 1. credit play that does not require a signed marker. It is normally of very short duration and requires that the loaned money be paid back before the player leaves the table. A lammer or duplicate amount of checks is placed to show the floorman and camera how much the player borrowed, the checks are sent to the player by the dealer. The player must pay this amount back to the house with cash or checks before he leaves. Rim markers are normally only extended for known players or those with cash on the table showing they can cover the bet if lost. 2. “Rim credit” means all extensions of credit in exchange for chips not evidenced by the immediate preparation of a written credit instrument. River: in Poker games with community cards such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha, the final community card dealt, after which the final round of betting begins. Rolling (or turning) the deck: on multiple-deck games, when the shuffle process is complete, the stack of shuffled cards is turned on its side to show the supervisor and camera that the cards are interlaced (have in fact been shuffled) and to allow the cut card to be inserted. The dealer calls out “Rolling” to get the supervisor’s attention. Roulette: an old and still popular casino game. A spinning wheel is divided into 38 numbered sections: numbers 1 through 36, plus zero and double-zero. Payoffs are all based on 36 for 1. A few casinos run games where the wheel has only 37 numbers—1 through 36 plus one zero. Round: one full hand for all players on the table, including the dealer decision. See also hand. Round robin: a dealer break system based on four dealers. One of the four is on break, and each dealer works one hour—twenty minutes on each of three tables. This is also the basic system for dealers on Craps, where the dealer starts on the stick and then goes to first base and then third base, then on break. See also relief dealer; rubber band; table assignment. Royal flush: in Poker and its variations, the highest possible hand, A-K-Q-J-10 all in the same suit. Rubber band: a system of changing dealers out for breaks in which a list of dealers on a notepad is marked with a rubber band, so that the next dealers due for a break are changed out on time. The dealers are numbered by fours (one hour on with a twenty-minute break); the rubber band system works even when the number of dealers is odd, everyone getting an equal amount of break time. This system is often used in small casinos or in areas or shifts where the number of tables is reducing through the shift, or remains a small number. Run it down: 1. to cut down the checks to verify the amount. 2. To count down the entire amount in a check rack.  3. count down the shoe or deck to see whether an unknown or suspect player is counting cards. The surveillance investigator counts the cards and checks the player’s wagers and play decisions to see if he is varying his wager and making decisions according to card counting strategy. Running count: in card counting, the number that expresses the number of high cards vs. low cards already dealt. It is not proportional to the amount of cards left to be dealt. See also true count. Satellite: a subsidiary which is secondary and under the authority of the main activity. For example, a “satellite bank” is an amount of money loaned from the cage to another area to provide funds for making change or paying off bets. Satellite Surveillance equipment: Surveillance monitors, recorders, remote selectors (keyboards for selecting and/or controlling cameras), and other ancillary equipment located in any area other than the casino surveillance room and used for casino surveillance. Such equipment must be able to be overridden by the Surveillance Room itself, in most jurisdictions. Seconds (dealing seconds): a cheating move in which the dealer deals the second card (or third or fourth, sometimes) to a particular player. It can and has been used to cheat players, and requires a very skilled dealer: The detection of such a cheat on the part of the casino can result in loss of gaming license. It has been used more recently by dealers to give a particular player the desired cards. It is still cheating in this case, both on the part of the dealer and on the part of the player who is accepting the cards. Security: the department which is concerned with the physical security of the casino assets and its patrons. It includes security officers and supervisors, who do the actual physical handling of situations, and sometimes investigators. They generally accompany movements of money and other assets, handle guest concerns, deal with difficulties caused by guests and employees, and handle the physical security of the perimeter of the casino/hotel environment. They are also generally responsible for liaison with local law enforcement. Security monitor room: some Security departments have a satellite surveillance room which observes and records activities in areas off the actual casino floor, usually including perimeter areas, hotel and the back of the house. In most jurisdictions, the equipment in the Security monitor room must be accessible to and able to be overridden by the regular Surveillance Room staff and equipment. Shapes: dice which have been illegally modified (“gaffed”) in their shape in order to change the odds