The Casino Glossary: Every Term With Its Price Attached

ADR (alternative dispute resolution): the free independent adjudication every licensed operator must provide, binding on them for money disputes — the ladder's third rung. Affordability / financial risk checks: staged assessments of whether spend fits finances — frictionless at moderate levels, documentary at high spend; see the guide. Banker (baccarat): the correct bet — ~1.06% edge after commission; see baccarat. Basic strategy: blackjack's solved lookup table — the published RTP assumes it; see blackjack. Closed loop: withdrawals returning to the depositing method first — your deposit route is your default exit; see payments. Come-out roll: craps' opening roll, before a point is set; see craps. Contribution / weighting: the share of each stake counting toward bonus wagering — slots typically 100%, tables far less; see bonuses. Credit card ban: no credit deposits at licensed British gambling since 2020, wallet wrappers included; see the foundation rule. Fund protection rating: the disclosed grade — not protected, medium, high — describing what happens to balances on operator insolvency; see the licence. GAMSTOP: the national self-exclusion register, mandatory for every licensed site — "not on GAMSTOP" means not licensed; see the guide.

Session bankroll: the month's ceiling divided into per-session money, priced to zero — tier two of the structure. Side bet: any bolt-on wager (pairs, props, insurance, bonus bets) — every one priced above its main game; the gift shop rule. Significant terms: the material conditions that must travel with every advertised offer — the ten-second filter. Stake limits (slots): £5 per spin (25+), £2 (18–24), statutory since 2025, enforced at the selector; see the guide. Sticky / non-withdrawable bonus: promotional credit that never converts to cash — only winnings above it withdraw, roughly halving honest value. Tableau: baccarat's fixed drawing rules — automatic, and never worth learning; see baccarat. Ten-times cap (10×): the legal maximum bonus wagering multiplier since December 2025 — anything higher aimed at Britain is unlicensed; see bonuses and the tracker. Test house: the approved independent laboratory certifying games' randomness and RTP — the fairness layer's auditor. UKGC: the Gambling Commission — Britain's regulator, whose public register is the one-minute check preceding everything; see the licence and the filter. Variance / volatility: how results scatter around the RTP — the ride's shape, never the price; see the guide. Wagering requirement: the mandated betting volume between "credited" and "withdrawable" on a bonus — capped at 10×, priced by the pricer.

Casino numbers confuse mostly at the unit level — the figures are simple, their denominations aren't — and five measurement distinctions settle nearly everything. Percentage points versus percent-of: a game moving from 96% to 94% RTP fell two percentage points but its price (the kept fraction) rose from 4p to 6p per pound — a fifty percent increase; both descriptions are true, and knowing which one a sentence is using is the difference between "barely changed" and "half as expensive again". Per-round versus per-hour: edges quote per round, life happens per hour — and the conversion (× stake × rounds-per-hour) is where pace becomes money, per the manual's standing formula; two games at identical per-round prices can differ severalfold per hour. Per-stake versus per-exposure: multi-position formats (multi-hand, multi-wheel, side-bet spreads) price per total committed, not per named stake — the sizing arithmetic feeds on everything down, and "£1 bets" spanning five positions is £5 of exposure wearing a £1 label. Expected versus realised: expectation is the long-run per-unit figure, realisation is what tonight actually did — the variance pages' whole subject compressed into one distinction, and every "the maths is wrong" complaint on record confuses the two. Theoretical loss versus actual loss: loyalty schemes reward the first (action × edge), players feel the second — which is how a losing month can earn fewer points than a winning one that cycled more. Five distinctions, one habit: before trusting any casino number, ask what it's per — the answer is usually the entire explanation.