86’ed – Getting kicked out of a casino. Often for cheating, card counting, or acting like an idiot. Sometimes leads to ending up in the Black Book.
Black Book – Sometimes called the Black List. A list of people who are no longer welcome in a particular casino. Folks who end up in the Black Book are usually confirmed cheats, frequent card counters, or thieves.
Book – Short for Sportsbook. The part of the casino where sports & race bets are made.
Boxcars – Rolling two sixes (12) in craps.
Boxman – The craps table dealer who sits over the drop box and supervises bets and payoffs.
Cage – The part of the casino where chips are exchanged for cash, and vice versa.
Casino boss – The person who oversees the entire casino.
Check – A casino chip.
Comp – Short for free or complimentary.
Coupons – Redeemable for nearly everything from a free meal to a free pull on a slot machine (ask the hotel whether it has a coupon book or what is commonly called – Fun Book).
Dark – A day when no performance of a show is scheduled. Dark on Tuesdays, means there’s no show on Tuesdays.
Drop box – A locked box located on live gambling tables where dealers deposit paper money.
Eye in the Sky – A one-way mirror surveillance in the casino area. Mirrors or dark glass that decorate casino ceilings conceal people assigned to watch the casino action to prevent cheating by players or dealers. There also are cameras behind the one-way mirrors that record action at the gaming tables.
Fish – An inexperienced gambler. Often used to describe newcomers to poker.
George – A big tipper. The opposite of a Stiff.
Grind joint – Casino that caters to low rollers .
Grinder – A low stakes gambler. A low-roller. Opposite of a Whale.
High roller – A customer with the reputation of wagering large sums of money in the casino.
Hit me – To take another card in Blackjack. Usually accompanied by a hand signal.
Hold – The house profit from all the wagers in a casino during a given time period.
House Edge – The built-in mathematical advantage that any given game has over the player.
In red – A comped customer’s name usually appears “in red” on a maitre d’s reservation chart.
Juice – The amount of influence and high placed connections an individual might have in Las Vegas. Who you know, and what they owe you.
Limit – The minimum or maximum bet accepted at a gambling table, established by the house.
Low Roller – A gambler who plays for low stakes, often at the table minimum. A grinder.
Marker – An IOU owed the casino by a gambler allowed by the hotel to play on credit.
Pastposting – A cheating technique that involves increasing or decreasing your bet after the hand/roll/spin has completed.
Pit – The casino employee area behind the table games.
Pit boss – The person who oversees numerous table dealers.
RFB comp – The casino is impressed with a credit rating and has ordered that a customer be given free room, food and beverage (RFB) during a hotel stay.
Shoe – A container from which several decks of cards are dealt on the baccarat and blackjack tables, meaning the dealer slides the cards out of the “shoe”.
Shooter – A gambler who is rolling the dice on a craps table.
Spoon – One device used by slot machine cheaters.
Stickman – The dealer who moves the dice around on a craps table with a hook-shaped stick.
Stiff – A lousy tipper, cheapskate. Opposite of a George.
Toke – Tip or gratuity.
Trop – Short for The Tropicana.
Turkey – A gambler who acts like a jerk.
Twenty-Dollar Trick – The act of handing the check-in person at the desk a $20 dollar bill with your credit card as a tip/bribe to try to get an upgraded room.
Whale – The highest of the high rollers. Gamblers who will risk millions of dollars in single gaming session.
Wynncore – Unofficial name of the Wynn & Encore complex.
Yo – Slang for a roll of an eleven in craps. It’s used to avoid confusion because the word “eleven” can be confused with “seven” at a loud table.