Table hold is the amount a single table game wins for the casino over a set period, traditionally an eight-hour shift. At a land-based table, chips are in constant motion: the dealer pays winning bets in chips and collects the chips from losing bets.
Comparing the chips handed out with the chips the table keeps, and expressing the difference as a percentage, gives the table hold. Casinos also call it the hold percentage. Because players buy their chips with real money, every extra chip that stays at the table represents money the table, and therefore the casino, has made. That is why operators use table hold to calculate the profit of individual tables and of the gaming floor as a whole.
Hold in online reporting
Online, hold comes from the transaction log rather than a chip count: gross gaming revenue divided by total stakes for a game, provider or period. Comparing actual hold with each game’s theoretical house edge in the back office helps spot configuration errors or abuse early.