book

books (plural)
boke (alternative obsolete)
booke (alternative archaic)

Sranan Tongo: buku

desctree

Tok Pisin: buk
→ Rotokas: vuku
→ Takia: buk

→ Chichewa: buku

→ Hawaiian: puke

→ Lingala: búku

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Maori: pukapuka (with reduplication)

→ Marshallese: bok

→ Motu: buka

→ Shona: bhuku

→ Somali: buugga

i

possibly also from Afrikaans <i class="Latn mention" lang="af">boek</i>

→ Sotho: buka (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

→ Zulu: ibhuku (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Eclipsed non-native Middle English livret, lyveret (“book, booklet”) from Old French livret (“book, booklet”). Bookmaker sense by clipping.

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

buck (without the foot-strut split, when pronounced /bʊk/)

have more chins than a Chinese phone book

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

I'm running a book on who is going to win the race.

(gambling) A record of betting (from the use of a notebook to record what each person has bet).


crap

(gambling, dice games) A losing throw of 2, 3, or 12 in craps.


pencil

pencils (plural)
pensill (alternative obsolete)

Tok Pisin: pensil

→ Bole: pensur

→ Central Dusun: pinsil

→ Central Melanau: pisil

→ Dhivehi: ފަންސުރު (fan̊suru)

desc

→ Gulf Arabic: بِنْسِل (pinsil, binsil) (obsolete)

→ Hausa: fensir

→ Hindi: पेंसिल (pensil), पेन्सिल (pensil)

→ Iban: pinsil

→ Indonesian: pènsil

→ Maguindanao: pinsil

or via Tok Pisin <i class="Latn mention" lang="tpi">pensil</i>

→ Maia: pensil (or via Tok Pisin pensil)

→ Malay: pensel

→ Malayalam: പെൻസിൽ (peṉsil)

→ Marshallese: pinjeļ

→ Pennsylvania German: Bensil

→ Scottish Gaelic: peansail

→ Swahili: penseli

→ Swazi: ípénseli

→ Tagalog: pensil

→ Tausug: pinsil

→ Telugu: పెన్సిలు (pensilu)

→ Welsh: pensil, pensel

→ Xhosa: ípénsile

→ Yoruba: pẹ́ńsù

From Anglo-Norman and Old French pincil (see the variant pincel, which gave rise to Modern French pinceau (“paintbrush”)), from Latin pēnicillum, diminutive of pēniculus (“brush”), itself a diminutive of pēnis (“tail; penis”). Not related to pen.

And most important of all, Cully now had 'The Pencil', that most coveted of Las Vegas powers.

power of the pencil
power of the pencil#English

(gambling) Ellipsis of power of the pencil.


bank

en-noun

bank (countable and uncountable, plural banks)

banks (plural)
banck (alternative obsolete)
bancke (alternative obsolete)
banke (alternative obsolete)

→ Albanian: bankë

→ Assamese: বেংক (beṅko)

→ Bandjalang: banggu

→ English: bungoo

→ Bengali: ব্যাংক (bêṅko)

→ Bislama: bang

→ Bole: banki

→ Burmese: ဘဏ် (bhan)

→ Chichewa: banki

→ Fijian: baqe

→ Gujarati: બેંક (beṅk)

→ Hausa: banki

→ Hawaiian: panakō

→ Hindi: बैंक (baiṅk)

→ Indonesian: bank

→ Japanese: バンク (banku)

→ Kamba: mbengi

→ Kannada: ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್ (byāṅk)

→ Kikuyu: bengi

→ Luhya: ebank

→ Maori: pēke

→ Marathi: बँक (bĕṅka)

→ Meru: mbengi

→ Nepali: बैंक (baiṅka)

→ Punjabi: ਬੈਂਕ (baiṅk)

→ Swahili: benki

→ Tamil: வங்கி (vaṅki)

→ Telugu: బ్యాంకు (byāṅku)

→ Thai: แบงก์ (bɛ́ng)

→ Tongan: pangikē

→ Welsh: banc

→ Urdu: بینک (baiṅk)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.
Proto-Germanic *bankiz
Proto-West Germanic *banki
Lombardic bankbor.
Italian bancabor.
Middle French banqueder.
English bank
From Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco.
For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).

der

(gambling, countable) The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses.


forecast

From Middle English forecasten, forcasten, equivalent to fore- + cast.
The noun is from Middle English forecast, forcast.


accumulator

From Latin accumulātor, agent noun of accumulō (“pile up”), accumulate + -or.

The largest payout for a bet on a horse race was $1,627,084 after tax, paid to Britons Anthony Speelman and Nicholas Cowan on their $64 nine-horse accumulator at Santa Anita Racecourse, California, in 1987.

2000, Guinness World Records, Guinness Book of Records 2000, Demco Media, →ISBN:

(gambling) A collective bet on successive events, with both stake and winnings being carried forward to accumulate progressively.


see

en-verb

see (third-person singular simple present sees, present participle seeing, simple past saw or (dialectal) seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed, past participle seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed or (dialectal) saw)

sees (present singular third-person)
seeing (participle present)
saw (past)
seen (dialectal past)
seent (dialectal past)
seed (dialectal past)
seen (participle past)
seent (dialectal participle past)
seed (dialectal participle past)
saw (dialectal participle past)
see (infinitive)
see (first-person present singular)
saw (first-person past singular)
see (present second-person singular)
seest (archaic present second-person singular)
saw (past second-person singular)
sawest (archaic past second-person singular)
sees (present singular third-person)
seeth (archaic present singular third-person)
saw (past singular third-person)
see (plural present)
saw (past plural)
see (present subjunctive)
saw (past subjunctive)
see (imperative present)
seeing (participle present)
seen (participle past)

From Middle English seen, from Old English sēon (“to see, look, behold, perceive, observe, discern, understand, know”), from Proto-West Germanic *sehwan, from Proto-Germanic *sehwaną (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to see, notice”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian sjen (“to see”), Dutch zien (“to see”), Low German sehn, German sehen (“to see”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål se (“to see”), Norwegian Nynorsk sjå (“to see”), and more distantly with Latin sīgnum (“sign, token”), Albanian shih (“look at, see”) imperative of shoh (“to see”).

der

is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me

send it up the flagpole and see who salutes

that which has been seen cannot be unseen

there are none so blind as those who will not see

there's none so blind as those who will not see

throw things at the wall and see what sticks

I'll see your twenty dollars and raise you ten.

(gambling, transitive) To respond to another player's bet with a bet of equal value.


pit

From Middle English pit, pet, püt, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic *puti, from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), although there are phonetic difficulties.

he who digs a pit for others falls in himself

(gambling) Part of a casino which typically holds tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games.


AP

en-noun

AP (countable and uncountable, plural APs)

advantage player
advantage player#English

(countable, gambling) Initialism of advantage player.


save

en-verb

save (third-person singular simple present saves, present participle saving, simple past and past participle saved)

saves (present singular third-person)
saving (participle present)
saved (participle past)
saved (past)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *sl̥h₂-wós
Proto-Italic *salawos
Latin salvus
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin salvō
Latin salvāre
Old French sauverbor.
Middle English saven
English save
From Middle English saven, sauven, a borrowing from Old French sauver, from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”).

etymon

save one's breath to cool one's porridge

to save a fiver

(transitive, gambling, slang, archaic) To make an agreement to give (some amount of money) to a fellow gambler if one wins, and to receive that amount from them if they win, as a form of hedging.


leg

→ Finnish: legi

→ Hungarian: leg

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more).
Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).

der

don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining

don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining

piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining

If one leg from your 2-way parlay pushes and the other wins, your parlay bet wins and is paid off as if it's a straight bet (paying -110 or whatever the odds were).

2020, Swain Scheps, Sports Betting For Dummies, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 265:

(gambling) An individual bet in a parlay (a series of bets where the stake and winnings are cumulatively carried forward).


race

en-noun

race (countable and uncountable, plural races)

From Middle English race, partially from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-West Germanic *rās; and partially from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”); both from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Cognate with Middle Low German râs ("a strong current"; whence German Low German Raas (“mad rush, rage, fury”)), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”), Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras, Norwegian rås.

gl

"a strong current"; whence German Low German <i class="Latn mention" lang="nds-de">Raas</i> (“mad rush, rage, fury”)

Your odds are sometimes significantly better with video keno […] But because video keno plays so much faster, you're likely to lose more money over a given period. Live keno races start every 10 minutes, but you can make 100 bets on a video version in the same amount of time.

2022, Kevin Blackwood, Swain Scheps, “Striking the Mother Lode: Keno and Bingo”, in Casino Gambling For Dummies, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons:


burn

en-verb

burn (third-person singular simple present burns, present participle burning, simple past and past participle burned or (mostly Commonwealth) burnt or (obsolete) brent)

burns (present singular third-person)
burning (participle present)
burned (participle past)
burned (past)
burnt (Commonwealth participle past)
burnt (Commonwealth past)
brent (obsolete participle past)
brent (obsolete past)
burn (infinitive)
burn (first-person present singular)
burned (first-person past singular)
burnt (first-person past singular)
burn (present second-person singular)
burnest (archaic present second-person singular)
burned (past second-person singular)
burnt (past second-person singular)
burnedst (archaic past second-person singular)
burntest (archaic past second-person singular)
burns (present singular third-person)
burneth (archaic present singular third-person)
burned (past singular third-person)
burnt (past singular third-person)
burn (plural present)
burned (past plural)
burnt (past plural)
burn (present subjunctive)
burned (past subjunctive)
burnt (past subjunctive)
burn (imperative present)
burning (participle present)
burned (participle past)
burnt (participle past)

Sranan Tongo: bron

Aukan: boon

From Middle English bernen (collateral form of brennen), from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew.
See also Middle Irish brennim (“drink up”), bruinnim (“bubble up”); also Middle Irish bréo (“flame”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium, mouth burning”), Sanskrit भुरति (bhurati, “moves quickly, twitches, fidgets”). More at brew.

polttaa

to consume, injure, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat

(intransitive, slang, card games, gambling) To discard.


hold

Derived from Middle English holden, derived from Old English healdan, derived from Proto-West Germanic *haldan, derived from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to tend, herd”), maybe derived from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”).
Cognates
*West Frisian hâlde
*Low German holden, holen
*Dutch houden
*German halten
*Danish
*Norwegian Bokmål holde
*Norwegian Nynorsk halda.
Compare Latin celer (“quick”), Tocharian B käl- (“to goad, drive”), Ancient Greek κέλλω (kéllō, “to drive”), Sanskrit कलयति (kalayati, “to impel”).

der+

The House Hold on the game is 10,000, this is the amount of decision or risk the house wishes to assume.