on certain numbers or groups of numbers. The term refers generally to several methods, including flats, bevels, convex and concave dice. Shill: (applies mostly to Poker rooms in today’s casinos) a player who is employed and funded by the casino to help get a game started or keep it going. People playing with house funds must be controlled in their decisions, only able to call or raise in specific circumstances. Their winnings and losses are absorbed by the house. See also proposition player. Shim: a device for scamming coin-operated gaming machines. It is tailored to the type of machine targeted, and is designed to hold open the coin-payout chute in order to cause the machine to pay out more coins than it should. Shoe: a device for holding multiple decks of cards, used on Blackjack and Baccarat and a few other games. The word also refers to the (multiple) decks contained in the shoe. Short pay: a machine such as a slot machine or change kiosk does not pay out sufficient funds to cover the amount of cash or credit which the player has put in or which the machine is showing. It requires human intervention to correct. Showdown: in Poker, the final action on each hand, following the final round of betting, which determines the winner of the pot. Each player remaining in the game turns his cards up, and the house dealer (in casino Poker games) makes the decision on who has the best hand and wins the pot. Shuffle: a procedure for mixing up the cards before dealing. Shuffle tracking: a form of advantage play on Blackjack in which the player or team tracks a section of the deck known to contain a large group of tens and aces through the shuffle procedure to determine the location of that section, or slug, in order to exploit the advantage to the player of a high proportion of these cards. The system is based on card counting, and requires additional skills. Shuffle up: break the deck and shuffle before reaching the end of what would normally be dealt. Also called “preferential shuffle.” It is a method of cutting the advantage of card counters. Side bet: any wager that can be made on a gaming table in addition to the primary starting wagers. For example, the insurance wager on Blackjack is a side bet. So are such wagers as “royal marriage” and other wagers that are added as bonuses in some Blackjack games and many carnival games. Silver: commonly, one-dollar tokens that can be used at table games and in slot machines. Most slot machines no longer accept coin of any kind, and many casinos have phased out their "silver" tokens for this reason, using one-dollar chips. Silver miner: a person who wanders the slots areas, cashing out credits and picking up abandoned coins left by players on machines. These people will often also steal from players when the opportunity arises, and are considered undesirable by casinos. Single zero Roulette: often called “European Roulette”; the standard Roulette game has 38 numbers, 1 to 36 plus 0 and 00. This game has only one zero, and a reduced house advantage, or edge. Certain wagers pay differently because they cover fewer numbers, and the odds on which wagers are paid are closer to the true odds on the game. Size in: a technique for paying wagers on casino table games. For even money wagers, the dealer breaks down the bet into its various denominations of checks, and cuts in to each stack, brushing a finger across the top to show that the level of checks is even. For wagers paid at greater than even money, the dealer sizes in, as many times as the payoff odds dictates (i.e., three times for a 3-to-1 wager, or three times to two stacks for a 3-to-2 wager like a blackjack). The dealer does not need to know or calculate the actual amount of the bet: he simply cuts the amount to the same height as the amount of the original bet. Skimming: a form of asset misappropriation in which cash is stolen from an organization before it is recorded on the organization’s books and records. This is the common method of internal theft practiced by dealers who hide money before it is added to the drop box, or in various other parts of the casino operation through various means. Slot Change Booth: a satellite casino cage, which has the ability to cash slot machine vouchers and coin, and offers the service of breaking bills for casino patrons. Many change booths have been replaced by kiosks which can perform the same services. Slot cheating devices: a general term for any of a number of devices which are designed to fool either the coin-in or payout function of slot machines. See: clicker; credit meter blaster; kickstand; mini-light; radio device; shim; stringer; zip strip Slots bonus play: some machines have a predictable bonus feature due to the machine showing symbols or other features which can indicate that a bonus round or other feature is about to occur. Some progressive banks also more or less predictably hit during a certain range. The slots bonus player will play the machines only during the period when he or she can predict the bonus round or winning combination will occur. This is not illegal, but promotes problems when the bonus player wants to move regular customers off the machine when the bonus is predicted to hit. Slot win (or payout) percentage: See return percentage. The terms are used interchangeably Slug: 1. the cards not dealt at the end of the deck or shoe.  2. a group of cards that are not mixed or interlaced at the end of the shuffle process. 