Shill or stooge is a widely used term you can hear in media, marketing, politics, journalism, and of course, casinos. It is used in brick-and-mortar casinos, and it refers to planted players who are getting paid to play while pretending to not be part of the casino.
Those players often use casino’s money and populate the tables of casino games like baccarat, for example, to fill empty seats or get the game going.
While using shills may look like some underhand activities are happening, that is not the case. Shills cannot cash in their chips and are planted in table games where they don’t get to play against other players, so they are not making players lose but rather making things slightly more interesting.
After all, who would want to play at an empty table?