Ca to Cn - Glossary of Terms

Cage. The place in a casino where the cashier completes monetary transactions with the players. Some cages have bars around them and some do not. In many ways, the cage resembles a bank.

Camouflage. An action which is intended to hide the fact that a player is counting cards.

Cap. To cap a bet is a form of cheating; it means adding to your bet after you receive at least one card.

Card counting. A method of keeping track of the cards by assigning a value to certain cards in the deck. For example, the hi-lo counting system assigns a value of plus one to cards 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and minus one to tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces.

Card eating. Using up cards quickly. A player may spread to more than one hand to accomplish this. For example, if the count is low, a player may spread to two or three hands at a minimum bet to hasten the shuffle.

Carpet joint. A colloquialism for an upscale casino, derived from the days when many casinos did not have carpet. If a casino had carpeted floors, it was considered to be an indication that it was a fancier place than the usual.

Cashier. A person who works in the cage who handles monetary transactions with players. It is similar to what a bank teller would do in a bank.

Casino host. A casino employee who is responsible for dealing with casino patrons and answering queries about casino comps and other amenities. For example, if a rated player were to call a casino to make hotel reservations, he would ask to speak to a casino host in order to get a casino rate or a room comp.

CBJN. An abbreviation for Stanford Wong's Current Blackjack News, a periodical which is available through several different media which describes blackjack playing conditions throughout the United States and in some Canadian casinos.

CC. 1. The acronym for card counting. 2. The acronym for Circus Circus, a casino.

Check. A casino chip. Also commonly spelled as cheque by some people.

Checks play. A term often used by dealers to notify the pit boss that a player has made a significantly large bet. The amount of a bet that will trigger such a response varies wildly from casino to casino. It could be a bet as small as five red chips ($25) in some casinos or a bet with several black chips in other casinos.

Cheque. See check.

Chip. A token used by the casino to represent a certain monetary value. Players exchange cash for chips at the tables and then cash-in their chips at the cashier's cage.

Clump. Clump is a term used for either (a) cards of the same value, massed together in the shoe, or (b) cards in a sequence that favors heavily the house or the player.

Clumper, Clumping. Clumping means like cards sticking together, which is what clumpers think cards do. Card Clumpers look at what cards have come out of the current shoe and, based on this information, predict (read guess) the denomination of the next card(s) to be dealt from the current shoe. Clumping is not a way to get an edge over the casino. Clumping is not the same thing as shuffle tracking.

CM. The acronym for "Chinese mafia", an expression used by Atlantic City locals to describe slot fleas.