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Fact-checked by Baccarat is a card game where you bet on which of two hands, Player or Banker, finishes closer to 9, or on a tie. The Banker bet has the lowest house edge of the three. It’s 1.06% with eight decks and a 5% commission on wins, according to Wizard of Odds.
You make no decisions once the cards are out. Fixed drawing rules settle every hand, so your only choices are what to bet and how much.
How baccarat works
Each hand starts with two cards. Aces count 1, cards 2 to 9 count their face value, and 10s and picture cards count 0. If a hand totals 10 or more, drop the first digit: 9 + 7 = 16 counts as 6.
If either hand has 8 or 9 from its first two cards, called a natural, both hands stand. Otherwise the Player hand draws a third card on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.
The Banker then follows its own rules. If the Player stood on two cards, the Banker draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If the Player drew, the Banker’s move depends on that third card:
| Banker’s total | Banker draws if the Player’s third card is |
|---|---|
| 0, 1 or 2 | Any card |
| 3 | Anything except an 8 |
| 4 | 2 to 7 |
| 5 | 4 to 7 |
| 6 | 6 or 7 |
| 7 | Never: the Banker stands |
The dealer applies all of this for you. With eight decks, Wizard of Odds puts the chances at 45.86% for a Banker win, 44.62% for Player and 9.52% for a tie.
Here’s a hand, step by step. The Player gets a 2 and a 3, for 5, and the Banker gets a King and a 4, for 4. Neither has a natural, so the Player draws on 5 and gets a 6: 2 + 3 + 6 = 11, which counts as 1.
The Banker has 4, and the Player’s third card is a 6, so the table says the Banker draws. A 3 gives it 7, and Banker wins.
Baccarat bets, payouts and house edge
Each bet pays a fixed amount, and its house edge shows what it costs you on average.
| Bet | Pays | House edge (8 decks) |
|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1 to 1, less 5% commission | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Banker at a no-commission table | 1 to 1, but a Banker win on 6 pays 1 to 2 | 1.46% |
| Player Pair or Banker Pair | 11 to 1 | 10.36% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 | 14.36% |
Sources: Wizard of Odds’ baccarat basics and its analysis of commission-free baccarat. With six decks, the Banker and Player edges stay the same and the Tie edge is 14.44%. Payouts and rules differ between tables, so check the help screen before you bet.
The commission is why Banker pays a little less than even money: win RM100 on Banker and you collect RM95. Banker wins slightly more often than Player, so even after the 5% it’s the cheaper bet.
If the hand ties, Player and Banker bets push: you get your stake back. A push neither wins nor loses, and 7 of the 10 casinos we compare don’t count tied bets towards bonus turnover.
Among the live games in our live casino guide, only blackjack played with perfect basic strategy has a lower edge than Banker. Wizard of Odds puts Evolution’s Infinite Blackjack at 0.45%.
Why Tie and Pair bets cost more
Big payouts don’t make up for how rarely these bets win. A tie comes up on 9.52% of hands with eight decks, about one in 10.5. Paying 8 to 1, the Tie bet would need to win about one hand in 9 just to break even.
A Player Pair or Banker Pair wins when that hand’s first two cards share a rank. That happens 7.47% of the time with eight decks, but at 11 to 1 the bet needs one hand in 12 to break even.
That gap is the house edge: 14.36% on the Tie and 10.36% on a Pair. Per ringgit, they cost you roughly 10 to 14 times as much as Banker.
Live baccarat versions
Evolution, listed by 9 of the 10 casinos we compare, runs several versions of the game. Which ones a casino carries isn’t in our records, so check its lobby.
- Speed Baccarat: cards are dealt face up, and each round takes 27 seconds against about 48 for a standard game.
- No Commission Baccarat: there’s no 5% on Banker wins, but a Banker win on 6 pays half your bet.
- Lightning Baccarat: a 20% fee is added to your total bet, and one to five random cards carry multipliers of 2x to 8x.
- Peek Baccarat: a 20% fee on Player or Banker bets lets you peek at cards and double or triple your bet.
Fee games change the maths, and Evolution’s pages don’t publish their RTPs. Read the paytable in the game’s help screen before you play one.
Pace matters as well. Bet RM20 on Banker every round for an hour and you lose about RM16 on average at a standard table (75 rounds). At a Speed table (133 rounds), it’s about RM28.
Where you’ll find baccarat
We record which studios each casino lists, not each table. Besides Evolution, 7 of the 10 casinos we compare list Sexy Baccarat, a studio named after the game. They are BK8, me88, GOD55, 96M, UWIN33, Maxim88 and Winbox.
Seven of the 10 also carry a Red flag, because their licence number can’t be checked on a public register. Only BK8, me88 and GOD55 have licences that check out; see where each stands on our full ranking.
Baccarat and bonus turnover
Turnover is the total you must bet before you can withdraw a bonus. If you claim one, these rules decide which baccarat bets count (checked 5 Nov 2026):
- Both sides: 8 of the 10 casinos we compare don’t count bets on opposite sides of the same round, such as Banker and Player together.
- Ties: 7 of the 10 don’t count bets that end in a tie or draw.
- Computer baccarat: BK8 and Maxim88 don’t count non-live baccarat, and 12Play excludes RNG games from all turnover. UWIN33’s all-games offer (25x on deposit + bonus) excludes them too.
- Studios: BK8’s live casino offer, 50% up to RM300 with 25x turnover on deposit + bonus, doesn’t count Sexy Casino or Allbet tables.
- More studios: 96M’s live offer, 50% up to RM200 with 25x on deposit + bonus, excludes Sexy Baccarat, Game Play and Allbet.
- Evolution excluded: GOD55’s live offer, 100% up to RM200 with 30x on deposit + bonus, doesn’t count Evolution or Playtech.
Our live casino guide compares every live welcome offer and its turnover, and our bonus page covers the rest.
Practical tips
- Bet Banker. It’s the lowest-edge bet at a commission table. At a no-commission table, remember a winning 6 pays half.
- Skip Tie and Pair bets. At 14.36% and 10.36% with eight decks, they cost far more than Banker on average.
- Leave the roadmaps alone. Wizard of Odds calls tracking results on score cards “a big waste of time”.
- Don’t trust a system. Raising your bet after a loss doesn’t change the edge. Wizard of Odds concludes that “all betting systems are equally worthless”.
- Slow down. Speed tables deal almost twice as many hands an hour at the same edge.
- Set a budget. Decide your limit before the first hand, and stop when it’s gone.
Casino games are built so the house wins over time. Expect to lose more than you win.