3. a false token or coin made of base metals, meant to be substituted for a standard token or coin in a coin-operated slot machine. Snapper: in Blackjack, a natural twenty-one, or blackjack. A ten-value card and an ace received as the original two cards dealt. Soft: 1. in Blackjack, refers to a hand containing an ace, which can be valued as one or eleven. Thus, an ace and six are a soft seventeen, meaning it can be seventeen or seven. 2. refers to currency, as in “Soft Count,” as opposed to coin (hard). Soft Count: the room where currency is counted, bundled and prepared for acceptance by the Cage. Sorts: a method of marking cards by exploiting minor variations in color and cut, as they come from the factory. The position of the cut and shade of printing varies between batches, and by sorting through many decks printed at different times, a deck can be assembled which, by the variations in print and cut, can tell the value of each card to the person reading the marked deck. Sorts are one of the reasons that security must be maintained on a casino’s stock of unused cards, and also why decks are “cancelled” (marked as “used” by pen or by cutting or drilling the decks) when they are removed from a game. Spanish 21: a version of Blackjack in which all of the tens (but not face cards) are removed from the deck. It carries a variety of other payoff and play rules which compensate for the house advantage created by removing four ten-value cards from each deck. Splash: a method of showing how many checks are in a short stack. When the dealer is cutting out stacks of checks in order to prove the amount, the last short stack is knocked over (splashed) so that the supervisor and camera can see the number of checks in the short stack. Split: 1. in Blackjack, players have an option of splitting pairs of same-value cards. A second bet, equal to the first, is placed, and the player then plays each card as a separate hand, finishing the first before any cards are issued to the second. Some games allow splits up to three times for identically valued cards, making up to four hands from the original one. Split aces normally receive only one card each. 2. in Roulette, a wager that covers two numbers. It is placed in the center of the line between the two numbers the player is wagering on. It pays 17 to 1. Split pot: in Poker, when a player puts the last of his bankroll in, he can remain in the game, but since he has no stake in any wagers after he goes all in, the pot must be split. All wagers made after the point where a player goes all in would go to a secondary winner, should the all-in player have the winning hand. A pot is also split when the last two players remaining in the game have hands of equal value. Spooking: a method of cheating in which a team sets up with one person away from the table in a position to read the dealer hole card. He then signals to a player at the table. Spotter. the member of a Blackjack advantage play team that identifies a winning opportunity through card counting, and signals in the money man. Spread(ing) the cards: dealing procedures on Blackjack and other casino table games require the dealer to spread the cards so that the center of each card is fully visible, so that a floor supervisor can read the cards from a distance and Surveillance cameras can record the value of a hand. Corner value pips are not readable by cameras, but if the center of every card is exposed, the value can be read from recordings. It normally requires that two-thirds of every card face be exposed in order to verify the value from a recording. Square up (the deck): straighten out the deck so that all cards are neatly aligned. Stake(s): 1. a monetary interest in a gaming decision or game: a wager. 2. the amount wagered in any game. Stand: to hold the cards one has and not take any further cards. See also pat. Steam: bet very high in proportion to previous wagering in order to attempt to recover losses. See also chase. Stickman: in Craps, the dealer who is in charge of watching and moving the dice. He stands in the center of the table across from the table bank, and moves the dice to the shooter with a stick which is bent at the end like a golf club. His job includes placing proposition wagers, collecting losing wagers, handling hardway bets, and directing the base dealers to pay winners on these wagers. He moves the dice to the shooter, and when the dice are out of the center of the table his sole and only job is to keep his eyes on the dice. After the shooter throws, he calls the number rolled and advises the players as to which wagers won or lost, according to the rules of the game. Stiff: 1. in Blackjack, a hand less that seventeen which can be “busted” by a single hit. Any hand from hard twelve to hard sixteen. 2. refers to any dealer upcard of 2 through 6, as in "The dealer was showing a stiff." 