Vigorish
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Vigorish, or simply "the vig", or "juice", is the amount kept by a bookmaker for his services. It is also known as the overround. The business of "making book" does not rest, as is commonly and erroneously supposed, from placing bets on more winners than losers, but rather a charge deducted from the winnings for having provided the service of recording the placement of the bet and the delivery of the proceedes to the winning bettors. A bookmaker therefore desires an equal number of bets on each side, and may find it necessary to adjust the line (the odds) to make this possible.
Vigorish works as in the following example: if the "money line" on a baseball game were $142, this is the amount that would be paid in by a bettor wishing to win back the amount of his bet plus $100 on the betting favorite team (the judged to be more likely to win). However, if one bet on the underdog team (the one thought to be more likely to lose) the $100, the bet would pay off only $132 and the difference would be the bookie's margin -- the vigorish. An equivalent term would be "juice". All "sports book" operations, legal and illegal, operate on the principal of vigorish, although they may use other terms to describe it.
In casino poker, the vigorish, more commonly called the rake, is a fraction of each bet placed into the pot. The dealer removes the rake from the pot after each bet (or betting round), making change if necessary. The winner of the hand gets the money that remains in the pot after the rake has been removed.
The term is Yiddish slang from the Russian word for "winnings," vyigrysh.