Gambling terms, explained straight

Casino & Table Games

Casino shoe

A casino shoe is a gaming device that holds multiple decks of playing cards, used to deal games like blackjack and baccarat.

Also called
dealer’s shoe, dealing shoe 1
Typical deck sizes
4, 6, or 8 decks 23
Common games
Blackjack (more than 2 decks) and baccarat punto banco (6 or 8 decks) 23

Key points

  • Cards are placed in the shoe and dealt one at a time, reducing shuffle time between hands. 24
  • The shoe can reduce dealer cheating opportunities. 1
  • Blackjack shoe games typically use more than 2 decks; baccarat punto banco commonly uses 6 or 8 decks. 23

Where this term is used

Casino games Casino The gambling venue itself, not the dealing device. Casino games Casino chips Tokens used instead of cash at gaming tables. Casino games Casino gambling chips Another term for casino chips used for wagering. Casino games Casino craps A dice game played on a craps table. Casino games Blackjack shoe A casino shoe specifically used for blackjack. Casino games Splitting aces in blackjack Splitting aces is the blackjack move of turning a pair of aces into two separate hands

Sources

  1. Shoe (cards) en.wikipedia.org Provides the definition, alternative names, and the benefit of reducing cheating.
  2. Glossary of blackjack terms en.wikipedia.org Supports typical deck sizes for blackjack and baccarat.
  3. Baccarat en.wikipedia.org Confirms baccarat punto banco uses 6 or 8 decks.
  4. Glossary of poker terms - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Describes how cards are dealt from the shoe.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.