3. a person who does not tip, a pejorative term. Stop loss: the point at which a person gets up and leaves because he has reached his limit of how much he is willing to lose, either on the table, in the casino, or overall. It is a part of many money management gambling systems. Straight: in Poker and its variations, five cards in sequence, but not all the same suit. The highest straight is A-K-Q-J-10, and the lowest straight is A-2-3-4-5, except for Pai Gow Poker, in which the A-5 straight is the second highest straight. Straight flush: in Poker and its variations, five cards in sequence, all the same suit. The exception is the Royal Flush, which is specifically A-K-Q-J-10, all in the same suit. Straight up: a wager in Roulette. It is placed on top of the number to be wagered, not contacting any of the lines, and covers only one number. It pays 35 to 1. Street: 1. a wager in Roulette covering three numbers. It is placed on the side of the layout away from the dealer, and covers the three numbers in the row where it is placed. It pays 11 to 1. Stringer: a slot cheating device which is designed to fool the coin-in function of a coin-operated gaming device. It consists of a monofilament (fishing line) string that is glued to a coin, which the person can draw back out through the coin acceptor on the targeted machine. It allows the cheater to have the same coin counted multiple times. Strip: 1. an action during the shuffle procedure that rearranges the order of the cards: small groups are taken off the top (and sometimes alternately the bottom) of the deck, and others then stacked on top.  2. Slang for the area of Las Vegas Boulevard where the majority of the large casinos are located. It begins at Sahara Avenue and includes all of Las Vegas Boulevard south to the area of the Las Vegas airport. Sub: a device or pocket used to transport or store checks that have been stolen from a table game, or cash taken from a drawer. Suit: a supervisor. In many casinos, the supervisory personnel wear business suits. In some cases, such as the lowest level of supervisors in the Pit, the suit may be the only thing that distinguishes the supervisor from the people he is watching. You can generally tell the level of the person in the hierarchy from the quality of the fabric and cut of his or her suit, because increases in pay go with promotions. See also floor person; pit boss. Surrender: in Blackjack, some games permit the player to give up his hand before making any hit-stand decisions, in exchange for retaining half his wager. If permitted to surrender before the dealer checks under tens and aces for blackjack, this is called “early surrender” (rare). Surveillance: 1. generally, observation from a remote location to monitor areas of assets and liabilities, in order to detect vulnerabilities so that they can be reported and handled. 2. a department which has the responsibility of safeguarding the assets and liabilities of the casino through video surveillance and other forms of information gathering in order to prevent and detect cheating, theft and other threats to the casino bottom line. It has a big role to play in ensuring compliance with gaming regulations and internal controls, both those mandated by gaming authorities and those which the casino has established to safeguard the operation. 3. observation of an individual in order to determine whether the person is violating laws, rules or procedures and the other parts of his job functions. See also close watch. Surveillance room: (also called Surveillance Monitor Room) a secure location in a casino from which gaming and cash-handling and other areas can be viewed by closed-circuit television systems. It generally contains a controller device (a computer) for the cameras and recording devices, and is manned 24 hours in larger casinos. It may be an unmanned room in some very small casinos. Surveillance system: a system of video cameras, controlling equipment, monitors,  recording devices and other equipment used to remotely view and record activities. Sweat (the money): openly displaying concern about whether the casino wins or loses money. It is poor customer relations and often results in bad decisions and the loss of good players to other casinos which are not so obviously worried about whether a player wins or loses. Table assignment: another system for dealer breaks. Each dealer is assigned a table or position for the shift. “Relief” dealers move between, usually, a series of three tables, working while the assigned dealer is on break. Table games: games run by a casino in which the casino is betting against the players, including Blackjack, dice games, Roulette, Pai Gow Poker, Baccarat, and various games lumped under the heading of “carnival games.” The casino pays all winning bets and collects all losing bets. It does not include Poker, in which the house has no stake except a percentage of each pot or hourly fee for playing. Table games drop: all of the cash deposited in the drop boxes for a particular date or range of dates. Table stakes: in Poker, the rules generally state that a player may wager only the amount of cash and chips that are on the table at the time the first cards are dealt. Take a shot: an attempt to cheat a game or take advantage of a house error, or to gain more than the actual amount won, by lying about a bet placement or demanding an adjustment because of an error. Tell: 1. an indicator, or physical gesture or other factor, of something. For example, a Blackjack dealer may exhibit tells when knowing that the hole card makes a pat hand, or a Poker player may exhibit certain indicators when he actually has a high hand or is bluffing. For Surveillance people, the “tells” are the indicators that something is not right, such as a dealer flubbing dealing the cards or payoffs, or a player rubbernecking, or any of the other indicators that something is not running at optimum. Theoretical hold: the theoretical percentage that a slot machine should hold provided there is sufficient play. Third base: 1. in Blackjack, the position on the right side of the dealer, the last position on the table. This is an advantageous position for many forms of advantage play, including card counting, hole card play and key card location. It allow the player to see the cards other players are receiving, sometimes the dealer hole card, and enables him sometimes to steer bad cards to the dealer. 