Acca insurance – A betting promotion related to accumulators. Receive your money back if one of your legs doesn’t come through.
Accumulator – A type of bet that combines the odds of multiple events onto one bet slip. The chances of success are slimmer, but payouts are larger than single event betting.
All-in – The term given when a player bets their entire bankroll on one hand.
American roulette – One of the most prominent variations of roulette. American roulette has two green zero pockets belonging to the house, generating a meaner house edge than European and French variants.
Ante – Also known as the blind, this is the term given to the stake put in by the player before they’ve received their hand.
Avalanche reels – Made popular by NetEnt’s Gonzo’s Quest, symbols abiding by the laws of avalanche reels will explode and be replaced after every successful combo, which can generate a chain of consecutive wins.
Baccarat – Historically James Bond’s preferred table game, baccarat pits players against the house to bet on which hand gets closest to nine.
Bankroll – This is the money you have in your online casino account.
Best odds guaranteed – In racing events, best odds guaranteed is a promotion that locks in the best odds for the horse, dog, or car you’ve backed. These odds can fluctuate in the build-up to the event, but this promo ensures you’ll always receive the most favourable odds.
Bet refund – Also known as money back, bet refunds are a bonus that return a portion of a losing stake, usually at rates of 10-20%.
Betting limits – Also known as table limits, betting limits are the minimum and maximum amounts you can bet on a casino game.
Betting system – A betting system is a structured approach to wagering on casino games. They’re usually based on statistical analysis, but they can’t guarantee you a win.
Big blind – At the poker table, there are two blinds (or antes): the big and the small. The big is equal to the minimum bet amount, and the small is half of this.
Bingo – One of the UK’s most popular gambling games, bingo involves ticking off numbers on a card in the hope of completing rows, columns and diagonals.
Bust – This term refers to a hand exceeding 21 in a game of blackjack.
Buy-in – Before you take part in some private table games, you’ll need to make a financial commitment of some sort — this is known as the buy-in.
Card games – Any game that uses a pack of cards, such as blackjack, poker, and online baccarat.
Card sharp – The term used to describe players who use skill — or sometimes deception — to win at card games.
Cash out – An in-play betting option that allows punters to take the winnings of a bet that’s still active. Let’s say Arsenal are a goal up and you need them to win, but they’ve just had Granit Xhaka sent off — this might be the perfect time to cash out. Cashing out can also refer to a simple withdrawal of funds from a casino or sportsbook.
Cashier – This is where you’ll make your deposits and request your withdrawals.
Casino table – Where table games like roulette, blackjack, and baccarat take place.
Chips – The tokens you use to bet in casino games, such as roulette, blackjack and poker. Each chip represents a specified sum of real money.
Classic slots – Online slots that resemble traditional fruit machines. Most classic slots have three reels and one payline.
Community cards – The cards shared by all players at the table. For example, in Texas Hold’em poker, players receive two cards each, and five community cards through the flop, the turn, and the river.
Craps – A table game that uses dice instead of cards. Players bet on the outcome of their rolls.
Croupier – The croupier is the dealer in a casino game.
Cryptocurrency – Digital currencies that aren’t verified or managed by a centralised banking system, now accepted at some UK online casinos. Examples include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
d’Alembert system – A betting strategy that adds one unit to the player’s stake following a loss, and decreases by one unit following a win. This strategy only applies to even money wagers.
Debit card – A card issued by a bank to make payments from an account. Accepted at all UK online casinos.
Decks of cards – One deck contains 52 cards, but many table games can be played with multiple decks.
Double down – A betting option in blackjack. After receiving your first two cards, you can double your bet, with the requirement that just one more card will be dealt to your hand.
e-Wallet – A digital wallet that can be used to make payments at most UK casino sites. PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller are three of the biggest brands in this area.
Each way – A betting option in racing events. With each way wagers, you’re essentially placing two bets — one for your pick to win and one for it to place.
eCOGRA – Standing for eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance, eCOGRA is the organisation tasked with regulating casino games, ensuring advertised payout rates are accurate.
European roulette – Another popular variant of roulette with a more favourable house edge than American roulette, generated by just the single zero pocket.
Even-money bets – These are bets that pay out at 1:1.
Expanding wilds – These are symbols that fall onto the reel and cover it entirely
Eye in the sky – A type of security camera used to monitor casinos.
Face cards – These are cards that have faces, or characters, on. Face cards include, King, Queen and Jack.
Face up – A term referring to cards that are dealt in full view of the table.
Fast Funds – A feature of Visa payments that aims to have transactions settled within 30 minutes.
Flat betting – A betting strategy where players bet the same amount on every round.
Flush – A card hand in poker that contains five cards of the same suit.
Forecast – A type of horse racing bet that picks the two horses that will finish first and second.
