A reader’s glossary.
A short guide to the institutional, architectural and technical terms used across the archive.
- Casino
- In this publication, an established venue for organised gambling. The term’s historical use is wider than the modern licensed casino; context matters.
- Concession
- An authorisation from a public authority to operate specified activities under defined conditions. Macao’s historical concessions are discussed as institutions, separately from individual buildings.
- Electromechanical
- Combining electrical components with moving mechanical parts. It does not necessarily describe a screen-based or fully software-controlled machine.
- Gaming
- A term frequently used in industry and official documents for gambling. Its appearance in a historical source does not mean that the activity is free from financial risk.
- Integrated resort
- A development that combines casino activity with other functions such as accommodation, meetings, entertainment or retail. The term describes a combination of functions, not a guaranteed economic outcome.
- Kurhaus
- A building associated with the social life and facilities of a European spa town. Baden-Baden’s Kurhaus provides the setting for its casino history.
- Mechanical machine
- A device in which physical mechanisms perform its central operations. The visible form of a cabinet does not by itself establish how its interior works.
- Photochrom
- A colour photomechanical print made using a photographic source. A photochrom view is not the same thing as a modern colour photograph.
- Pokies / poker machines
- Common Australian terms for gaming machines. The name does not mean that every machine simulates the card game of poker.
- Random number generator (RNG)
- A mechanism or software process used to generate values for unpredictable outcomes. A displayed animation should not be confused with a literal view of that selection process.
- Ridotto
- The name used here for the Venetian public gambling establishment authorised in 1638. The word has other historical uses, so an occurrence of it elsewhere need not refer to that institution.
- The Strip
- The resort corridor associated with Las Vegas Boulevard, developed in a different setting from the early downtown casino district. “Las Vegas” and “the Strip” are not interchangeable historical geographies.
These are editorial definitions for reading the historical articles, not a legal dictionary. Follow the archive and its section sources for examples in context.