Baccarat
Baccarat looks like a game for people in dinner jackets and plays like a coin toss with a small charge on it. You make one choice, which hand to back, and the cards do the rest. Back the right one and it is among the cheapest bets in the casino.
Two hands and no decisions
Two hands are dealt, one called Player and one called Banker. The names are only labels. You don't play the Player hand and you aren't the bank; you bet on which of the two will finish closer to 9, or on a tie.
Cards count at face value from ace (1) to 9, and tens and picture cards count nothing. A hand's total is the last digit of the sum, so a 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. If either hand has 8 or 9 on its first two cards, that is a natural and both hands stand. Otherwise, a fixed table of rules decides whether each hand takes a third card. The Player hand draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7, and the Banker hand's draw depends on its own total and on the Player's third card.
Nobody at the table makes a choice about the cards, not you and not the dealer. That is worth knowing, because it means there is no skill in the play, only in the bet.
Why the Banker wins more often
The Banker hand acts second, and its rules use what the Player hand drew. That small advantage means it wins slightly more often. With eight decks, the usual shoe, the results come out like this over the long run.
| Result | How often |
|---|---|
| Banker wins | 45.86% |
| Player wins | 44.62% |
| Tie | 9.52% |
On a Player or Banker bet, a tie is a push and your stake stays on the table.
The three bets
| Bet | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1 to 1, less 5% commission | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Tie at 8 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 14.36% |
| Tie at 9 to 1 | 9 to 1 | 4.84% |
Because the Banker wins more often, the house charges a commission on Banker wins, usually 5 percent. Here is what that leaves. Bet $1 on Banker for 10,000 hands. You win about 4,586 of them at 95 cents each, which is $4,357. You lose about 4,462, which is $4,462. The ties don't count. You are down about $105 on $10,000 bet, a little over 1 percent. The Player bet loses more because it wins less often and pays no commission: 4,462 wins against 4,586 losses is $124 down, 1.24 percent.
The gap between them is small, but it is there on every hand, and I'd bet Banker every time. The commission feels like a charge you could avoid by betting Player. It is the cheaper of the two charges.
The tie is the bet the casino wants you to make. It pays 8 to 1 at most tables, and it wins 9.52 percent of the time; the fair price would be about 9.5 to 1. Bet $1 on the tie for 100 hands and it wins about 9.5 times, paying $76, and loses about 90.5 times, costing $90.50, so the house keeps about $14.36 of every $100. A table paying 9 to 1 on the tie cuts that to 4.84 percent, which is still worse than either main bet. I'd leave the tie alone at either price.
Tables without the commission
Some tables advertise no commission. The commission hasn't gone; it has moved. A common version pays only half when the Banker wins with a total of 6, and on eight decks that happens about 5.39 percent of the time. Work it through and the Banker bet there costs about 1.46 percent, worse than the 1.06 at a table that takes 5 percent. Other versions have their own rules, so read the sign. "No commission" is a description of how you are charged, not a discount.
The scorecards
Baccarat tables often keep a running record of results on a lit board, and players fill in paper scorecards looking for streaks. A streak in baccarat means about as much as a streak at a roulette wheel. Each hand comes from a well-shuffled shoe, and the cards already played make so little difference that no tracking of Banker and Player results will move the edge in your favor. The board is there for the same reason it is at roulette: a player who sees a pattern bets more.
A big game for big money
Baccarat is a big earner in Nevada. The Gaming Control Board's monthly revenue report shows the state's casinos winning about $1.57 billion at baccarat in the twelve months to August 2026, more than the $1.24 billion they won at blackjack. That comes from very large bets on a game with a small edge, which tells you how much money goes across those tables.
It is also why the game comes in two speeds. The big table, with the high limits and the ceremony, deals slowly. Mini-baccarat deals much faster at lower limits, and speed matters: the cost of a game is the edge times everything you put through it, so more hands an hour means more paid an hour at the same 1.06 percent. The house edge page does that sum, and the live dealers page covers baccarat dealt on camera, which you can play only where your state allows it.
I think baccarat is the best game in the casino for someone who wants a cheap bet and no homework. Bet the Banker, skip the tie, pick the slower table if you want the money to last, and set your limit before the shoe comes out. If it gets hard to stop at the limit, read responsible gambling.