Free bet – Issued by betting sites to attract new customers, free bets are your chance to place a stake without risking any of your own cash.
Free spins – A popular casino bonus, free spins offer players the chance to spin the reels at no expense.
French roulette – The friendliest roulette variant in terms of house edge due to the inclusion of the La Partage rule.
Full house – A card hand in poker that contains one pair and one three of a kind.
Gambler’s fallacy – This term describes the false belief that the probability of an outcome decreases if it has already occurred in a gambling session.
Handicap – When a sporting event is a seemingly foregone conclusion, handicap bets make things more interesting by adding a handicap that punters must overcome. For example, if Man City are playing Norwich, a handicap bet might involve giving Norwich a two-goal head start at longer odds.
High card – If there are no obvious winners in a round of poker, it’s determined by who holds the highest card.
Hole card – The cards that are dealt face down and kept secret until the end of the round.
High roller – High rollers are casino players that play with high stakes.
House edge – House edge is the advantage the casino has on a casino game- the higher the house edge the bigger the casino’s advantage. Shown as a percentage, it’s the inverse of the RTP.
HTML5 – HTML5 is programming language for the contents and appearance of web pages, and provides one common interface to make things load faster and more smoothly, which is why it’s a popular choice among casino software developers. HTML5 improves multimedia loading on mobile devices.
Inside bet – In roulette, inside bets are those that correspond to the inner circle on the racetrack that appears on the table. These bets have smaller probabilities of occurring, such as straight up bets on one number. Other examples include split, street, and corner bets.
Insurance bets – These are optional bets, usually in blackjack games, that give you the chance to earn back some of your bet if it does not win.
Jackpot – This is a large cash prize that you can win when playing casino games.
Keno – A lottery-style game played at both brick-and-mortar and online casinos.
KYC – KYC, or Know Your Customer, checks are used by online gambling operators to verify a customer’s identity. This helps to ensure that all gambling activity is legal and that only those old enough to gamble can do so.
Live dealer – These casino games use a real dealer to host table games, dealing cards and calling winners. You can watch the dealer on a live video stream and interact using a live chat.
Live studio – Where live casino game developers stream their games from.
Loyalty scheme – A structure of player rewards at online casinos. Members will receive better perks as they progress through the casino’s ranks.
Luck of the Irish – A popular theme that’s used by developers as the basis of their slot games. Iconography includes pots of gold, rainbows, four-leaf clovers and leprechauns.
Martingale system – Another betting strategy, the Martingale system doubles your stake after each loss. It’s a high-risk strategy that can quickly hit table limits or exhaust players’ bankrolls.
Matched deposit – This is a type of bonus that sees casinos reward players with bonus cash equal to a percentage of their deposit. Matched deposit bonuses may apply to your first deposit, but some casinos split the cash across your first few deposits.
MGA – Stands for the Malta Gaming Authority — one of the leading regulators of the gambling industry.
Multiplier – A bonus feature of some casino games, where winning potential is enhanced by multiplier values.
Natural – A blackjack term that refers to hitting 21 in the first two-card hand.
Negative progression– A betting system that relies on increasing stakes after a loss.
New players – Your status as a new player may expire after a certain time period, or following your first deposit. Check the terms and conditions of the site to see how long you’re eligible to claim the casino’s welcome bonus. If you or a member of your household has held an account at the site before, you won’t be considered a new player.
Orphelins – A type of roulette bet that covers eight numbers with five chips.
Outside bet – The opposite to inside bets, outside bets have a higher probability of occurring at the roulette wheel. Examples include red or black and odd or even.
Over/under – A betting market that allows punters to bet generally on the scoring outcome of a match. In basketball for example, this could be a bet that the Jazz will score over 100 points against the Pacers.
Pair – Two cards of the same value, and the lowest hand in poker.
Parimutuel – A betting system in which those who back the first three places split the pool of all other losing bets.
Pay N Play – A feature of Trustly bank transfer payments that rolls the registration and depositing processes into one.
Paylines – Paylines are the lines along which you can score symbol combinations on slot games. While more traditional, classic slot games may only have one payline, more advanced video slots can have hundreds.
Payout – Payout is the cash prize you can expect to receive if you make a winning bet.
Paytable – These are tables that tell you everything you need to know about a slot game, including the RTP, winning symbol combinations and bonus symbols.
Penny slots – Penny slots are online slot games with penny stakes.
Positive progression – A betting system that relies on doubling states after a winning bet.
Prepaid card – A payment system widely accepted at UK online casinos. Prepaid cards use vouchers in order to make casino deposits — Paysafecard is the most popular brand in this area.
Progressive jackpot – These jackpots continue to grow, with each player’s wager increasing the jackpot until it is won.