2002, "Reality", “The Scorecard For Bookmakers”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 2015-04-27:

(gambling) The percentage the house wins on a gamble, the house or bookmaker's hold.

2012, Sarah Fortnum, “Melbourne Cup 2012 From The Bookie’s Perspective”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 2012-11-12:

As of Monday night the total Melbourne Cup hold was $848,015

(gambling) The wager amount, the total hold.


rake

From Middle English rake [and other forms], from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself”).
Cognates
The English word is cognate with Danish rage (chiefly regional), Middle Dutch rāke, rēke (modern Dutch raak, reek (both regional), riek (“pitchfork, rake”)), Middle Low German rāke, racke (modern German Low German Raak (“rake; poker”)), Old High German rehho, rech (Middle High German reche, modern German Rechen (“rake”)), Old Norse reka (“shovel”) (modern Icelandic reka (“shovel”)), Old Saxon recho, Old Swedish raka (modern Swedish raka (“rake; (long) straight section of a road”)).

cog

(by extension) A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes.

(gambling) A tool with a straight edge at the end used by a croupier to move chips or money across a gaming table.


bug

bugs (plural)
bugg (alternative obsolete)

First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a “bedbug”), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), from Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”) which is traced alternatively to:
* a Celtic root found in Scots bogill (“goblin, bugbear”) and obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat, fear”) and Isthmus Mixe bocanách (“supernatural being”).
* Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin, snot”).
* or to a word related to buck and originally referring to a goat-shaped spectre.
For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda, from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”)). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms, they might have existed parallely since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources.
The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.

cog

given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow

Because many illegal slot-machine operators here and abroad do not like to give the slot-machine player even one chance to hit the jackpot or the big bonus, they make use of a "bug." This is a small, flat half-circle of iron about an inch long, which looks something like a bug.

1961, John Scarne, Complete Guide to Gambling, page 394:

(gambling, slang) A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations.

Some clumsy or audacious sharpers will go so far as to hold out cards in their lap, or stick them in a "bug" under the table.

1897, Robert Frederick Foster, Foster's Complete Hoyle, page 195:

Fargo had been in a saloon in Kansas when a man was caught using a bug. Made of steel and shaped like a money clip with two sharp ends, the bug was jammed under a table and held cards the bug's owner palmed until they were needed.

2006, Jon Sharpe, The Trailsman #299: Dakota Danger:

(gambling, slang) A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating.


overlay

en-verb

overlay (third-person singular simple present overlays, present participle overlaying, simple past and past participle overlaid or overlayed)

overlays (present singular third-person)
overlaying (participle present)
overlaid (participle past)
overlaid (past)
overlayed (participle past)
overlayed (past)

/ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/

From Middle English overleyen, from Old English oferleċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *obarlaggjan, from Proto-Germanic *uberlagjaną, equivalent to over- + lay. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uurläze, úurlääse, Dutch overleggen, German Low German overleggen, överleggen, German überlegen, Swedish överlägga, Norwegian overlegge. Compare overlie.

[…] he has 'overlaid' his book, and has not succeeded in 'getting round' by bets against the other horses.

1890, The Twentieth Century, volume 27, page 934:

(transitive, gambling) To bet too much money on.


overlay

/ˈəʊ.vəˌleɪ/

(gambling) Odds which are set higher than expected or warranted. Favorable odds.


shoot

shoot (third-person singular simple present shoots, present participle shooting, simple past shot, past participle shot or (rare) shotten)

shoots (present singular third-person)
shooting (participle present)
shot (past)
shot (participle past)
shotten (participle past rare)
shoot (infinitive)
shoot (first-person present singular)
shot (first-person past singular)
shooted (archaic first-person past singular)
shoot (present second-person singular)
shootest (archaic present second-person singular)
shot (past second-person singular)
shooted (archaic past second-person singular)
shootedst (archaic past second-person singular)
shoots (present singular third-person)
shooteth (archaic present singular third-person)
shot (past singular third-person)
shooted (archaic past singular third-person)
shoot (plural present)
shot (past plural)
shooted (archaic past plural)
shoot (present subjunctive)
shot (past subjunctive)
shooted (archaic past subjunctive)
shoot (imperative present)
shooting (participle present)
shot (participle past)
shooted (archaic participle past)
shotten (archaic participle past)

→ Catalan: xut

→ Greek: σουτ (sout)

→ Hijazi Arabic: شوت (šūt)

→ North Levantine Arabic: شوت (šūt)

→ Persian: شوت (šut)

desc

→ Portuguese: chuto, chute (Brazil), chutar

→ Romanian: șut

→ Vietnamese: sút

From Middle English shoten, from Old English scēotan, from Proto-West Germanic *skeutan, from Proto-Germanic *skeutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwd-e-ti, from *(s)kewd- (“to shoot, throw”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian sjitte, Low German scheten, Dutch schieten, German schießen, Danish skyde, Norwegian Bokmål skyte, Norwegian Nynorsk skyta, Swedish skjuta; and also, through Indo-European, with Russian кида́ть (kidátʹ), Albanian hedh (“to throw, toss”), Persian چست (čost, “quick, active”), Lithuanian skudrùs.

(+ partitive object when injuring or genitive object when killing) ampua

when the looting starts, the shooting starts

Then, when it was his turn to shoot, he reached out with a completely empty hand and caught the dice the stickman threw to him.

1980, John Scarne, Scarne on Dice, page 275:

To launch a projectile.
(gambling) To throw dice.


split

→ Irish: spliota

Attested since about 1567, from Middle Dutch splitten (“to split”) and/or Middle Low German splitten (“to split”), both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *splittjan, an intensive form of Proto-West Germanic *splītan (“to split”), from Proto-Germanic *splītaną (whence Danish splitte, Low German splieten, German spleißen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).
Compare Middle English ysplett (“split”, past participle of splatten (“to split”)), Old English speld (“splinter”), Old High German spaltan (“to split”), Old Irish sliss (“splinter”), Lithuanian spaliai (“flax sheaves”), Czech půl (“half”), Old Church Slavonic рас-плитати (ras-plitati, “to cleave, split”).

cog

past participle of <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">splatten</i> (“to split”)

let the door hit you where the good Lord split you

(gambling) A division of a stake happening when two cards of the kind on which the stake is laid are dealt in the same turn.


spread

en-noun

spread (countable and uncountable, plural spreads)

From Middle English spreden, from Old English sprǣdan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian spreede (“to spread”), West Frisian spriede (“to spread”), North Frisian spriedjen (“to spread”), Dutch spreiden (“to spread”), Low German spreden (“to spread”), German spreiten (“to spread, spread out”), Norwegian spre, spreie (“to spread, disseminate”), Swedish sprida (“to spread”), Latin spernō, spargō, Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō), Persian سپردن (sepordan, “to deposit”), English spurn.

cog

College basketball games don't lack for gambling propositions—the moneyline, a straightforward wager on which team will win; the over-under gamble on the total number of points scored by both teams—but the most popular wager is the spread. The spread represents the predicted difference between the two teams in the final score of the game.

2015 April 10, John Paul Rollert, “Vegas Odds”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-01-20:

(gambling) The difference between the teams' final scores at the end of a sport match.


stick

en-noun

stick (countable and uncountable, plural sticks)

→ Catalan: estic

→ Italian: stick

→ Korean: 스틱 (seutik)

→ Portuguese: stique, estique

→ Sranan Tongo: tiki

From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”). Related to stigma.

der

better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

A shill is also called a stick, and the role of the shill or stick is to make the customer relax and feel at ease.

(slang, dated) A person or group of people. (Perhaps, in some senses, because people are, broadly speaking, tall and thin, like pieces of wood.)


shape

en-noun

shape (countable and uncountable, plural shapes)

From Middle English shap, schape, from Old English ġesceap (“shape, form, created being, creature, creation, dispensation, fate, condition, sex, gender, genitalia”), from Proto-West Germanic *ga- + *skap, from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *skapą (“shape, nature, condition”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to split, cut”).
The verb is from Middle English shapen, schapen, from Old English scieppan (“to shape, form, make, create, assign, arrange, destine, order, adjudge”), from Proto-West Germanic *skappjan, from Proto-Germanic *skapjaną (“to create”), from the noun.
The noun is cognate with Middle Dutch schap (“form”), Middle High German geschaf (“creature”), Icelandic skap (“state, condition, temper, mood”). The verb is cognate with Dutch scheppen, German schaffen, Swedish skapa (“create, make”), Norwegian Bokmål skape (“create”). Doublet of -ship.

cog

A top cheater seldom ever uses shapes or loaded dice because they do not assure you of winning.

1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Gambling and Organized Crime: Hearings, page 76:


flat

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.

inh

He would slip in his six-ace flats, shaved dice that were made to bring up sevens. He'd throw them just long enough to get well, and then replace them with legitimate cubes.

2005, Fred Cicetti, Local Angles: The Big News in Small Towns, page 78:

(gambling, slang) A cheater's die with the edges shaved to make certain rolls more likely.


dark

en-adj

dark (comparative darker, superlative darkest)

darker (comparative)
darkest (superlative)

From Middle English derk, from Old English deorc, from Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“dull, dirty”).

donker

having an absolute or relative lack of light

the darkest hour is just before the dawn

The first favourite was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.

