The house sets vigs on any game they allow you to bet on. It is your responsibility to play only those games where the vig is not prohibitive. Let's take one more look at how vigorish works for the house.
Source: wiktionary
Vig
//vɪɡ//
Synonyms for "vig" (4 found)
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The bookmaker's mean profit per dollar bet is called vigorish or “the vig.” In our example, 11 + 11 = $22 is bet, and the bookmaker wins $1 so the vig is 1/22 = 4.5%.
Source: wiktionary
The vig is like your "tax" paid on a bet which goes to the bookie. For example, every $100 I would bet, I had a vig of $10. So if I bet $500 and lost that bet, I would owe $550. Trust me, when you don't win, the vigs add up quick!
Source: wiktionary
1973, Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin (screenplay), Mean Streets, quoted in 2009, Ellis Cashmore, Martin Scorsese's America, page 118, “You charged a guy from the neighborhood $1800 vig?” he asks incredulously (“vig” is short for vigorish, meaning a rate of interest from a loan from an illegal moneylender).
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.