Live Casino Glossary: 25 Terms Explained Without the Waffle
RTP, volatility, drought, top slot, wagering, latency: the live casino vocabulary explained plainly, with warnings on the terms people misuse.
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🇮🇹 Leggi in Italiano
⚠️ Legal Notice
Gambling is only permitted for those aged 18 and over. Please gamble responsibly. All casinos mentioned in this article are regulated and licensed by ADM (formerly AAMS), the Italian authority that oversees and authorises legal online gambling in Italy. → Verify the licence on adm.gov.it
Gambling is only permitted for those aged 18 and over. Please gamble responsibly. All casinos mentioned in this article are regulated and licensed by ADM (formerly AAMS), the Italian authority that oversees and authorises legal online gambling in Italy. → Verify the licence on adm.gov.it
Live casino has a vocabulary of its own, half English and half statistics jargon. This glossary collects the terms that show up most often on tables, trackers and reviews, with the essential definition and — where needed — a warning about how they get misused.
Game Maths
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| RTP | Return to Player: the theoretical percentage returned to players over the very long run. A 96% RTP does not mean you get €96 back per €100 staked in your session. |
| House edge | The complement of RTP: the share kept by the house. 96% RTP → 4% house edge. |
| Volatility | How far outcomes swing from the average. High volatility = rare, large wins; low = frequent, small ones. Unrelated to RTP. |
| Variance | The statistical measure behind volatility. In the short run it dominates everything: which is why one session says nothing about RTP. |
| Gambler's fallacy | Believing an outcome absent for many rounds is "due". Wheels and dice have no memory. |
| Law of large numbers | Over very many trials observed frequency tends towards theory. Deviations are not compensated, they are diluted. |
Game Show Mechanics
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Game show | A live game with a host, a set and interactive bonuses: Crazy Time, Monopoly Live, Funky Time. |
| Bonus round | The special phase reached from a rare outcome, where most of the payout is concentrated. |
| Multiplier | A factor multiplying the win on an outcome. Can be fixed or randomly assigned before the round. |
| Top slot | The reel that, before the spin, pairs an outcome with a random multiplier (typical of Crazy Time and Funky Time). |
| Drought | Rounds elapsed since an outcome last landed. It describes the past: it does not raise future probability. |
| Rounds ago | The same figure, in the wording trackers use. |
| First Person | The RNG version of a live game: same graphics, no dealer, outcomes generated by software. |
Table and Bets
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dealer / croupier | Whoever runs the table. They cannot influence the outcome and have no financial stake in it. |
| Betting time | The window in which bets are accepted. It closes on the server before the spin. |
| Inside / outside bets | In roulette: inside on numbers (pay a lot, land rarely), outside on red/black, odd/even, dozens. |
| Side bet | An accessory bet on a secondary event. Almost always carries a higher house edge than the main bet. |
| Table limit | The minimum and maximum stake allowed at the table. |
| Payout | The payment ratio of a winning bet, e.g. 35:1. |
Platform and Rules
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ADM (formerly AAMS) | The Italian licensing authority. The concession number should be checked before depositing. |
| KYC | Identity verification required by law before the first withdrawal. |
| Wagering | A bonus playthrough requirement: how many times it must be staked before withdrawal. |
| RUA | Italy's national self-exclusion register for online gambling. |
| Provider | Whoever makes the games (Evolution, Pragmatic Play, Playtech), distinct from the operator running the site. |
| Latency | The video stream's delay relative to the outcome data. Unavoidable, caused by encoding and buffering. |
See the Terms Applied to Real Data
Droughts, multipliers, histories: on the game pages you'll find them all in action, updated round after round.
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Responsible Gambling
Online gambling should be a form of entertainment, not a source of income. If you feel gambling is becoming a problem, free support resources are available:
- ADM — Responsible Gambling
- GiocoHelpline freephone: 800 558822 (free, 24/7)
- Every ADM casino offers self-exclusion tools, deposit limits and reality-check reminders of time played.
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