1831, Benjamin Disraeli, The Young Duke — a moral tale though gay

(gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.


long

en-adj

long (comparative longer or more long, superlative longest or most long)

longer (comparative)
more long (comparative)
longest (superlative)
most long (superlative)

low

antonym(s) of “having much distance from one point to another”

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”).
Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), North Frisian long, lung (“long”), West Frisian long (“long”), Saterland Frisian loang (“long”), Norwegian, Dutch and German lang (“long”), Low German and Swedish lång (“long”), Icelandic langur (“long”), Portuguese longo (“long”), Spanish luengo (“long”), French long, Italian lungo, Latin longus (“long”), Russian дли́нный (dlínnyj), до́лго (dólgo), Sanskrit दीर्घ (dīrgha, “long”).
The word exceptionally retains the Old English darkening of -a- before nasals. Though there are other such examples in Middle and Modern English (e.g. bond, song, throng, wrong), the o-form may have been reinforced by Old French long, from Latin longus, from the same Indo-European word. Doublet of lungo and lunge.

ау

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long

(gambling) Of betting odds, offering a very large return for a small wager.


short

short (comparative shorter, superlative shortest)

shorter (comparative)
shortest (superlative)

tall

antonym(s) of “having a small distance between ends or edges”

tall

antonym(s) of “of a person, of comparatively little height”

long

antonym(s) of “cricket, of a fielder or fielding position, relatively close to the batsman”

long

antonym(s) of “financial position expecting falling value”

From Middle English schort, short, from Old English sċeort, sċort (“short”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurt, from Proto-Germanic *skurtaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-. Doublet of curt.
Cognates
Cognate with shirt, skirt, curt, Scots short, schort (“short”), French court, Dutch kort, German kurz, Old High German scurz (“short”) (whence Middle High German schurz), Old Norse skorta (“to lack”) (whence Danish skorte), Albanian shkurt (“short, brief”), Latin curtus (“shortened, incomplete”) and Proto-Slavic *kortъkъ. Doublet of curt. More at shirt.

little

(gambling) Of betting odds, offering a small return for the money wagered.


handle

desctree

→ Japanese: ハンドル (handoru)
→ Hokkien: 捍多路 (hăn-tó͘-luh)
→ Sakizaya: handulu

From Middle English handel, handle, from Old English handle (“a handle”), from handlian (“to handle, feel, deal with, discuss”). See verb below. Cognate with Danish handel (“a handle”).

The daily handle of a Las Vegas casino is typically millions of dollars.

For a casino table game,the handle is difficult to determine, as it consists of all the bets made in every game, whether by chip or by cash play.

2001, William Norman Thompson, Gambling in America: an encyclopedia of history, issues, and society, →ISBN, page 421:

Note here, however, that the casino's "edge" (its expected value per unit bet, or, in casino jargon, the house p.c.) in table games is expressed as a percentage of the handle and not as a percentage of the drop (even though these might sometimes be the same).

2001, Harold L. Vogel, Travel industry economics: a guide for financial analysis, →ISBN, page 139:

The results for the dog racing model indicate that increases in lottery sales and decreases in horse racing handle and casino revenues in the state in question statistically increase dog racing handle.

2007, Douglas M. Walker, The economics of casino gambling, →ISBN, page 77:

(gambling) The gross amount of wagering within a given period of time or for a given event at one of more establishments.

(horse racing, gambling) The amount wagered in the various pari-mutuel pools for a particular event or events.


handbook

1814, from hand + book, or perhaps a reintroduction of Middle English hond book, hondebooke, from Old English handbōc (“handbook”), or a calque of German Handbuch (“handbook”). Compare Dutch handboek, Danish håndbog, Swedish handbok.

Coordinate term: sportsbook

The extent of the business done in this line is not understood by those who have not looked into it. In New York there are 50 pool rooms and 500 handbooks; in East St. Louis, 20 handbooks; in Chicago, 5 pool rooms and 200 handbooks; […]

1916, U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on interstate commerce, Prevention of Transmission of Race-gambling Bets, page 23:

Persons subject to his rule can be found operating, in addition to the wire service, wire service relays, handbooks, gambling houses, prostitution establishments, coin-operated device companies, bars, restaurants, night clubs, motels, […]

1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Gambling and Organized Crime: Hearings:

(US, gambling) A place where illicit bets can be placed.


canoe

→ German: Kanu

→ Irish: canú

Adopted in 16th century from Spanish canoa, from Taíno *kanowa (“dugout canoe”) (compare Lokono kanoa (“canoe”), Wayuu anuwa, anua (“boat, canoe”)), from Proto-Arawak *kanawa.

(gambling) Any of the deflectors positioned around a roulette wheel, shaped like upside-down boats.


PC

en-noun

PC (countable and uncountable, plural PCs)

The honest casino operator obtains it either by levying a direct charge or by extracting a favorable P.C. (percentage) […]

1978, John Scarne, Scarne's guide to casino gambling, page 321:

[…] but in the long run, the casino's PC (percentage) for casino games will erode your bankroll.

1997, Benny J. Berry, Gambling's Greatest Secrets Revealed:


pot

From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott (“pot”) and Old French pot (“pot”) (probably from Frankish *pott); both Old English and Frankish from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot”), from Proto-Indo-European *budnós (“a type of vessel”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pot (“pot”), Dutch pot (“pot”), German Low German Pott (“pot”), German Pott (“pot”), Swedish potta (“chamber pot”), Icelandic pottur (“tub, pot”), Old Armenian պոյտն (poytn, “pot, earthen pot”). Also, Old Norse pottr (“pot, tub, basin”).
The sense of ruin or deterioration was originally a general allusion to "being chopped up and tossed in a (normally fiery) pot, like a piece of meat" (i.e. to get wasted or done with (by someone)). The 'clean' slang term which was used in reference to toilet rooms and lavatories apparently derives from English chamberpots, although now usually encountered as potty in the context of children's toilet training.

pussitus

cue sports: act of causing a ball to fall into a pocket

not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of

No one's interested. You need to sweeten the pot.

(gambling, poker) The money available to be won in a hand of poker or a round of other games of chance; (figuratively) any sum of money being used as an enticement.


cash

en-noun

cash (usually uncountable, plural cashes)

→ Armenian: քեշ (kʻeš)

→ Georgian: ქეში (keši)

→ Japanese: キャッシュ (kyasshu)

→ Korean: 캐시 (kaesi)

→ Punjabi: ਕੈਸ਼ (kaiś)

→ Russian: кэш (kɛš)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: ке̏ш

Latin script: kȅš

→ Swedish: cash

→ Wu: 開許 /开许 (¹khe-shiu)

From late Middle French caisse (“money-box”), itself borrowed from Occitan caissa, from Latin capsa (“box”), ultimately from capiō (“take, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“grasp”). Doublet of case, chase, and chasse. Compare Spanish caja (“box”).

In the WSOP, I have played around 150 tournaments with one final table, 11 cashes, and a -70 percent ROI.

2012, Jonathan Little, Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 2:

(countable, gambling) An instance of winning a cash prize.


Nassau

Borrowed from German Nassau, from German nass (“wet”). The Bahamian city is named after the German one.

(golf, gambling) A wager consisting essentially of three separate bets, for the best score on each of the front nine (holes 1–9), back nine (holes 10–18), and total 18 holes.


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

Use a few “introductory plays” to become known to a casino before you go for a big score.

2013, Arnold Snyder, Big Book of Blackjack:

(gambling) An amount of money won in gambling; winnings.


score

en-verb

score (third-person singular simple present scores, present participle scoring, simple past and past participle scored)

scores (present singular third-person)
scoring (participle present)
scored (participle past)
scored (past)
score (infinitive)
score (first-person present singular)
scored (first-person past singular)
score (present second-person singular)
scorest (archaic present second-person singular)
scored (past second-person singular)
scoredst (archaic past second-person singular)
scores (present singular third-person)
scoreth (archaic present singular third-person)
scored (past singular third-person)
score (plural present)
scored (past plural)
score (present subjunctive)
scored (past subjunctive)
score (imperative present)
scoring (participle present)
scored (participle past)

→⇒ Irish: scóráil

[…] he scored big by hitting the jack pot at the Bellagio (he won $7,000). The next day, he won $15,000 on the nickel machines at the Palm Casino!

2005, Shannon Nash, For the Love of Money, page 215:

(ambitransitive) To obtain something desired.

To obtain something desired.
To win money by gambling.


tern

PIE word
 *tréyes
The noun is derived from Late Middle English terne (“throw of a die or dice showing the number three”), from Old French terne (“gathering of three people; trinity”) (modern French terne), from Latin ternās, the accusative feminine plural of ternī (“three each; three at a time”), from ter (“thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + -ī (from -us (suffix forming adjectives)).
The adjective is either derived from the noun, or directly from Latin ternī (“three each; three at a time”); see above.

der

And yet, now even, if Madonna willed, / She'd win a tern in Thursday's lottery, / And better all things.

1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Seventh Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 319:

(dated or obsolete) A thing with three components; a set of three things.

(gambling, dated) A lottery prize resulting from the favourable combination of three numbers in the draw.


lock

Tok Pisin: lok

→ Hawaiian: laka

From Middle English lok, from Old English loc, from Proto-West Germanic *lok, from Proto-Germanic *luką from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend; turn”).
The verb is from Middle English locken, lokken, louken, from Old English lūcan, Proto-West Germanic *lūkan, from Proto-Germanic *lūkaną. Related to luxe via Latin.


heater

→ Japanese: ヒーター (hītā)

Tok Pisin: hita

Emmy went on a heater in Las Vegas and came back six thousand dollars richer.

(gambling, slang) An extended winning streak.


exotic

en-adj

exotic (comparative more exotic, superlative most exotic)

more exotic (comparative)
most exotic (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French exotique, from Latin exōticus, from Ancient Greek ἐξωτικός (exōtikós, “foreign”, literally “from the outside”), from ἐξω- (exō-, “outside”), from ἐξ (ex, “out of”).

مجلوب

foreign, with the connotation of excitingly foreign

(gambling) Being or relating to various wagers, such as the trifecta, that involve betting on the finishing positions of multiple competitors across one or more races.


pea

From having the appearance of a pea (see English etymology 1), the edible seed of Pisum sativum, the pea plant.