2. in Craps, the position to the left of the boxman. Tight machine: one that has a lower percentage compared to other similar denomination machines.  Tight machines return less money to players over the long term, therefore, the casino keeps more. The “tight machine” can also be affected by very low volume of play. Tip: see toke TITO: literally, “ticket-in, ticket-out,” the method for coinless slot machine operation most in use today. Machines accept currency and vouchers from other slot machines, and when a player cashes out, the machine prints a voucher, or ticket, which can be either redeemed for cash by casino personnel or will be accepted as cash by another slot machine. Toke(s): the term for tips in the world of casinos. The word comes from “token,” which used to be the general term for a $1 chip or slot machine coin. Many of the people who work in casinos—dealers, cocktail servers and bartenders, food servers, and often slots employees—actually make the majority of their income from tokes. In today’s casinos, most of the dealers pool their tokes and then split them either by shift or across all three shifts, according to the number of hours worked on the date the tokes were received. Most other casino employees “go for their own,” meaning they get only the tips given specifically to them. Toke committee: the group, normally chosen by the dealers, responsible for counting, recording and equitably dividing up the tips received, so that all the people working get their fair share. They are generally paid a nominal amount by the other employees for the work they do, and to provide some insurance against errors, which they generally have to pay out of their own pockets. Token(s): substitute for coins which are produced for slot machines and table games play, with casino logo and other designs to make them unique to a particular casino and to prevent counterfeiting. Slot tokens include dollar tokens (silver) and have also included specific designs for 2, 5, 10, 25 and 100-dollar denominations. See also “check.” Top card: the next card to be dealt, which is the very top card on the deck or shoe. Knowledge of this card before it is dealt, and use of that knowledge, can be considered cheating, unless it is only by dealer error that the knowledge is obtained. In Blackjack, it is also referred to as the "hit card." Top line: a wager in Roulette that covers five numbers, 0, 00, 1, 2, 3. It is placed on the corner where the top three numbers intersect with the 0 or 00. It pays 6 to 1. It is also the only wager in Roulette which does not pay exactly according to the 36 for 1 odds. (Five $1 wagers placed on these numbers, if one of them hit, would pay 35 chips, and of course leave the winning wager in place for a total of 36. However, a single $5 wager placed on the Top Line would cover the same numbers, but would pay only a total of $35.)  In single-zero Roulette, this wager covers 0, 1, 2, 3, and pays the same as a corner wager, 8 to 1. Tournament: 1. in Poker, a manner of running Poker games that rapidly eliminates all but the last player or two. A poker tournament can begin with no more than one full table, but can include hundreds of players. It has become a very popular form of gaming. 2. In slots, timed play on designated machines that ends up with one or two winners. It is generally a promotional action done in order to get slots players into the casino. Tray: see checks tray Trespass: to give a person warning that he is no longer welcome on the property, is being asked to leave, and if he returns to the property in the future he is subject to arrest. This is used for many situations, from people who are undesirable because of suspicious activity or misconduct, to those who have been arrested for crimes or misdemeanors. It is the right of the property owner, and the right of a tribe on its own sovereign territory. Also called “86.” True count: in card counting, a calculation of the actual advantage, or lack of it, on any multiple deck Blackjack game. The actual count of high cards vs. low cards cannot be used as an indicator of wager size or playing decisions, due to the fact that one can have very high positive or negative counts that do not express the actual proportion of high cards to low cards still remaining to be dealt. The card counter keeps a running count in his head, and calculates the true count after each hand by dividing the running count by the number of decks remaining to be dealt. The true count is used to calculate actual advantage, and thus wager size, and also to make playing decisions regarding hit, stand, double