Glossary

A

AGCO: Ontario's gambling watchdog. It registers the online sites allowed to take bets in Ontario and makes them follow its rules.
American odds: Odds with a plus or minus: plus shows what you win on $100, minus shows what you bet to win $100.
AML (anti-money laundering): Anti-money laundering ("lutte contre le blanchiment"): the laws and checks that stop criminals from washing dirty money through a casino.
Anjouan licence: A gambling licence from Anjouan, a self-governing island in the Comoros. Tons of crypto casinos have one, and it gets a lot of criticism.

B

Bet builder: A sportsbook feature where you pick a few markets from one game and it spits out one combined price for the whole thing.
Block explorer: A free public website ("explorateur de blocs") where you can look up any crypto transaction, address or block.

C

Cash out: The book offers to settle your bet early for a set amount, usually less than it's really worth, and you decide on the spot.
Cashback: Money back ("remise en argent") on part of what you lost over a set period. Sometimes it comes with wagering attached.
Client seed: Your own input ("graine client") that goes into every provably fair result, so the casino can't work out outcomes on its own.
Closing line value (CLV): Comparing the price you got with the final price before puck drop; beating it regularly is the best sign you bet smart.
Confirmation: Each new block stacked after the one holding your transaction. More confirmations means it's harder to reverse.
Cooling-off period: A short break you put on yourself ("pause" or "période de réflexion"), from 24 hours to a few weeks. You can't cancel it early.
Crash game: A multiplier climbs from 1x until it crashes. Cash out before it does and you win.
Curaçao licence: A gambling licence from the Curaçao Gaming Authority. Lots of crypto casinos use it, and a new law changed the system in December 2024.
Cursor (round): A pointer ("curseur") that jumps to a fresh HMAC result once a game has burned through the 32 bytes of one hash.

D

Decimal odds: One number that shows your total return per dollar, stake included; it's what Mise-o-jeu+ uses, written with a comma.
Deposit limit: A cap ("limite de dépôt") you pick for how much money can go into one casino account in a day, a week or a month.
Destination tag: A number some coins like XRP need on top of the address, so a pooled wallet knows the money is yours.
Dice: A provably fair game ("jeu de dés") where you bet if a random number lands over or under a target you pick.

F

Free spins: Slot spins ("tours gratuits") that don't use your own balance. Whatever you win usually comes as bonus money.
Futures bet: A bet on something decided way down the road, like the Stanley Cup champion, that ties up your money until it settles.

G

Game weighting: How much of each bet ("contribution des jeux") counts toward your wagering requirement. It changes by game type.

H

Hashed server seed: The SHA-256 fingerprint of the casino's secret seed, shown to you before you bet so the casino can't swap the seed later.
HMAC: A hash that uses a secret key. Provably fair games feed the server seed, your client seed and the nonce into HMAC-SHA256.
Hot wallet: A crypto wallet whose keys sit on something connected to the internet. Super handy, but easier to hack.
House edge: The cut a game is built to keep for the casino on average, shown as a percentage of what you bet.

I

iGaming Ontario: The Ontario government agency that runs the province's legal online gambling market through deals with private sites.
Implied probability: The win chance hidden inside the odds: turn any price into a percentage and you see what the book thinks will happen.

K

KYC (know your customer): Know your customer ("vérification d'identité"): the casino checking you're really you, usually with ID, a selfie and a bill with your address.

L

Lightning Network: A fast lane on Bitcoin's back that moves small payments in seconds for almost no fee.
Limbo: You pick a target multiplier. If the random result reaches it or goes higher, you win.
Live betting: Betting while the game is on, with odds that change after every goal, penalty and period until the final horn.
Live dealer games: Table games streamed live from a studio with a real dealer. Physical cards, wheels or dice decide what happens.

M

Max bet rule: A bonus rule ("mise maximale") that caps each bet while you wager, often 5 $ a spin or 10% of the bonus. Break it and you can lose your winnings.
Max cashout: A ceiling ("retrait maximal") on what you can take out from bonus winnings, no matter how much you actually won.
Mines: A grid game: flip safe tiles to grow your multiplier and cash out before you hit a mine.
Mise-o-jeu: Mise-o-jeu is Loto-Québec's sports betting brand: paper slips at lottery retailers and Mise-o-jeu+ online, for players 18+ who are in Quebec.
Moneyline: The simplest hockey bet: you pick who wins the game, overtime and shootout included at most books, and the odds set your payout.

N

Network fee: What you pay the blockchain's miners or validators to process a transfer. It's separate from any casino fee.
No-deposit bonus: A small bonus or a few free spins you get without depositing, almost always with tough rules.
Nonce: A bet counter that goes up by one every time you bet on the same seed pair, so each bet gets its own result.

O

Overround: The amount the probabilities behind a market's odds add up to beyond 100%, which shows how big the book's margin is.

P

Parlay: You stack two or more bets into one ticket; the odds multiply, so the payout jumps, but every single leg has to win.
Plinko: Drop a ball through rows of pegs, watch it bounce, and whatever slot it lands in at the bottom sets your payout.
Point spread: A goal or point handicap that the favourite has to beat and the underdog has to stay within for your bet to cash.
Prop bet: A bet on something that happens inside the game, like a goalie's saves or a player's shots, instead of the final score.
Provably fair: A system ("équitable et vérifiable") that lets you check with math that a result was locked in before you bet and never changed after.
Puck line: Hockey's spread at 1.5 goals: back the favourite at -1.5 and they need a two-goal win, take +1.5 and a one-goal loss still pays.

R

Rakeback: A reward that gives you back part of the house edge on every bet, whether you won it or lost it.
Random number generator (RNG): An RNG (random number generator, "générateur de nombres aléatoires") is the software that decides slot and table game results. Labs certify it.
Return to player (RTP): Return to player ("taux de retour"): the share of all bets a game is built to pay back over a huge number of rounds.

S

Same-game parlay: A combo where every leg comes from one game, like a team win plus a player goal, priced by the book as one package.
Seed rotation: Switching to a new server seed, which makes the casino reveal the old one so you can check those bets.
Self-custody wallet: A wallet where you, and nobody else, hold the keys or recovery phrase. Not the same as money parked at an exchange or casino.
Self-exclusion: A ban you put on yourself ("autoexclusion") to stop gambling at one site, or at every licensed site in a region, for a set time.
Server seed: The casino's secret random value ("graine serveur"). Mixed with your client seed and the nonce, it decides your bet results.
SHA-256: A hash function that turns any input into a fixed 256-bit fingerprint. Casinos use it to lock in their server seed.
Stablecoin: A crypto ("cryptomonnaie stable") built to hold a steady price, almost always pegged to one US dollar, with the issuer holding reserves behind it.
Sticky bonus: Bonus money that's yours to play but never to withdraw. It vanishes from your balance the moment you cash out.

T

Totals (over/under): You bet on the total goals both teams score combined, over or under the number the book sets, without caring who wins.
Transaction hash: The unique ID ("identifiant de transaction") of a crypto transfer. Look it up on a block explorer to see where it's at.

V

Vig (vigorish): The book's built-in cut on every line, the reason both sides of a game pay a bit less than they really should.
Void bet: A bet the book cancels under its rules: your stake comes back, nothing is won or lost, like it never happened.
Volatility: How much a game's results swing around. High volatility: rare big wins. Low volatility: frequent small ones.

W

Wagering requirement: The total you have to bet ("exigence de mise") before bonus money, or what you won with it, can be withdrawn.
Withdrawal limit: The smallest and biggest amount ("limite de retrait") a casino lets you cash out at once, or over a day, week or month.