The colorful language of gambling and gaming is essential to creating the players' world; in analyzing it we understand that world. This fringe vocabulary or slanguage is examined in connection with standard language, and is analyzed for its origins, its humor, and for the attitudes it expresses and transmits. This language is seen as a neglected indicator ofl'histoire de mentalité, the mindset of gamblers. It is also suggested that other factors—body language, paralanguage, stock expressions composed of standard words (jokes, catch phrases, etc.)-hold clues to the outlook, superstitions, behavior, the rational and irrational beliefs of gamblers.