(US, Indiana, gambling) Any of the small numbered balls used in a pea shake game.


agent

From Latin agēns, present active participle of agere (“to drive, lead, conduct, manage, perform, do”).

Nevada casinos are fleeced out of millions of dollars yearly by agents (cheats acting as players) in collusion with crooked Black Jack dealers and pit bosses.

1978, John Scarne, Scarne's guide to casino gambling, page 108:

en:cheater with insider help in gambling

(gambling) A cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.


chip

→ Basque: txip

→ Bulgarian: чипс (čips)

→ Catalan: xip

→ Czech: čip

→ Danish: chip, chips

→ Dutch: chip, chips

→ Ewe: tšipsid

→ Finnish: sipsi, chipsi, chips

→ French: chips

→ Galician: chip

→ Georgian: ჩიპსი (čiṗsi)

→ German: Chip

→ Greek: τσιπ (tsip), τσιπάκι (tsipáki)

desc

→ Hebrew: צִ׳יפְּס, צִ׳יפּ

→ Hebrew: צִ׳יפְּס, צִ׳יפּ (chips, chip)

→ Hijazi Arabic: تشبس (tšips, tšibs), شبس (šips, šibs)

→ Hungarian: csip, csipsz, chip, chips

→ Indonesian: cip

→ Italian: chip

→ Japanese: チップ (chippu), チップス (chippusu)

→ Khmer: ឈីប (chiip)

→ Korean: 칩 (chip), 칩스 (chipseu)

→ Latvian: čipsis

→ Macedonian: чипс (čips), чип (čip)

→ Norwegian: chips

→ Persian: چیپس (čips)

→ Polish: czip, czips, chip, chips

→ Portuguese: chipe, chip, chips

→ Romanian: chips, cip

→ Russian: чипс (čips), чип (čip)

^ → Armenian: չիպ (čʻip)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: чипс, чип

Latin script: čips, čip

→ Slovene: čips

→ Spanish: chip, chips

→ Swahili: chipsi, chips

→ Swedish: chips, chipp

→ Turkish: cips, çip

→ Ukrainian: чипс (čyps), чип (čyp)

→ Welsh: tsip

→ Yiddish: טשיפּל (tshipl)

Noun from Middle English chip, chippe, from Old English ċipp (“chip; small piece of wood, shaving”), from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) –, from Proto-West Germanic *kippōn (“to cut; carve; hack; chop”), from Proto-Germanic *kippōną (“to chip, chop”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyb- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). Related to Dutch kip, keep (“notch; nick; score”), Dutch kippen (“to hatch”), German Low German kippen (“to cut; clip; trim; shorten”), German kipfen (“to chop off the tip; snip”), Old Swedish kippa (“to chop”). Compare also chop.
The formally similar Old English ċipp, ċypp, ċyp (“a beam; log; stock; post”), from Proto-Germanic *kippaz (“log; beam”) (whence Old Saxon kip (“post”), Old High German kipfa, chipfa (“axle, stave”), Old Norse keppr (“cudgel, club”)) is a different, unrelated word either borrowed from Latin cippus (“stake; pale; post”) or borrowed from the same source language as the Latin.
Verb from Middle English chippen, from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) – see above.

cog

If the second player does raise three chips, and all the other players drop, the player who opened may stay in by putting three more chips in the pot, for then he will have put in precisely as many chips as the second player.

2002, Albert H. Moorehead, Hoyle′s Rules of Games, page 46:

(games, gambling) A token used in place of cash.


whale

From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

These are often no-limit games as maximum bets cramp a whale’s style.

2003, Jeff Wuorio, How to Buy and Sell (Just About) Everything:

A handful of the richest whales routinely play for $200,000 a hand. Australian media mogul Kerry Packer not only regularly bets that much, but has plunked down $200,000 bets for the dealer as a form of a tip.

2004, Norm Clarke, Vegas Confidential: Norm! Sin City's Ace Insider 1,000 Naked Truths, Hot Spots and Cool Stuff:

The high roller who had the most ferocious reputation for trying to run the business of the casinos where he played, before he died on December 26, 2006, was Kerry Packer. In the casino world, Packer was the Prince of Whales.

2008, Deke Castleman, Whale Hunt in the Desert:

(gambling, figuratively) A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.


drop

From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to crumble, grind”).

nb...

dropan, droupe, (Northern England) droipe

afval

small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own round shape through surface tension

piisk

very small quantity of liquid, or of anything

piisk

that which hangs or resembles a liquid globule

langemine

decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate

afgrond

distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level

What the first column in the table shows you is how much the casinos won as a percentage of the drop. For example, on the roulette table for every $100 that went into the drop box the casino wonj $22.70 or 22.70%. […] In other words, the drop tells you how many chips were bought at that table, but it doesn't tell you how many bets were made with those chips.

1996, Steve Bourie, Anthony Curtis [et al.], American Casino Guide, Dania, Fla.: Casino Vacations, published 1997, →ISBN, page 12:

An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).

(gambling) The amount of money that a gambler exchanges for chips in a casino.


drop

en-verb

drop (third-person singular simple present drops, present participle dropping, simple past and past participle dropped or (archaic) dropt)

drops (present singular third-person)
dropping (participle present)
dropped (participle past)
dropped (past)
dropt (archaic participle past)
dropt (archaic past)

From Middle English droppen, dropen (“to fall in drops, drip or trickle down; to scatter, sprinkle; to be covered with a liquid; to give off moisture; of an object: to drop, fall; of a living being: to fall to the ground”) [and other forms], from Old English dropian, droppian (“to drop”), from dropa (“a drop”) (see further at etymology 1) + -ian (suffix forming verbs from adjectives and nouns).

спадам

to decrease, diminish, or lessen in condition, degree, value, etc.

laskea

to move to a lower position; to allow to hang downwards — see also lower

laskea

to lower (a sound, a voice, etc.) in pitch or volume

But more important, if I dropped, Marty would have won the hand automatically.

1990, Stewart Wolpin, The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle, page 219:

(intransitive, gambling) To drop out of the betting.


over

From Middle English over, from Old English ofer, from Proto-West Germanic *obar, from Proto-Germanic *uber (“over”), from Proto-Indo-European *upér, related to *upó.
Akin to Scots ower, West Frisian oer, Dutch over, Low German over, över, German ober, über, Danish over, Norwegian over, Swedish över, Icelandic yfir, Faroese yvir, Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂 (ufar), Latin super, Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér), Albanian upri (“group of peasants”), Sanskrit उपरि (upári).
Doublet of uber, super, and hyper.

(gambling) A bet that a particular sporting statistic, such a points scored in a game, will be above a certain stated value.


under

From Middle English under, from Old English under, from Proto-West Germanic *undar, from Proto-Germanic *under, from a merger of Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥dʰér (“under”) and *h₁entér (“inside”).
Akin to German unter, Dutch onder, Danish and Norwegian under; also Old High German untar (“under”), Sanskrit अन्तर् (antar, “within”), Latin infrā (“below, beneath”) and inter (“between, among”).

(gambling) A bet that a particular sporting statistic, such as points scored in a game, will be below a certain stated value.


Wheel of Fortune

wheel of Fortune (alternative)
wheel of fortune (alternative)

/ˌwiːl‿əv ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːn/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Wheel of Fortune.wav

-ɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃuːn

From wheel + of + Fortune (“the Roman goddess Fortuna”), a calque of Latin rota Fortūnae (literally “Fortuna’s wheel”), from rota (“wheel”) + Fortūnae (the genitive dative singular of Fortūna (“the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck”)).

calque

(gambling) Synonym of Big Six wheel (“a game of chance consisting of a vertically mounted wheel divided into equal marked sectors; the winning sector is the one indicated by a pointer when the wheel stops turning”).


prop

proposition player
proposition player#English

(gambling, informal) Clipping of proposition player.


press

en-noun

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

From Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and from Old French presse (Modern French presse) from Old French presser (“to press”), from Latin pressāre, from pressus, past participle of premere (“to press”). Displaced native Middle English thring (“press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þring (“a press, crowd, anything that presses or confines”)).

cog

He can even the match with a press.

The way a press works is, say you're two down after six holes; you can then start another bet (in effect another match) from the seventh hole, for the same amount, starting all square on the seventh tee.

When a side is two or more points down in the match, they may request a press.

2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, Sports Betting, page 181:

(countable, golf, gambling) An additional bet in a golf match that duplicates an existing (usually losing) wager in value, but begins even at the time of the bet.


fade

en-verb

fade (third-person singular simple present fades, present participle fading, simple past and past participle faded)

fades (present singular third-person)
fading (participle present)
faded (participle past)
faded (past)
vade (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

I tried to get some bets that y'all were fixin' to get married but nobody would fade me.

2016, Johnny Hughes, A Texas Beauty, Smart and Strong:

(transitive, gambling) To bet against (someone).


mechanic

mechanics (plural)
mechanick (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English mekanyk (“mechanical”), from Old French mecanique, from Latin mechanicus (“of or belonging to machines or mechanics, inventive”), from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós, “pertaining to machines or contrivance, mechanic, ingenious, inventive”), from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “a machine, contrivance”); see machine.

der

I can do other things beside burglarizing. I'm a first-class crap dealer, I'm a pretty good card mechanic, pretty good dice mechanic.

1969, Bruce Jackson, A Thief's Primer, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 91:

It was so obvious. I mean, all of Nicky's half-assed mechanics, they were real signal happy.

1995, Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese, Casino, spoken by Ace (Robert De Niro):

(gambling) A cheat who manipulates the cards or dice.


slot

From Middle English slot, from Old French esclot, likely from Old Norse slóð (“track”). As a gambling machine, via clipping of slot machine. Compare sleuth. The scheduling (calendar) sense is by a metaphor whereby the time span is equated with the segment of a page or part of a device that represents it.

I walked past the poker tables and went straight to the slots.

(gambling, informal, especially in the plural) Clipping of slot machine (“a game of chance played for money using a coin slot”).


rack

From Middle English rakke, rekke, from Middle Dutch rac, recke, rec (Dutch rek), see rekken.