or split. True odds: in Craps, odds wagers can be added to the Pass line and Don’t Pass, Come and Don't Come wagers. These pay true odds: in proportion to the ratio of possible winning and losing decisions on each wager. Turn: in Poker, specifically Texas Hold’em, the card dealt out to the community hand after the second round of betting. There is one more common card dealt after this, called the “river.” Undesirable: a generic term meaning those people that the casino does not want on the premises, for various reasons. Unit: the amount of the bet at which a card counter begins each deck or shoe. He will increase his bet in proportion to a positive count, and may or may not decrease it when the count is in a negative range, depending upon the counting system he is using. Up card: in Blackjack, the exposed card in the dealer hand. Variance: something different from what is expected. When reviewing reports of casino win/loss, slots drop and handle reports, and other financial reports, one looks for variances, and treats variances as places to start an investigation. VCR: video cassette recorder. Technology for recording video from cameras or other sources to magnetic tapes. It has been largely replaced by digital equipment, though a few casinos are still using VCRs. They require changing tapes a minimum of three times daily in order to record at a rate which meets legal requirements in most jurisdictions. Video poker: a slot machine (or electronic aid to Bingo, in Class II Indian gaming) that uses the general rules of the game of Poker to determine whether the player wins or loses. Many variations of video Poker exist. Vig (vigorish): the commission that the casino charges for making or winning certain bets on Craps, Baccarat, Pai Gow and Pai Gow Poker. It is usually 5 percent. It is in fact the only advantage the house has on these wagers, and allows the casino to run the game profitably. Volatility (index): a figure, generally supplied by manufacturers, which describes the expected variation in hold percentage, expected win, hit frequency, and other specifications. The volatility index tells the slots manager whether a set of machines is within specifications over a given period of time, and gives an indication whether the machine is performing correctly or whether there may be something wrong. The volatility index can be used to calculate a range of expected win and hold. If the real-world figures fall too far outside this range, then the machines need to be investigated. Voucher: 1. a slot machine ticket which can be redeemed by casino personnel for cash or will be accepted by another slot machine in the same casino as cash. 2. a comp slip, issued by casino personnel with the authority to do so, allowing a guest to receive a service or goods at casino expense. Wager: (also “bet”) the action of placing money to win or lose depending upon the outcome of a game of chance. Also, the money so placed. Walk the table: the dealer changes position as he handles the players, so that at all times the entire surface of the table, the players’ wagers and all the cards are visible. Walking the table allows the dealer to keep all players in view, without turning his or her back on any part of the game. Wash: 1. in reference to a part of the shuffle process, it means the action of spreading the decks of cards face down on the table and swirling the cards around in order to mix them at random. It prevents key card location and shuffle tracking, as well as false shuffle. It is generally done when new decks are introduced on any game, and is an integral part of the shuffle after every shoe in many casinos on such games as Baccarat and Min-Baccarat, and is also often done on Poker. 2. in finance, the term means that a shortage in one place is cancelled by an overage in another place. It is used to denote that the reason for either a shortage or overage has been located, and there is no further reason for investigation. Weight(s): loaded dice. If you put a small amount of weight inside one side of a die, that side is more likely to end up down when the dice are rolled. Whale: a very high action player. In order to attract “whales,” the casino often offers very high levels of complimentary services, and will even change the rules of the games for certain players to reduce house advantage. Wheel: slang term for Roulette. Wheel head: the actual spinning wheel and its mounting, on a roulette game. It is a circular mount, with a spindle on which a spinning wheel is mounted. The wheel is divided into 38 sections. A ball is spun by hand around the inner rim of the wheel head and when it slows down and falls, it drops into one of the sections of the spinning wheel. Wild: 1. in card games such as Poker or Pai Gow Poker, a card such as the joker that can have any value the player wishes to assign it, according to the rules of the game. 2. in Slots, a symbol on a slot machine that will be valued by the machine as any symbol that will give the player a winning combination. It is often the trademark for the game, and a combination of a wild card on all “reels” or positions is often the top jackpot on the machine. Wild pay: refers to a specific type of machine where there is a chance at double, triple, or even five or ten times the regular payoff for any winning combination when