Casino Speak

I read about casinos and gaming a lot and come across quite a few business terms that I’m unclear on. Their meanings aren’t always logical. Sometimes they’re too logical. While going through some UNLVGaming Research Reports I came across a lot of definitions that I figured I’d share.

  • Win Amount: Cash-in minus payoffs; (for sports: the amount the sports books kept for the calendar year)
  • % Change: Percentage change in win from the previous year
  • % Win Drop: Win as a percentage of drop, AKA hold percentage, the percentage of money wagered that
  • the casino kept
  • Drop: Total amount bet by bettors during the calendar year
  • Total Gaming Win: Total amount won by casinos on all games and devices during the calendar year
  • % Total: Casino win as a percentage of total casino win
  • Win/Unit: Average win per unit for the calendar year
  • Positions: total number of slot machines, plus total table games multiplied by six
  • WP: Win per position
  • WPD: Win per position per day
  • Units: total number of slot machines or table games
  • Win Amount: the total amount won from gamblers
  • WPU: Win per unit: total win divided by total number of units
  • WUD: Win per unit per day
  • Win : Percentage of total money gambled (handle) that casinos kept; also known as hold percentage

There are more casino business terms that aren’t listed here and there are more day-to-day casino terms that I’ll pass on in the future. Craps seems to have a lot of lingo that a lot of people don’t seem to understand.

Craps having its own language is part of what makes it fun, but it’s also nice to lessen the feat and bring new people to the game.

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