(gambling) A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.


placer

a third-placer

(gambling, in combination) A horse, etc. that finishes in a particular place in a race.


one-armed bandit

en-noun

one-armed bandit (plural one-armed bandits)

one-armed bandits (plural)
one-arm bandit (alternative)

From one-armed (“having only one arm”) + bandit (“one who robs others in a lawless area, especially as part of a group; one who cheats others”), referring to the fact that the machine is operated by a single handle, and “steals” money from losing players.

com

(originally US, gambling) A gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels spin; the player wins money or tokens when certain combinations of symbols line up on these reels.


shill

Unknown; attested as verb 1914, as noun 1916. Perhaps an abbreviation of shillaber, attested 1913. The word entered English via carny, originally denoting a carnival worker who pretends to be a member of the audience in an attempt to elicit interest in an attraction.
Speculatively an extended form of German Schieber (“black marketeer, profiteer”) via *shi-la-ber.
There are some suggestions that it originates in the surname Shilaber or Shillibeer, especially George Shillibeer, but proposed origins are dubious as the word is first attested in North America in the 20th century, while proposed models are 19th century British.
American humorist Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (1814–1890) was known to write under the name Mrs. Ruth Partington to lend credibility to some of his ideas. This is one more possible origin of the word, although there is no specific evidence supporting a connection.

der

There may even be a casino shill sitting adjacent to you. Normally, the casino shills are gorgeous women, and sometimes men, so enjoy the scenery.

2000, Dennis R. Harrison, Casino Gambling: Your Absolute, Quintessential, All You Wanted to Know ...:


tat

(UK, gambling, slang, archaic) Alternative form of tatt (“a die, especially one that is loaded”).


dolly

Welsh: doli

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

rattaat

term not specific to bridge construction

(gambling) A marker placed on the winning number by the dealer at roulette.


player

From Middle English pleyer, playere, from Old English pleġere (“player, athlete, wrestler”), from Proto-West Germanic *plegārī. Equivalent to play + -er.


scalp

en-verb

scalp (third-person singular simple present scalps, present participle scalping, simple past and past participle scalped)

scalps (present singular third-person)
scalping (participle present)
scalped (participle past)
scalped (past)

From Middle English scalp, skalp, scalpe (“crown of the head; skull”). Originally a northern word, and therefore probably from a North Germanic source, although the sense-development is unclear; compare Sylt North Frisian Skolp (“dandruff”), Old Norse skálpr (“sheath”), Old Swedish skalp, Dutch schelp (“shell”).

The only sure thing about scalping the Series today is that the scalper is paying the bookie a greater profit because he is making a greater number of bets.

1961, John Scarne, Complete Guide to Gambling, page 102:

(gambling) To bet on opposing competitors so as to make a profit from the bookmaker.


post

post (third-person singular simple present posts, present participle posting, simple past and past participle posted)

posts (present singular third-person)
posting (participle present)
posted (participle past)
posted (past)
poast (alternative obsolete)

Chinese: po

Inherited from Old English post (“pillar, door-post”) and Latin postis (“a post, a door-post”) through Old French. .

inh+

Since Jim was new to the game, he had to post $4 in order to receive a hand.

(transitive) To deposit a payment that may or may not be returned.


concave

From Middle English concave, from Old French concave, from Latin concavus.

Coordinate term: convex

(gambling) A playing card made concave for use in cheating.


convex

Borrowed from Middle French convexe, from Latin convexus (“arched”).

Coordinate term: concave

(gambling) A playing card made convex for use in cheating.

Of all the devices for defrauding at poker, the “shiner,” or “convex” […] Modern convexes are also considerably larger than those of former days.

2019, John Philip Quinn, Fools of Fortune; or, Gambling and Gamblers:

(gambling) A small convex mirror used to cheat by observing other players' cards.


make good

en-verb

make good (third-person singular simple present makes good, present participle making good, simple past and past participle made good)

makes good (present singular third-person)
making good (participle present)
made good (participle past)
made good (past)

After all the players who determine to go in have made good the bet of the player who opened the Jack Pot, and the hands have been filled […]

1885, William Brisbane Dick, The American Hoyle: Or, Gentleman's Hand-book of Games:

(gambling) To match the first player's bet with one's own, rather than dropping out.


craps

From Louisiana Creole craps, a corruption of English crabs.

“As an inventor,” Bob Mason suggested, “you're a howling success at shooting craps ! If I were as free of spavins, ringbone, saddle-galls, and splints as you are, I'd have that nanny-goat in here, hog-tie her, flop her and let the boy help himself. […]”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XII, in The Understanding Heart:

Start off the dice-rollin' mats for craps to cee-lo / With side-bets, I roll a deuce, nothin' below

1994, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:

(gambling, dice games) A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap.


knap

knap (third-person singular simple present knaps, present participle knapping, simple past and past participle knapped)

knaps (present singular third-person)
knapping (participle present)
knapped (participle past)
knapped (past)
knap (infinitive)
knap (first-person present singular)
knapped (first-person past singular)
knap (present second-person singular)
knappest (archaic present second-person singular)
knapped (past second-person singular)
knappedst (archaic past second-person singular)
knaps (present singular third-person)
knappeth (archaic present singular third-person)
knapped (past singular third-person)
knap (plural present)
knapped (past plural)
knap (present subjunctive)
knapped (past subjunctive)
knap (imperative present)
knapping (participle present)
knapped (participle past)

The verb is derived from Late Middle English knappen (“to strike (something)”); further etymology uncertain, probably related to Middle Dutch knappen, cnappen (“to break (something) with a sharp sound, snap; to crack or crackle”) (modern Dutch knappen), probably ultimately onomatopoeic.
The noun is derived from Late Middle English knap, knappe (“sharp blow, strike”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from the verb (see above), or related to an ancestor of Danish knep and Swedish knäpp (“a flick, rap, snap”), probably ultimately onomatopoeic.

napauttaa

(transitive) to say (something) crisply or sharply; (intransitive) to speak crisply or sharply

(gambling, chiefly dice games, obsolete) To cheat while gambling, especially at a dice game.


knap

'Tis your pence a piece, / […] / Preſto begon? or come aloft? VVhat vvay? / Doublets? or Knap? The Cog? lovv Dice? or high?

a. 1659 (date written), John Cleveland, “The Publick Faith”, in The Works of Mr. John Cleveland, […], London: […] R. Holt, for Obadiah Blagrave, […], published 1687, →OCLC, page 200:

And fights vvith Money-bags as bold, / As men vvith Sand-bags did of old: / […] Engages blind and ſenſeleſs Hap / 'Gainſt High, and Lovv, and Slur and Knap, […]

a. 1681 (date written), Samuel Butler, “Satyr”, in R[obert] Thyer, editor, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1759, →OCLC, page 83, lines 45–46 and 51–52:

(figurative, gambling, chiefly dice games, obsolete) A method of cheating at a dice game.


reader

From Middle English reder, redar, redere, redare, from Old English rēdere, rǣdere (“a reader; scholar; diviner”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādāri, equivalent to read + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Räider (“advisor”), Dutch rader (“advisor”), German Rater (“advisor”).

LUMINOUS READERS—Marked cards that can be read only through tinted glasses.

1961, United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations, Gambling and Organized Crime, Parts 1, 2, 3. 87-1, page 286:

Of the 150,000,000 decks of cards sold each year in America, Scarne estimates that 1 percent get marked at some point. Yet, as he discovered in his 1972 gambling survey, only 2 percent of average players have any idea of how to detect these "readers."

1991, John Bowyer Bell, Barton Whaley, Cheating and Deception, page 185:

(slang, gambling, in the plural) Marked playing cards used by cheaters.


back out

en-verb

back out (third-person singular simple present backs out, present participle backing out, simple past and past participle backed out)

backs out (present singular third-person)
backing out (participle present)
backed out (participle past)
backed out (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-back out.wav

1921, Henry Luttrell, Crockford's : Or Life in the West Sketch No. III
Whatever you throw is your chance. I called five for the main, which is the out chance, and threw seven to it, which is the in chance. If I throw five first, I lose, and if seven I win. You can back me in by betting the odds, or you can back me out, by taking the odds, the bank answers either way.

See also: sell short


pike

pike (third-person singular simple present pikes, present participle piking, simple past and past participle piked)

pikes (present singular third-person)
piking (participle present)
piked (participle past)
piked (past)

From Middle English pyke, pyk, pik, pike (“pike; sharp point, iron tip of a staff or spear, pointed toe of an item of footwear; sharp tool; mountain, peak”), from Old English pīc (“pointed object, pick axe”), and Middle French pique (“long thrusting weapon”), from Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz, *pīkō (“sharp point, pike, peak”), related to pick with a narrower meaning.
The word is cognate with Middle Dutch pecke, peke, picke (modern Dutch piek), German Pike, Norwegian pik, Danish pig, and possibly Old Irish pīk. It is a doublet of pique.
The diving or gymnastics position is probably from tapered appearance of the body when the position is executed.
The carnivorous freshwater fish is probably derived from the “sharp point, spike” senses, due to the fish’s pointed jaws.
The verb sense “to quit or back out of a promise” may be from the sense of taking up pilgrim's staff or pike and leaving on a pilgrimage; and compare Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”) and Old Danish pikke af (“to go away”).

cog

I put the temporary squinch on the rum bug when I got there and piked along at a ten-cent table with the last two dollars I had.

1900, Clarence Louis Cullen, Tales of the Ex-tanks: A Book of Hard-luck Stories, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap […], →OCLC, page 339:

Not that my wife is an inveterate gambler; as a matter of fact the poor kid hasn't any card sense at all and doesn't even care for it. She only piked along because I—I compelled her to.

1920, Isabel Ostrander, “The Lure of Chance”, in How Many Cards?, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, […], →OCLC, page 188:

I found no difficulty in obtaining admission to the Navarre's long gambling room, where I "piked" by placing two-bit bets on the numbered roulette board.