certain “wild” symbols line up on activated paylines. The symbols themselves act as a “wild” symbol, and multiply the payoff when they appear as a part of a winning combination. Win: the net win resulting from any (or all) gaming activities. This is calculated by deducting all gaming losses from all wins, prior to any consideration of associated gaming expenses. Wonging: refers to a method of card counting in which the counter stands back and joins the game with a few large wagers only when the value of the remaining cards is very favorable to the player. The method is named after Stanford Wong, a pen name of the player who devised the system and wrote a book about it. Zero: in Roulette, there are 38 numbers to be wagered on, 1 through 36, plus 0 and 00. (a few games are run by casinos in which there is only one zero.) The wagers which can be placed including 0 are paid the same as any other wagers. However, when either the 0 or 00 are selected by the falling ball, all outside bets lose. Zip strip: a device for fooling the bill validator on a gaming device or change kiosk. Strings or plastic sheets are attached to currency, allowing the cheater to pull the bill back out of the machine after receiving credits or change. See also slot cheating device

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The following definitions of cheating and fraudulent acts pertaining to gaming are quoted directly from Nevada State Law, Nevada Revised Statutes #465.015 through 465.085. They are included here as examples of the definitions of cheating. Each gaming jurisdiction has its own language for the definitions of cheating activity, and every Surveillance and Gaming Regulatory staff member should be very familiar with the definitions which apply in their own jurisdiction. NRS 465.015  Definitions. As used in this chapter: 1.  “Cheat” means to alter the elements of chance, method of selection or criteria which determine: (a) The result of a game; (b) The amount or frequency of payment in a game; (c) The value of a wagering instrument; or (d) The value of a wagering credit. 2.  The words and terms defined in chapter 463 of NRS have the meanings ascribed to them in that chapter. UNLAWFUL ACTS AND EQUIPMENT NRS 465.070  Fraudulent acts. It is unlawful for any person: 1.  To alter or misrepresent the outcome of a game or other event on which wagers have been made after the outcome is made sure but before it is revealed to the players. 2.  To place, increase or decrease a bet or to determine the course of play after acquiring knowledge, not available to all players, of the outcome of the game or any event that affects the outcome of the game or which is the subject of the bet or to aid anyone in acquiring such knowledge for the purpose of placing, increasing or decreasing a bet or determining the course of play contingent upon that event or outcome. 3.  To claim, collect or take, or attempt to claim, collect or take, money or anything of value in or from a gambling game, with intent to defraud, without having made a wager contingent thereon, or to claim, collect or take an amount greater than the amount won. 4.  Knowingly to entice or induce another to go to any place where a gambling game is being conducted or operated in violation of the provisions of this chapter, with the intent that the other person play or participate in that gambling game. 5.  To place or increase a bet after acquiring knowledge of the outcome of the game or other event which is the subject of the bet, including past-posting and pressing bets. 6.  To reduce the amount wagered or cancel the bet after acquiring knowledge of the outcome of the game or other event which is the subject of the bet, including pinching bets. 7.  To manipulate, with the intent to cheat, any component of a gaming device in a manner contrary to the designed and normal operational purpose for the component, including, but not limited to, varying the pull of the handle of a slot machine, with knowledge that the manipulation affects the outcome of the game or with knowledge of any event that affects the outcome of the game. 8.  To offer, promise or give anything of value to anyone for the purpose of influencing the outcome of a race, sporting event, contest or game upon which a wager may be made, or to place, increase or decrease a wager after acquiring knowledge, not available to the general public, that anyone has been offered, promised or given anything of value for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the race, sporting event, contest or game upon which the wager is placed, increased or decreased. 9.  To change or alter the normal outcome of any game played on an interactive gaming system or the way in which the outcome is reported to any participant in the game. NRS 465.075  Use of device for calculating probabilities. It is unlawful for any person at a licensed gaming establishment to use, or possess with the intent to use, any device to assist: 1.  In projecting the outcome of the game; 2.  In keeping track of the cards played; 3.  In analyzing the probability of the occurrence of an event relating to the game; or 4.  In analyzing the strategy for playing or betting to be used in the game, except as permitted by the commission. NRS 465.080  Use of counterfeit, unapproved or unlawful wagering instruments; possession of certain unlawful devices, equipment, products or materials. 