Baccarat conjures images of men wearing tuxedos and women dressed to impress, playing cards on an elegant casino floor. While baccarat has its share of mystique, its easy and elegantly simple gameplay make it accessible for most. With only an approximate house edge of 1.06% and minimal math required to decide between players or bankers as bettors.
On a quiet evening at the Hard Rock Cafe’s Peacock Lounge, Lou sits down for a break between rounds of blackjack. As he listens to the loud beats that sound through the casino’s high-roller area, he discovers an aspect of baccarat he hadn’t thought much about: its Zen-like minimalism. You bet either on either player or banker hand and whichever total comes closest to 9 wins; each player and dealer receives two cards face up, visible to everyone at table; each player and dealer receives two face up cards; Tens, kings and queens count as zero; Aces count as 1. Winner is determined by who comes closer to nine than its opponent – no matter who or whose hand gets closest.
Bettors on Player win when their hand has a higher total than that of the Banker, while bettors on Banker can prevail by drawing closer to nine than any of their opponent hands. Banker bets pay out 1:1 less a 5 percent commission paid to the house; tied hands result in 9 and 0, or scores over 9 are subtracted 10.
Many baccarat players who declined to speak on record defend their scorekeeping ritual as a form of strategy. By keeping track of past results and trying to divine patterns from them, these players believe they can decide between betting on either player, banker, or tie. Unfortunately, basic number crunching suggests otherwise and confirms their beliefs as mere superstition.
Though baccarat is not considered to be a game of skill, it generates the highest revenue among table games worldwide. At casinos such as Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and Macau’s Las Vegas Sands properties, bets exceeding $100,000 per hand are common.
But is baccarat the ultimate luxury game for high-roller casino patrons? GGB interviewed several industry leaders about their experiences with baccarat and how it might change as casino customers shift money to alternative forms of gaming.