GuideThe game and its words
What Is Baccarat? The Meaning, the History and the Game Explained
The question usually comes from someone at the edge of the floor, watching a calm table where a dealer slides cards out of a perspex box. The baccarat meaning in one line: a card game where you bet on which of two hands will finish closer to nine. That is the whole proposition.
Baccarat meaning: the game in one look
Two hands are dealt, Player and Banker. You bet on one of them, or on a Tie, and after that you make no decisions at all.
Take a hand. You put a chip on Banker. The dealer slides four cards from the shoe, one at a time: the two of spades to Player, the five of clubs to Banker, the seven of hearts to Player, the king of diamonds to Banker. Tens and court cards count as zero, aces as one, everything else at face value. Player has nine, Banker five. A natural nine stops the round there, with no third card for anyone. Player wins, and the dealer sweeps your chip away.
Every round works like that. The whole sequence is called a coup. You choose Player, Banker or Tie before any card shows, and the dealer handles the rest by a fixed set of rules that neither you nor the house can change.
The rules for drawing a third card are called the tableau. If Player totals five or less, Player draws. Banker then draws or stands by a chart that looks at Banker's total and at Player's third card. You never need to memorise it, because the dealer applies it; our baccarat rules page has the full chart.
So the meaning of baccarat, at the table, comes down to picking a side and paying the house edge. Banker is the cheapest seat in the house at 1.06 per cent. Back Banker and leave it at that. The rest is watching the cards fall.
Where the game comes from
The history of baccarat is less certain than its maths. The origin is disputed, and Italy and France are both claimed.
The name is usually traced to an Italian word for zero, the value of tens and court cards in the count. Over time the game split into different forms. In the older ones a player held the bank and made some drawing decisions. Casinos later took the bank themselves, and that gave punto banco, the version dealt today.
That change suited a commercial floor. A casino-banked game can be dealt quickly by trained staff, with no player risking the bank and no drawing choices to wait for. The rituals went and the number of hands per hour went up.
What is left is a fast, mechanical card game with a low house edge. Some rooms still dress it up as an exclusive pursuit, with tables behind a rope. Players still mark the red and blue results of every hand on scorecards, and casinos happily supply them, knowing that past hands give no advantage. The shoe has no memory. The history of the game does not change its arithmetic.
Punto banco, chemin de fer and baccarat banque
Older books and classic spy films describe three forms of the game. Only one of them is dealt at UK online casinos.
Punto banco is the version dealt across the UK. The casino banks the game at all times: it pays the winners, collects from the losers and makes every drawing decision by the rulebook. You are only betting on the outcome of the deal.
Chemin de fer is the older French form, where players take turns to hold the bank and stake their own money against the rest of the table. The hands have a real choice in some spots, such as whether to draw on five, which brings in a little judgement and a lot of nerve.
In baccarat banque the bank is also held by a player, but the position is more permanent, and two separate Player hands are dealt to opposite sides of the table. The banker plays against both. Casinos prefer punto banco because it is faster, needs less supervision and gives the house its edge directly on every hand.
| Form | Who holds the bank | Drawing choices | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punto banco | The casino, every hand | None; the tableau decides | Every UK online casino, RNG and live |
| Chemin de fer | The players, in turn | Some, for example on a total of five | Rarely dealt today |
| Baccarat banque | One player, for longer | Some | Rarely dealt today |
The baccarat you meet at UK online casinos
At a UK Gambling Commission licensed casino, the game on your screen is punto banco, the casino-banked game, either run by a random number generator or dealt live from a studio.
Online baccarat follows the same rules as a card-room table. Speed, squeeze, no-commission and Lightning tables are punto banco with a different pace or payout, and our baccarat variants guide goes through them. You must be 18 or over, and the operator has to check your age and identity before you can deposit or play.
In a card room, Banker commission is tracked in a small box in front of the dealer and settled at the end of the shoe. It is 5 per cent of each Banker win, and it takes back part of the small advantage the drawing rule gives Banker. Online there is no box. The software deducts the commission when it pays you.
Live tables try hard to recreate a casino floor, and sometimes go further than they need to. A squeeze table reveals the cards slowly in close-up; the result is the same as a fast deal, at the same edge. Most tables also offer side bets on pairs or winning margins, and they all cost more than the main bets. The live baccarat guide covers the studio tables in detail.
Stick to the Banker bet, leave the side bets alone and let the slow tables run without you.
A short baccarat glossary
Every table game has its own vocabulary. These are the words you will meet at a baccarat table, online or off.
The burn is an old security habit that disturbs the top of the shoe. Like the road maps and the squeeze, it has no effect on your chances in the next hand.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Coup | One round, from the first card dealt to the last bet settled |
| Punto, banco | Player and Banker, the two hands on the table; together they name punto banco |
| Shoe | The box the cards are dealt from; online and live tables usually hold eight decks, 416 cards |
| Natural | A two-card total of 8 or 9; the round stops and no third card is drawn |
| Tableau | The fixed chart that says when each hand draws a third card |
| Commission | The 5 per cent taken from a winning Banker bet at a standard table |
| Burn | At a new shoe the first card is turned and that many cards are discarded; 10, J, Q and K count as ten |
| Cut card | A plastic card near the end of the shoe; when it comes out, the hand in play is finished, one more hand is dealt and the shoe changes |
| Road maps | Bead plate, Big Road and the derived roads: charts of past results that predict nothing |
| Squeeze | Revealing a card slowly by bending its corner, for drama; it changes nothing |
| Side bet | An optional extra bet, such as Player Pair, with a higher house edge than the main bets |
Questions about what baccarat is
How do you pronounce baccarat?
Back-uh-rah. The word reaches English through French, so the final t is silent.
Is punto banco the same as baccarat?
Yes, for modern casino purposes. Punto banco is the casino-banked form of baccarat, the one dealt online and in card rooms today.
What kind of game is baccarat?
A card game comparing two hands. You bet on which hand finishes closer to nine, or on a Tie.
Is baccarat a game of skill?
No. After your bet every draw follows a fixed rule; your only choices are which box and how much.
Is chemin de fer the same as punto banco?
No. In chemin de fer the players hold the bank in turn and have some drawing choices; in punto banco the casino banks and the tableau decides.
What is live baccarat?
Punto banco dealt by a real dealer with a real shoe, streamed from a studio to your screen.
What is online baccarat?
Punto banco played on a computer or phone, either at an RNG table or at a live table.
What does baccarat cost to play?
Over eight decks the house edge is 1.06 per cent on Banker, 1.24 per cent on Player and 14.36 per cent on a Tie paying 8 to 1.