1964, Gilbert Patten (“Burt L. Standish”), edited by Harriet Hinsdale, assisted by Tony London, Frank Merriwell’'s “Father”: An Autobiography, Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, →OCLC, page 208:

(intransitive, gambling) To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.


get on

en-verb

get on (third-person singular simple present gets on, present participle getting on, simple past got on, past participle (UK) got on or (US) gotten on)

gets on (present singular third-person)
getting on (participle present)
got on (past)
got on (UK participle past)
gotten on (US participle past)

to get on a horse or a man

(slang, archaic, transitive, gambling) To place a bet on.


banco

From Italian banco. Doublet of banc, bank, and bench.

Bond had spent the last two afternoons and most of the nights at the Casino, playing complicated progression systems on the even chances at roulette. He made a high banco at chemin-de-fer whenever he heard one offered.

1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 4, in Casino Royale, page 23:

(gambling) In baccarat or chemin de fer, a bet on the banker hand.


across the board

Originated with horse racing, where an "across the board" bet was one which covered first, second and third on the betting board.

(gambling) Having an equal amount staked on a competitor placing first, second, or third.


patent

en-noun

patent (countable and uncountable, plural patents)

The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either:
* a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or
* directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin patēns, littera patēns, litterae patentēs).
For the derivation of Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (adjective) in lettre patente, see etymology 2 below.
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

patent lettre, patent lettres, patente lettre, patente lettres

der

[ˈpʰæ̝ʔn̩t̚]

[ˈpʰe̞ɪʔn̩t̚]

(gambling) The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.


rundown

→ Spanish: rondón

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rundown.wav

Comes post-time, and I am at the bookie joint listening the running descriptions and rundowns, […]

I would say this: If you are in a community where you do not have the rundown sheet on the horses in the race, do what they have done in Sacramento.

1960, American Trial Lawyers Association, Convention Proceedings, page 455:

(gambling) A summary of the horses to be raced on a particular day, with their weights, jockeys, odds, etc.


quiniela

quinielas (plural)
quinella (alternative)

(gambling) A kind of bet in which the first- and second-place finishers must be predicted, but (unlike a perfecta) not necessarily in the correct order.


cooler

(poker, gambling, colloquial) A cold deck.


junket

From Middle English jonket (“basket made of rushes”), from Medieval Latin iuncta, possibly from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”) and therefore a possible doublet of jonquil.
Meaning shifted to “feast or banquet” by 1520s, probably via the notion of a picnic basket. This in turn led to the sense of “pleasure trip” (1814), and then to specifically to “trip made ostensibly for business but which entails merrymaking or entertainment” by 1886 in American English.

(gambling) A gaming room for which the capacity and limits change daily, often rented out to private vendors who run tour groups through them and give a portion of the proceeds to the main casino.


Heinz

From the H. J. Heinz Company's "57 Varieties" slogan.

(UK, gambling, slang) A full-cover bet of doubles and upwards, consisting of six selections in 57 bets.


bookmaker

From Middle English bokmakere, boke maker, equivalent to book + maker.

(gambling) A person (or a business) who calculates odds and accepts bets, especially on horse racing; a bookie.

مُرَاهِن

a person who calculates odds and accepts bets; a bookie


stripper

(gambling) A playing card that has been trimmed so that a cheat can recognise it from the back.


stool pigeon

From the act of tying or even nailing a pigeon to a stool to act as a decoy by hunters. Alternatively, from an alteration of stale (“decoy”) + pigeon.

(slang, obsolete, gambling) A decoy used in a crooked gambling game.


shortstop

The shortstops and desperados were not permitted to play in this marker crap game.

(gambling) A player who is short of money.


scratch card

scratch cards (plural)
scratchcard (alternative)

(gambling) A lottery ticket containing sections covered with an opaque waxy film which may be removed by scratching to reveal symbols that show whether or not a prize has been won.


locksmith

From Middle English loksmith; equivalent to lock + smith.

(gambling, slang) someone who only bets when they are sure they will win


sleeper

From Middle English sleper, equivalent to sleep + -er.

(slang, gambling) A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.


trifecta

The conservative player will play the exacta box bet and the occasional trifecta box wager.

2006, Vincent Conti, Thoroughbred Horse Racing Systems and Methodologies, page 9:

In a trifecta, you must wager on three horses: the one that finishes first (win), the one that finishes second (place), and the one that finishes third (show) in order.

2010, Leonard A. Asimow, Mark M. Maxwell, Probability and Statistics with Applications: A Problem Solving Text, page 10:

(gambling) A bet in which the bettor must select the first three placegetters of a race in the order in which they finish.

troikka

bet on the first three places of a race in the order


ammo

en-noun

ammo (usually uncountable, plural ammos)

(slang, games, gambling, uncommon) Chips or money, usually at a casino.


snake eyes

From the resemblance of the two single pips to the eyes of a snake.

Coordinate term: boxcars

It’s as if snake eyes, which should occur randomly only once every 36 times you roll a pair of dice, were coming up once every four times.

2021 June 29, Michael E. Mann, Susan Joy Hassol, “That Heat Dome? Yeah, It’s Climate Change.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(gambling, dice games, idiomatic) Two ones, after rolling two dice.


parlay

en-verb

parlay (third-person singular simple present parlays, present participle parlaying, simple past and past participle parlayed)

parlays (present singular third-person)
parlaying (participle present)
parlayed (participle past)
parlayed (past)
parley (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-parlay.wav

The verb is derived from paroli (“cumulative bet in card games”), possibly modified under the influence of French parler (“to speak, talk”). Paroli is derived from French paroli (“double stake”), from Italian paroli, plural of parolo (first-person singular present indicative of parare (“to protect or shield (from); to prepare”), from Latin parāre, present active infinitive of parō (“to arrange, prepare; to furnish, provide”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; to carry forth, fare”)) + Italian -lo (suffix meaning ‘it; this or that thing’).
The noun is derived from the verb.

der

(ambitransitive, gambling) To carry forward the stake and winnings from a bet on to a subsequent wager or series of wagers.


parlay

GARNETT. (Sharply.) Would someone mind telling a visitor the details of this Operation Snitch? / DENNIS. Kind of a three-horse-parlay, Cliff: Posenleben, Schweinhafen … (Eyes Prescott and Jenks.) And one other.

1947, William Wister Haines, Command Decision: Play in Three Acts, acting edition, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, published 1974, →OCLC, act I, page 17:

They heard the placing of bets of $1, $2 and $3 and $5 "round robin parlays" on horses with names such as Ham Bone, Little Colleen, Miss Ellaneous, Fighting Thru, Papa Charlie, Dandy Foot, William Tell, Knot Hole, Betsy Marie, Poocha and Under the Rug.

1955 March 14, Michael Musmanno, Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, “Appendix: Dissenting Opinion of Musmanno, J., of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania”, in In the Supreme Court of the United States: No. 111: October Term, 1955. Isaac Chaitt, Petitioner, v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Respondent. Petition for Writ of Certiorari and Appendix, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lemuel B. Schofield, attorney for petitioner, page 52:

The officer's affidavit was to the effect that he and another officer had made "extensive investigation of gambling operations" locally; he had information that a local printing company "printed parlay cards which were being used for betting on college and professional football games;" [...]

1973 October 1, Frank Holt, Associate Justice, Arkansas Supreme Court, “Appendix A: … Claude Earl Flaherty and Gene Whipple, Appellants v. State of Arksansas, Appellee”, in In the Supreme Court of the United States: October Term, 1973: Claude Earl Flaherty and Gene Whipple, Petitioners, v. State of Arkansas, Respondent. Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Arkansas, Fort Smith, Ark.: Franklin Wilder, counsel for petitioners, published 1973, page 21:

One of the most common and important types of probability problems is what gamblers call "parlays." When you bet a parlay, you are betting on the outcome of two or more events with the stipulation that all of your selection must be right in order for you to win. [...] Most gamblers think solely of sporting events when they think of parlays. Actually, any time you figure the probability that all of a number of events (each with its own separate probability) will occur you are figuring a parlay.

2005 March, David Sklansky, “Mathematics of Parlays”, in Getting the Best of It, Las Vegas, Nev.: Two Plus Two Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Probability: The Mathematics of Gambling), page 17:

(originally US, gambling) A bet or series of bets where the stake and winnings are cumulatively carried forward; an accumulator.


roulette wheel

(gambling) A slotted wheel that rotates horizontally; players bet on which slot the ball will stop in.


tatt

"Oh," said Killigrew, "you had the wit not to give yourselves out for sharpers?"
"Yes, sir; we used common dice; not tatts."
"You'd best keep the tatts till he's drunk," said Killigrew drily, "for I think you'll find my lord has a head on his shoulders when he's sober."

1897, Frances Heath Freshfield, The Wrothams of Wrotham Court, page 73:

(UK, gambling, slang, archaic) A die, especially one that is loaded.


on the nose

It was three o'clock. They were running the third race at Santa Anita and he had ten bucks on the nose.

1941 February, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Fun in an Artist’s Studio”, in Esquire:

I once knew a fag dip into the till—not the whole two thousand at once on the nose win or Sing Sing.[…]

1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 128:

(slang, gambling) Being a bet on a horse to finish first.


Nina

Borrowed into English in the nineteenth century, apparently from several sources. Many borrowings are of Russian Ни́на (Nína), the name of a Georgian saint in the fourth century, also known as Nino, of obscure origin and meaning, possibly connected with the Assyrian king Ninus. Others are of an Italian short form of diminutives like Annina from Anna and Giovannina from Giovanna.
Phonologically or orthographically similar names are present in several languages, including Afrikaans, Hindi, Italian, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and some Native American languages. In many of those, it is a nickname for names ending in -ina or -nina.
(hidden message in crossword): After Nina Hirschfeld, the daughter of the American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld; her name was often concealed in his drawings.

Nina from Pasadena
Nina from Pasadena#English

(gambling, dice games) Ellipsis of Nina from Pasadena.


three-up

(gambling) A gambling game played with three coins.


buster

Originally a dialectal variant of burster; later influenced by bust + -er.
The combining form of the term has appeared from the early 20th century but been especially prolific during three periods: in the 1930s, owing to the success of the radio series Gang Busters; in the 1940s, owing to its appearance as military slang; and in the 1980s, owing to the success of the movie Ghostbusters.

rebenta-

person or thing that breaks or overwhelms

Tops and Bottoms (also Tops, Busters, Ts, Mis-spots): These are the dice used by the professional cheats.