1.  It is unlawful for any licensee, employee or other person to use counterfeit chips, counterfeit debit instruments or other counterfeit wagering instruments in a gambling game, associated equipment or a cashless wagering system. 2.  It is unlawful for any person, in playing or using any gambling game, associated equipment or cashless wagering system designed to be played with, receive or be operated by chips, tokens, wagering credits or other wagering instruments approved by the state gaming control board or by lawful coin of the United States of America: (a) Knowingly to use other than chips, tokens, wagering credits or other wagering instruments approved by the state gaming control board or lawful coin, legal tender of the United States of America, or to use coin or tokens not of the same denomination as the coin or tokens intended to be used in that gambling game, associated equipment or cashless wagering system; or (b) To use any device or means to violate the provisions of this chapter. 3.  It is unlawful for any person, not a duly authorized employee of a licensee acting in furtherance of his employment within an establishment, to have on his person or in his possession on or off the premises of any licensed gaming establishment any device intended to be used to violate the provisions of this chapter. 4.  It is unlawful for any person, not a duly authorized employee of a licensee acting in furtherance of his employment within an establishment, to have on his person or in his possession on or off the premises of any licensed gaming establishment any key or device known to have been designed for the purpose of and suitable for opening, entering or affecting the operation of any gambling game, cashless wagering system or drop box, or any electronic or mechanical device connected thereto, or for removing money or other contents therefrom. 5.  It is unlawful for any person to have on his person or in his possession any paraphernalia for manufacturing slugs. As used in this subsection, “paraphernalia for manufacturing slugs” means the equipment, products and materials that are intended for use or designed for use in manufacturing, producing, fabricating, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, storing or concealing a counterfeit facsimile of the chips, tokens, debit instruments or other wagering instruments approved by the state gaming control board or a lawful coin of the United States, the use of which is unlawful pursuant to subsection 2. The term includes, but is not limited to: (a) Lead or lead alloys; (b) Molds, forms or similar equipment capable of producing a likeness of a gaming token or United States coin; (c) Melting pots or other receptacles; (d) Torches; (e) Tongs, trimming tools or other similar equipment; and (f) Equipment which can be reasonably demonstrated to manufacture facsimiles of debit instruments or wagering instruments approved by the state gaming control board. 6.  Possession of more than one of the devices, equipment, products or materials described in this section permits a rebuttable inference that the possessor intended to use them for cheating. NRS 465.083  Cheating. It is unlawful for any person, whether he is an owner or employee of or a player in an establishment, to cheat at any gambling game. NRS 465.085  Unlawful manufacture, sale, distribution, marking, altering or modification of equipment and devices associated with gaming; unlawful instruction. 1.  It is unlawful to manufacture, sell or distribute any cards, chips, dice, game or device which is intended to be used to violate any provision of this chapter. 2.  It is unlawful to mark, alter or otherwise modify any associated equipment or gaming device, as defined in chapter 463 of NRS, in a manner that: (a) Affects the result of a wager by determining win or loss; or (b) Alters the normal criteria of random selection, which affects the operation of a game or which determines the outcome of a game. 3.  It is unlawful for any person to instruct another in cheating or in the use of any device for that purpose, with the knowledge or intent that the information or use so conveyed may be employed to violate any provision of this chapter. NRS 465.088  Penalties for violation of NRS 465.070 to 465.085, inclusive. 1.  A person who violates any provision of NRS 465.070 to 465.085, inclusive, is guilty of a category B felony and shall be punished: (a) For the first offense, by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 6 years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000, or by both fine and imprisonment. (b) For a second or subsequent violation of any of these provisions, by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 6 years, and may be further punished by a fine of not more than $10,000. The court shall not suspend a sentence of imprisonment imposed pursuant to this paragraph, or grant probation to the person convicted. 2.  A person who attempts, or two or more persons who conspire, to violate any provision of NRS 465.070 to 465.085, inclusive, each is guilty of a category B felony and shall be punished by imposing the penalty provided in subsection 1 for the completed crime, whether or not he personally played any gambling game or used any prohibited device.