Racetrack bet – Another name for the ‘call’ or French bets at the roulette table — voisins du zéro, orphelins, neighbours, and tiers du cylindre.
Reels – These are the wheels that spin in a slot game and show the symbols.
Reload bonus – A bonus given to existing customers once they make a deposit into their account, signifying a reloading of casino funds.
Responsible gambling – Any gambling activity that’s conducted in a responsible manner. We at TopRatedCasinos aim to promote gambling in its healthiest light, which means alerting our readers to its inherent dangers and the potential warning signs of problem gambling.
Royal flush – The best card hand in poker: ace, king, queen, jack, and ten, all of the same suit.
RNG – Random number generator (RNG) refers to the randomosity of the outcome of casino games. Games at licensed casinos, developed by licensed casino software houses, must use RNG technology to ensure random and fair gameplay.
RTP – Return to player percentage (RTP) is the theoretical return players can expect from a casino game and is based on an extended period of play. A game’s RTP is also shown as a percentage. Whilst not guaranteed, the best paying online slot games tend to have a high RTP.
Scatter symbol – A bonus feature used in most online slots that often triggers free spins bonus rounds.
Sensor – In live dealer games, sensors on the dealer’s table are used to display card values to players on their screens.
Shoe – A dealing device used in blackjack that holds multiple decks of cards.
Sic bo – A popular dice game that involves betting on the outcome of rolls.
Side bet – This a bet made in addition to the main bet in a casino game. These tend to be much riskier than main bets, and have a much higher house edge.
Slot machine – The most popular type of game at online casinos, slot machines are determined entirely by luck. Spin the reels and keep your fingers crossed.
Small blind – At the poker table, there are two blinds (or antes): the big and the small. The big is equal to the minimum bet amount, and the small is half of this.
Sports betting – Bets that are made on any sport.
Sportsbook – A gambling site that accepts sports betting.
Spread bet – A bet where the returns depend on the accuracy of the wager, as opposed to a simple win/loss proposition. For example, if you bet that England will beat New Zealand by 100 runs in the Test match, you’ll receive greater returns if they win by more than 100 runs, and vice versa.
Stake – This is the amount won, or lost, in an online casino game. It’s the money that you put against the outcome.
Straight – A poker hand of five cards in sequential order, regardless of suit.
Straight flush – A poker hand of five cards in sequential order and all of the same suit.
Straight up – A bet type that selects just one outcome, whether it’s one number at the roulette wheel, or Ronnie O’Sullivan to beat Mark Selby at the Crucible.
Sucker bet – A bet that returns at lower odds than the probability deserves. One example is the five-number bet in American roulette.
Three of a kind – A poker hand that contains three cards of the same value.
Tiers du cylindre – A roulette bet that covers a third of the wheel.
Tournaments – A competition that takes place at the casino where players compete against each other for prizes. Some of these are free entry, but VIP events will require invitation and buy-ins.
Tricast – A type of horse racing bet that selects the horses finishing first, second, and third.
Two pair – A poker hand that contains two separate pairs.
UKGC – The UKGC, or the UK Gambling Commission, is a governing body that grants gambling licenses to both land-based and online gambling operators. The UKGC regulates its licensees to ensure they’re providing customers with a safe and fair place to make wagers.
Variance/volatility – A measure of online slots that refers to fluctuations in the payout rate. High variance means payouts are large but infrequent; low variance is the opposite.
Video poker – A poker game played on a terminal that generally follows the five-card variant.
Video slots – Online slot games that can have an unlimited number of paylines. Video slot games also tend to have more bonus features, such as wilds and multipliers, than classic slot games.
Vig/vigorish – The fee charged by gambling sites for accepting the bettor’s wager.
VIP – Stands for very important player. At an online casino, VIP status grants certain privileges but is only suitable for high rollers.
Voisins du Zéro – A roulette bet that covers 16 numbers on the wheel.
Wager – This is another word for ‘bet’. It can be used as both a verb, referring to the action of betting on a casino game, and a noun, referring to a bet on a game.
Wagering requirements – Wagering requirements, also known as playthrough requirements, stipulate how many times you’ll need to wager your bonus funds before you can access any associated winnings as cash. For example, if you had £10 bonus cash with 30x wagering, you would need to wager £300.
Welcome bonus – A welcome bonus is a reward that online casinos give to new customers. These usually come in the form of free spins and matched deposits.
Wheel – A vital part of a roulette game, the roulette ball is thrown into the roulette wheel— which has numbered pockets— and players bet on which pocket the ball will land.
Wild symbol – A feature of many online slots, subbing in for other symbols on the reels to build combos.
Winning combination – The term used to describe a combo of symbols on an active payline in a slot game.
Winning streak – The term used to describe a series of consecutive wins.