1961, John Scarne, Complete Guide to Gambling, page 283:

To make six-eight, natural dice, or busters, he would take unspotted dice and then grind and color only the spots he wanted.

1977, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, The Development of the Law of Gambling: 1776-1976, page 423:

(gambling, slang) A cheat's die whose sides bear only certain combinations of spots, so that undesirable values can never be rolled.


crabs

(gambling, slang) A dice roll of two aces.


pooper

(gambling) A selection in a slot machine game that ends the picking bonus.


cackle

en-verb

cackle (third-person singular simple present cackles, present participle cackling, simple past and past participle cackled)

cackles (present singular third-person)
cackling (participle present)
cackled (participle past)
cackled (past)

From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin.
Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ċeahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

Danny cackled the dice furiously in his cupped hand, then rolled them so they stopped inches from Slattery's hands. The result was the same as before – a seven.

1941, Mignon Good Eberhart, The Third Mystery Book: Six Short Mysteries, page 120:

[…] they spun all right, or so it seemed, and hit the wall all right, or so it seemed, but bottom line was this: The stirring of the dice was merely cackling, the cubes artfully framed so that the spots in the kid's fists showed 4‐4 up‐right and weren't really rattled but rather, held in control by the pinky, forefinger and thumb; […]

2015, Jack Engelhard, The Prince of Dice, page 11:

(transitive, gambling, slang) To pretend to rattle (dice) in one's hand while gripping them so that they maintain their orientation.


skinner

From Middle English skynner, skinner, skynnere, schynnere, equivalent to skin + -er. Cognate with Old Norse skinnari (“skinner”), Old Swedish skinnare (“skinner”), Middle Low German schinder, schinner (“skinner”).

(gambling, slang) An instance of skinning the lamb, i.e. a bookmaker winning all of his bets where nobody backed the winner.


quinella

quinellas (plural)
quiniela (alternative)

From American Spanish quiniela (“sporting bet or pool”); US from 1942.

bor

1954, Michigan Department of State Compilation Commission, 1954 Michigan Administrative Code, page 38,
All tickets on the quinella will be calculated in an entirely separate pool.

A few tracks offer exactas and quinallas on the same races.

1989, Charles S. Romanelli, How to Make Money in One Day at the Track, page 166:

The track quinella paid $38.00 for a $2 wager, the track exacta paid $70.60 for a $2 wager.

2004, Jim Kilby, Jim Fox, Anthony F. Lucas, Casino Operations Management, page 355:

(gambling, horse racing) A form of bet in which the bettor predicts the first two finishers in a race, without concern for the order of finishing.


dispatcher

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dispatcher.wav

First see that each die has all six figures upon it, for some dice are dispatchers, made with double numbers, […]

1897, Robert Frederick Foster, Foster's Complete Hoyle, page 565:

He also knew, with another proficient glance, that the dice the youngster jiggled were likely a pair of dispatchers—so named because they effectively "dispatched" their intended targets: suckers.

2013, Lisa Plumley, The Honor-Bound Gambler, page 9:

(gambling, slang) Any die used for cheating, whether fraudulently weighted or bearing duplicate numbers.


wong

en-verb

wong (third-person singular simple present wongs, present participle wonging, simple past and past participle wonged)

wongs (present singular third-person)
wonging (participle present)
wonged (participle past)
wonged (past)

(gambling) To enter a betting game, particularly blackjack, when the odds are favorable.


bevel

From Middle English *bevel, from Anglo-Norman *baivel (whence obsolete French beauveau) a diminutive of Old French baïf (“open-mouthed”), perhaps from baer (“to gape”), from Medieval Latin *batāre (“to gape, yawn, be open”), probably of imitative origin. If so, then related to Italian badare.

onomatopoeic

imitative

The different types of dice made for cheating (flat passers, bevels, cut edges, loaded dice, […]

1974, The New York Times Book Review, volume 2, page 35:

Bevels are shapes having one or more sides sandpapered so that they are slightly rounded rather than flat.

1978, John Scarne, Scarne's Guide to Casino Gambling, page 176:

(gambling) A die used for cheating, having some sides slightly rounded instead of flat.


hot money

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hot money.wav

The hot money is on Fishface to win the 3:30.

(gambling) The largest total of money staked on a race, etc.


stacks

With that 70-1 shot winning the second leg, this pick 5 is going to pay stacks.

(gambling, slang) A large amount of money, especially winnings.


back in

en-verb

back in (third-person singular simple present backs in, present participle backing in, simple past and past participle backed in)

backs in (present singular third-person)
backing in (participle present)
backed in (participle past)
backed in (past)

1921, Henry Luttrell, Crockford’s: Or Life in the West, Sketch No. III
Whatever you throw is your chance. I called five for the main, which is the out chance, and threw seven to it, which is the in chance. If I throw five first, I lose, and if seven I win. You can back me in by betting the odds, or you can back me out, by taking the odds, the bank answers either way.

(gambling) To bet that a player or team will win, as opposed to bet that they will lose.


scalper

iemand die toegangskaarten meestal duur doorverkoopt

The only sure thing about scalping the Series today is that the scalper is paying the bookie a greater profit because he is making a greater number of bets.

1961, John Scarne, Complete Guide to Gambling, page 102:


gamester

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[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:


crap out

crap out (third-person singular simple present craps out, present participle crapping out, simple past and past participle crapped out)

craps out (present singular third-person)
crapping out (participle present)
crapped out (participle past)
crapped out (past)

(gambling, intransitive) To lose a game of craps by rolling a seven.


high roller

high rollers (plural)
high-roller (alternative)

/ˈhaɪ ˈɹəʊlə/

/ˈhaɪ ˈɹoʊlɚ/

They were all "high rollers" against faro, had plenty of money, and, if the cards came favorably, would "chaw up" a bank in double-quick time.

1873, [John O’Connor], “Inventors”, in John Morris, editor, Wanderings of a Vagabond. An Autobiography, New York, N.Y.: Published by the author, →OCLC, page 178:

Before long, Zarin developed a reputation as an extravagant "high roller" who routinely bet the house maximum while playing craps, his game of choice. Considered a "valued gaming patron" by Resorts, Zarin had his credit limit increased at regular intervals without any further credit checks, and was provided a number of complimentary services and privileges.

1990 October 10, Robert Cowen (Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit), Zarin v. Commissioner, archived from the original on 2017-10-19, 916 F. 2d 110:

He was a bigger net yield than any two or three girls because a satisfied woman was far more generous than a depleted john. And frequently, Rocco owed a high-roller a favor and the girl came back with nothing.

2005, Joseph Levy, High Roller: A Novel, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 24:

Chief among the dire presentiments was the suggestion that the ascension of Labour to power would result in Radiohead ceasing touring and instead taking up a residency at a Las Vegas resort. The image of Thom Yorke serenading Sin City's high rollers with a rousing chorus of Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors was mind-boggling, but you could see why some press went on the offensive.

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2017-11-12:

(gambling) A gambler who wagers large amounts of money, usually in a casino.


fruit machine

From fruit + machine.
* (slot machine): From originating with machines with fruit pictures
* (criminology): From being a machine used to identify fruits (“homosexuals”)
* (food): From being a machine containing fruits

(British, gambling) A slot machine, especially one having spinning wheels marked with pictures of fruit.


cash out

cash out (third-person singular simple present cashes out, present participle cashing out, simple past and past participle cashed out)

cashes out (present singular third-person)
cashing out (participle present)
cashed out (participle past)
cashed out (past)

(US, gambling) To retire; to exchange gambling chips for money when finished gambling.


wheel of fortune

en-noun

wheel of fortune (plural wheels of fortune)

/ˌwiːl‿əv ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːn/

-ɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃuːn

From Wheel of Fortune, referring to the spinning of the Roman goddess Fortuna’s wheel which determined people’s fortunes.

(gambling) A gambling or lottery device consisting of a wheel which is spun horizontally to determine, by its stopping position, whether a gambler will receive one of the prizes marked around its circumference.


round robin

round robins (plural)
round-robin (alternative)

/ˌɹaʊnd ˈɹɒbɪn/

From round (adjective) + robin. Sense 1 (“senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around”) is connected with the word round, while sense 2 (“senses relating to people, animals, or plants”) is connected with some English regional senses of the word robin where it is used in the names of various fish and plants which are not related to the red-breasted bird. However, apart from the alliteration, it is not clear why the two words came to be linked together in compounds. It is possible that the term was first used to refer to sense 1.13.1 (“consecrated host”) which appears to be the earliest attested sense, and then extended to other senses either having the sense of round or robin.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a corruption of French ruban rond (literally “round ribbon”), referring to the practice in 17th-century France of signing on ribbons which were then attached to petitions of grievances in a circular manner: see sense 1.1. However, this etymology does not explain the senses of the term unrelated to a signed document.

der

(also attributive) Senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around.

(gambling) A form of bet on the full set of possible combinations from a group of events, racehorses, teams, etc., such as the outcomes A and B, B and C, and A and C from a group consisting of A, B, and C.

round robin -järjestelmäveto

form of bet on the full set of possible combinations from a group of events, etc.


flat store

He had told me that in the old days in Chicago he had run a flat-store with a partner who had tuberculosis and also smoked cigars.

1962: Saul Bellow & Keith Botsford, The Noble Savage, p59 (World Pub. Co)

In shared-memory languages for parallel programming, the model is one of a global flat store equipped with various synchronization primitives.

1998, Michael Maher, Jean-Francois Puget, Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming — CP98, Springer, →ISBN, page 1, →ISBN:

The PDC uses the AD but exposes the data as a flat store, as in Windows NT.

2000: Syngress Media, Inc, MCSE Windows 2000 Server Study Guide (exam 70–215), p75 (McGraw–Hill Professional; →ISBN (10) (13))

2001: Elizabeth A. Wheeler, Uncontained: Urban Fiction in Postwar America, p139 (The Rutgers University Press; →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13)); quoting an unknown source
“It sat on the top of a steep, unpaved hill and commanded an uninspiring view of clean, gray concrete that was six lanes wide and an assortment of boxy, flat store buildings and spacious super gas-stations” (117).

