Card table
Baccarat: How the Game Works and Why the Banker Bet Wins on Price
Baccarat asks one decision of you per hand and the dealer makes the rest. Back the banker, ignore the tie, and the game is among the cheapest in any casino.
By Conor FurlongChecked 18+
18+ only. Gambling can become a problem. Set a limit before you start. Help and support
Baccarat is a card game in which you bet on which of two hands, the player or the banker, will finish closer to 9; the dealing follows fixed rules, so your only decision is where to stake. The banker bet carries a house edge of 1.06% after a 5% commission on wins, the player bet 1.24%, and the tie bet, at 8 to 1, about 14.4%.
That last figure is the main thing to remember. The rest, below, explains the counting, the drawing rules and the faster versions now dealt online. As with every casino game, baccarat is 18+ only.
Baccarat card values and the count
Aces count 1, cards 2 to 9 count face value, and tens and picture cards count nothing. A hand's value is the last digit of its total: a 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. The best possible hand is 9. Two cards are dealt to each side to start, and a two-card 8 or 9, a natural, ends the hand at once.
The version dealt almost everywhere online is punto banco, in which neither you nor the banker has a choice about drawing. The player hand draws a third card on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. The banker's drawing depends on its own total and on the player's third card, according to a fixed table the dealer or software applies. You do not need to learn it; nobody at the table can change it.
Banker, player or tie: the baccarat bets priced
| Bet | Pays | House edge (eight decks) |
|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1 to 1, less 5% commission | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 | About 14.4% |
The banker hand wins slightly more often than the player hand because it acts second, with the drawing table in its favour. The commission is the house's answer. Put EUR 20 on banker and win, and you collect EUR 19 in profit, not EUR 20. Even so, the banker bet remains the cheaper of the two.
If the hand ties, banker and player bets are returned. The tie bet itself pays 8 to 1, so EUR 10 returns EUR 90 when it lands, but a tie comes up a little under one hand in ten and the price is well short of fair. A few tables pay 9 to 1, which is less bad. Neither makes it a bet worth a regular place in your play.
No commission, speed and lightning baccarat
No-commission baccarat drops the 5% charge and claws it back another way, usually by paying only half on a banker win with a total of 6. Check the rules screen: it changes the price of the banker bet, and the table is rarely the bargain its name suggests.
Speed baccarat deals the same game faster, with shorter betting windows and the cards revealed without ceremony. The edge per hand is unchanged; the edge per hour rises because more hands are dealt. Lightning baccarat, from the studio that makes Lightning Roulette, adds random multipliers to certain cards and pays for them by charging extra on each bet. Read the help panel before playing it: the extra charge applies whether a multiplier lands or not.
Live baccarat online
Most baccarat played online is live baccarat, dealt from a shoe in a studio and streamed to your screen, with the cards squeezed or turned on camera. The live version is slower than a computer game and usually carries higher minimum stakes. For playing baccarat online for real money, the questions are the same as for any live table: the licence behind the site, the table limits and the payout terms. Our live dealer casinos page sets out which sites carry live tables.
| No. | Runner | Form | Licence | Verdict | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karamba CasinoAspire Global International Ltd | 1-4-5-4-5 | Foreign licence | Each-way | Visit |
| 2 |  Midnite CasinoMidnite Europe Limited, Level 3 (Suite 2327) Tower Business Centre,... | 2-4-5-5-5 | Foreign licence | Watch | Visit |
| 3 | Lucky Pants BingoRank Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd | 3-5-2-4-4 | Foreign licence | Each-way | Visit |
| 4 | BetnflixL.C.S Limited (C-64070) | 4-4-6-4-5 | Foreign licence | Watch | Visit |
| 5 |  MegarushML Entertainment Casino Limited and ML Entertainment Gaming Limited | 4-4-4-3-5 | Foreign licence | Watch | Visit |
Form reads licence, markets, payments, safer-play tools, terms; 1 is best. How we rate. 18+ only.
None of these deals baccarat under an Irish licence, because no such licence exists yet. The regulator each one answers to, and the reasoning behind its verdict, is set out in the online casinos section.
Free baccarat and patterns on the scoreboard
Free baccarat lets you watch the drawing rules at work without stakes. Live tables also display scoreboards, the bead plate and the big road, tracking banker and player wins down the shoe. They are pretty and useless: each hand is dealt independently of the last, and a run of six banker wins tells you nothing about the seventh. Charting the shoe is a ritual, not a method.
A note on the other baccarat
Some searches for baccarat are after the French crystal house of the same name, which makes glassware rather than card games. We cover only the card game, and only for adults. Whichever baccarat you came for, the card version is a gamble with a price on every hand: set a budget, use deposit limits, and see our responsible gambling notes if you want help.
Readers' questions
- Is banker or player the better bet in baccarat?
- Banker. Even after the 5% commission its house edge is 1.06%, against 1.24% on player. The tie bet is far worse at about 14.4%.
- What happens to my bet if baccarat ties?
- Banker and player bets are returned on a tie. Only the tie bet wins, usually at 8 to 1.
- Do I need to know the third-card rules?
- No. In punto banco the drawing rules are fixed and applied by the dealer or software; your only decision is the bet.
- Is speed baccarat a different game?
- The rules are the same; the hands are dealt faster. The edge per hand is unchanged but more hands an hour means a higher cost per hour.