These systems are often cheaper to install than conventional horizontal ducting and have the advantage over above-floor ducts that they are unlikely to be damaged by tractors unloading the flat store.

2004, Peter Golob, Crop Post-Harvest: Science and Technology Durables, Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, page 80, →ISBN:

(gambling, slang) A crooked gambling establishment, such as a casino running rigged or fixed (dishonest) games of chance.


roll over

en-verb

roll over (third-person singular simple present rolls over, present participle rolling over, simple past and past participle rolled over)

rolls over (present singular third-person)
rolling over (participle present)
rolled over (participle past)
rolled over (past)

(gambling) To reinvest funds from a lottery into a subsequent one, in the event that a prize was not won.


even odds

(gambling, speculation) An opportunity in which the chance of success is equal to that of failure.


playthrough

playthroughs (plural)
play-through (alternative)

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(gambling) The cumulative monetary amount that must be wagered before an account may be withdrawn, typically stated as a multiple of the initial deposit.


horseplayer

Trailing a field of talented horseplayers that day, he made a few shrewd picks to move ahead, then held on down the stretch to earn $50,000.

2007 July 1, Vincent M. Mallozzi, “Handicapping the Handicappers”, in New York Times:

(gambling) A person who bets on horse races.


boat race

"Now," Herbie says, dropping his voice away down low, in case old Cap Duhaine may be around somewhere listening, "it is the third race, and the horse is a horse by the name of Never Despair. It is a boat race," Herbie says. "They are going to shoo in Never Despair. Everything else in the race is a cooler," he says.

1944, Damon Runyon, “A Story Goes With It”, in Stories à la Carte:

(gambling, slang) A fixed horse race, with a specific horse arranged to win in advance.


seven out

seven out (third-person singular simple present sevens out, present participle sevening out, simple past and past participle sevened out)

sevens out (present singular third-person)
sevening out (participle present)
sevened out (participle past)
sevened out (past)

"Why do you push it, Charlie?" he said. "At our age one short game is plenty. Do you see me playing more? One of these days you could seven out.[…]"

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 66:

If the shooter sevens out — rolls a 7 before the point — all the pass-line bets lose.

Casino Gambling for Dummies. Kevin Blackwood, Max (FRW) Rubin. page 136

(gambling, dice games) in the game of craps, to roll a seven after having established the "point".


quaddie

From quadrella + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

2003 March 22, Craig Sherborne, Footy′s Man of Passion, The Herald Sun, republished in 2003, Garrie Hutchinson (editor), The Best Australian Sports Writing 2003, page 82,
He was a footballer, hard-boned, smart-mouthed, with an eye on the quaddie at Flemington.

I had the quaddie in Melbourne if Alinghi won.

2004 November 21, Josh Button, “Cup tips”, in aus.sport.rugby-league (Usenet):

2006, Mike Dillon, From The Horses Mouth: The Keith Haub Story, 2010, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), unnumbered page,
With only the last race to run the trio each had a $1 quaddie unit if Brent Thomson managed to get over the line in front.

For the Fourth week in a row I have had 3 live legs of the Quaddie only to be dudded by West Coast the last two!

2007 July 16, gF, “Screw Fremantle”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

(Australia, gambling, horse racing, colloquial) A quadrella, a type of bet requiring the bettor to pick the winners of four nominated races at the same track; a bet requiring the selection of four winners of specified matches in a given round of a sporting competition.


Trixie

(gambling, slang) A combined bet consisting of three doubles and one treble.


poker chip

A pen-knife, a bunch of keys, a Bland dollar, a punched dime, five pennies, a poker-chip and two cloves falling from a trousers-pocket to the floor in the dead waste and middle of the night, when a man is trying to get to bed without awaking his wife, will make more racket than a young and playful cyclone dallying with a tinware factory.

(gambling) A disk-shaped counter that is used when gambling to represent money.


rack up

rack up (third-person singular simple present racks up, present participle racking up, simple past and past participle racked up)

racks up (present singular third-person)
racking up (participle present)
racked up (participle past)
racked up (past)

(gambling) To collect one's chips and cash out.


freezeout

(gambling, sometimes attributive) A tournament in which players are gradually eliminated and the last remaining player wins everything gambled.


bet up

bet up (third-person singular simple present bets up, present participle betting up, simple past and past participle bet up)

bets up (present singular third-person)
betting up (participle present)
bet up (participle past)
bet up (past)


box up

box up (third-person singular simple present boxes up, present participle boxing up, simple past and past participle boxed up)

boxes up (present singular third-person)
boxing up (participle present)
boxed up (participle past)
boxed up (past)

The book gets behind the money, the mechanic picks up the crap stick and starts boxing up the dice.

1948, Thomas Louis Stix, "Say it Ain't So, Joe.", page 243:

He made no attempt to rip the die back out again, but simply left it in the game and when the dice were boxed up it went into the bowl and was lost […]

1980, John Scarne, Scarne on Dice, page 275:

(transitive, gambling) To shuffle (dice) so that the gamblers can choose from among them.


lammer

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(gambling) A small plastic disk used by a croupier or dealer to track the state of a game of chance or a debt owed; also button or marker.


quadrella

2003 March 22, Craig Sherborne, Footy′s Man of Passion, The Herald Sun, republished in 2003, Garrie Hutchinson (editor), The Best Australian Sports Writing 2003, page 79,
Demetriou is an inveterate punter with a miraculous instinct for picking big quadrellas.

2009, H. G. Nelson (Greig Pickhaver), Sprays: A Collection of Verbal Touch-Ups, unnumbered page,
Imagine jagging a couple of nice trifectas or the quadrella and squaring the Christmas credit-card bill, with a little extra left for a three-week holiday at Victor Harbor. Magic!

2010, Stephen Barkoczy. Australian Tax Casebook, 10th Edition, CCH Australia, page 416,
Instead, the taxpayer relied on his own intuition, placed bets mainly on the totalisator or with on-course bookmakers and was more inclined to place “higher risk” bets such as trifectas and quadrellas.

(gambling, horse racing, Australia, New Zealand) A bet where the bettor must pick the winners of four nominated races at the same track.


cold deck

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cold deck.wav

From the metaphor that the deck (of cards) is cold, in the sense "heartless, emotionless".

The cold deck can be run into play by the cheat himself or by his accomplice […]

1991, A. D. Livingston, Poker Strategy and Winning Play, page 84:

(gambling) A pre-shuffled deck of cards substituted for the real deck in order to cheat.


quadfecta

He won the Superfecta and the Quadfecta all in the same day at Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles.

2010, George V. Bush, Magazine Man “A Slave To The Sale”, unnumbered page:

(gambling, horse racing) A bet in which the bettor must select the winners of the first four places (i.e., first, second, third, and fourth) of a race in the correct order.


double down

double down (third-person singular simple present doubles down, present participle doubling down or (nonstandard) double downing, simple past and past participle doubled down or (nonstandard) double downed)

doubles down (present singular third-person)
doubling down (participle present)
double downing (nonstandard participle present)
doubled down (participle past)
doubled down (past)
double downed (nonstandard participle past)
double downed (nonstandard past)
double-down (alternative)

He'd bet three thousand and double down to six thousand, all of it hanging on the turn of the next card.

1999, Frederick Barthelme, Steven Barthelme, Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss, →ISBN, page 66:

(gambling, intransitive) To double one's wager, particularly, the name of a specific doubling bet allowed in blackjack.


rebluff

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rebluff.wav

(gambling, rare) Act of responding to a bluff with another bluff.


Dutch book

(gambling) A set of trades or bets such that, regardless of the outcome of events, one party strictly profits and another strictly loses.


intertrack

Among them was Teleview Racing Patrol, which he built into the leading source of closed-circuit broadcasts of horse racing to off-track betting and intertrack wagering sites in the country.

2007 August 13, Edward Wyatt, “Merv Griffin, Television Innovator, Dies at 82”, in New York Times:

(gambling, of a race) Having contenders entered by different racecourses.


pay table

(gambling) A table of values determining the payouts for various outcomes at the game.


dope sheet

dope sheets (plural)
dopesheet (alternative)
dope-sheet (alternative)

The Bruins, seeking their third straight NCAA title, are picked on The Times dope sheet with 59 points.

1973 June 7, Harely Tinkham, “Trojan Stock Soars as Bruins Come Up Hobbling for NCAA”, in Los Angeles Times, page P1:

Also, he probably attends harness races, for he once accidentally left a dope sheet behind.

2002, Walt McConville, Trabler Travel Tales, →ISBN, page 83:

(idiomatic, gambling) A publication, updated very frequently and used by people who make horse racing wagers, which summarizes information about the horses running in specific races; a publication which provides background information and/or predictions used by people wagering on any sort of competition.


autoplay

(gambling) A slot machine feature that automatically performs a number of spins at the same bet amount.


handcuff artist

en-noun

handcuff artist (plural handcuff artists)

(gambling, slang) A person who only bets when they are sure of a victory.


high-low

(gambling) Designating a blackjack card counting technique in which the lowest cards are worth +1 point and the highest cards −1 point, and the counter places higher bets against higher point totals.


rouf

(costermongers) The number four.
(slang, gambling) Odds of four to one.


dark flow

From dark (“sinister”) + flow (“state of focus”).

compound

We propose that players who experience dark flow have difficulty staying on task in everyday life, but, the reinforcing sights and sounds of slot machines rein in these otherwise wandering minds and induce these flow-like states

2019, Mike J. Dixon, Jeffrey Gutierrez, Madison Stange, Chanel J. Larche, Candice Graydon, Sonia Vintan, Tyler B. Kruger, “Mindfulness Problems and Depression Symptoms in Everyday Life Predict Dark Flow During Slots Play: Implications for Gambling as a Form of Escape”, in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, →DOI:

(gambling, psychology) A state of flow experienced in gambling, especially by slot machine players; a state of intense focus and absorption on gambling.


free spin

(gambling) A slot machine bonus game where the player is awarded reel spins on the same wager.