Best Real Money Baccarat Casinos 2023
Discover the best casinos to play baccarat online right here. All of our recommended sites offer big casino bonuses for online baccarat plus a variety of real money baccarat tables to join. Looking to play for free first? Learn how to play baccarat and find the best baccarat strategy with our free games.
Top baccarat casinos
How to play baccarat
It’s essential to know the rules before you play online baccarat for real money. Here’s how to play a standard game:
- 1Find a baccarat casino and select your game
- 2Place a bet on either the Player or Bank’s side
- 3Two cards are dealt to both the Player and the Bank
- 4If the sum of either hand is 8 or 9, no more cards are dealt
- 5If either hand equals 0-5, a third card is dealt
- 6The winning is hand is the closest to 9
Looking to play for free?
With our free baccarat game, you can get used to the rules before risking any real money at an online casino. Free play is also a great opportunity to try out any strategies you've been keen to use, or to simply play for fun!
Baccarat rules
The aim of online baccarat is to get a hand as close to 9 as possible. Here are the basics to know before playing:
- Baccarat is played using a 6 or 8-deck shoe
- The cards 2-9 carry the same face value
- 10, J, Q, K are equal to 0
- Aces are equal to 1
- Suits aren’t important
- When your score goes over 9, you drop the first digit
Betting options in baccarat
There are three types of bets in baccarat – the Player, the Bank, and the Tie. One thing to know is that baccarat has the lowest house edge of any other table game. What do we mean by house edge? It’s the advantage that the house has and the profit the casino makes over time.
| Bet type | Odds | Payout | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
Player | 45.86% | 1:1 | 1.36% |
Banker | 44.62% | 1:1 | 1.06% |
Tie | 9.52% | 8:1 or 9:1 | 14.4% |
How we determine the best online baccarat casinos
Our team of casino reviewers at Casino.org use their industry knowledge and experience as players themselves to carefully review online casinos. We consider several important factors when deciding whether to recommend a casino to you including, of course, the offering of baccarat games.
Security & fairness
Your money and data should be in safe hands when gambling online. We check that casinos use measures such as SSL encryption to keep your information safe, and also look out for valid licenses and evidence of third-party auditing, to ensure games are fair.
Bonuses
A bonus is a great way to increase your bankroll and hopefully your winnings and should be available at all good casinos. Many will also offer regular promotions and even a VIP club with special rewards for returning players.
Quality games & software
At any good online baccarat casino, we expect to see a good variety of variants and live dealer games. A varied selection of other table games, slots and live dealer options from top software developers is also crucial for a top rating.
Mobile options
Playing on the go should be easy and with the huge popularity of mobile gaming, it's important that casinos are optimized for smaller screens. Websites should run smoothly on all devices, and in addition to this, an app that players can download to their preferred device is a great bonus.
Customer care
Addressing players' needs should be a top priority at any high-quality casino, and we expect to see top-notch customer service available to players around the world, via a range of means.
What are the best online baccarat strategies?
As with many other table games at casinos, betting systems can be applied to reduce the losses you'll make from a game, and hopefully also increase your winnings. We've included a few examples below for you to try out in your next online baccarat game.
1-3-2-4
The 1-3-2-4 strategy is all about how you increase your wager. The idea behind this system is that by adjusting the amount you bet in this way, you should be covering yourself for any losses you make. Of course, no strategy is completely foolproof, and the further you can make your budget stretch, the more likely you are to see a profit.
One sided
This strategy is very simple, and basically involves choosing to consistently bet on either the player or banker. You should continue to do this until you've lost three times. At this point, you should stop and wait until your choice starts to win again, before resuming betting. When using this strategy, it's good to have a target for how much you'd like to win, so you know when to end your game.
Paroli
The Paroli strategy is one of the few positive betting systems, where you increase your bet each time you win. The sequence of bets is 1-2-4, and after the third win you'll go back to 1 and restart. There really isn't much more to it.
Quick baccarat tips
To help you get the most out of your baccarat game, our experts have listed a few quick tips to keep in mind.
If You’re Playing In A Land-Based Casino, Look For Casinos Where The House Commission Is Less Than 5% (That’s The Standard Online).
You want to know that, while you're honing your gaming skills, you are playing for the most you can get, rather than giving it all back to the casino in fees.
Don’t Bet On A Tie
Despite the high payout should you win, the tie wager stings you with an astronomical house edge of 14.44%. As it's so unlikely to actually happen, you're better off saving your money and betting on the player or the banker instead.
Try A Betting Strategy To Mitigate Some Of Your Losses
The games will run long, so follow the patterns in the game and let your bets follow where it is headed.
Bet On The Banker
With slightly higher odds of winning at 45.8% as opposed to a bet on the player of 44.6%, betting on the banker can pay off the most in the long run. If they go on a winning streak, keep betting on the banker until they lose.
Baccarat terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Banco | Term that stands for Bank or the House. Also refers to a wager made on the Banco hand – the hand that the dealer always bets on. This bet is slightly more likely to win than Punto, but requires a commission be paid. Even in spite of the commission, this is still the smartest bet in the game. |
Bankroll | The total sum of money that a player has designated for use in gambling at any point in time. Bankroll management is one of the most important parts of a winning baccarat strategy. |
Burn | Refers to discarding the first cards of a shoe – an action used to confound would-be cheats by disrupting the order of the cards. This simple measure is taken in all card games. |
Callman | Term used to refer to the dealer – the casino employee that “calls” the baccarat game. |
Commission | A sum of money that must be paid to the casino for the privilege of making a Banco bet. Typically worth 5% of the bet (with rounding favoring the house), but can occasionally be only 4%. Make sure that 5% of your Banco bet's value can be paid using casino chip denominations to avoid paying more due to rounding. |
Down Card | Short hand term for a card that is facing down. |
Face Card | A category of cards that includes Kings, Queens, and Jacks. These cards, along with tens, are totally worthless in baccarat. |
La Grande | French term for a natural hand worth nine. In English, it means “The big one,” as opposed to its smaller counterpart, which is worth eight. |
La Petite | French term for a natural hand worth eight. In English, it means “The small one,” as opposed to its larger counterpart, which is worth nine. |
Natural | Describes a two-card baccarat hand that is worth either eight or nine. If only one of the two hands is a dealt as a natural, then the round comes to a close and that hand is automatically the winner. |
Punto | The player. This term also refers to the baccarat hand that sits opposite of the Banco hand. Betting on the Punto hand is not advised, due to its higher house edge. |
Shoe | This is the box that is used to hold the decks of playing cards that are used in the baccarat game. |
Standoff | This occurs when the two hands are of equal value. It can also refer to the Standoff wager, where a player may bet that the hands will tie. This wager pays either eight to one or nine to one. |
Up Card | Term used to describe a card which is facing up. |
The quick history of baccarat
As one of the oldest casino games, baccarat has had a very interesting history. Our quick history overview takes you through it all, right up to the sophisticated online gaming we enjoy now.
- Baccarat is said to be one of the world’s oldest casino games and was allegedly created by an Italian gambler named Felix Falguiere in the middle ages.
- Although its exact origins are unclear, the first written records of the game are from the 19th century, when it was especially popular with the French nobility.
- By the end of the 19th century, the game had found its way to the USA, as Europeans made their way across the Atlantic. But it wasn't until the 1950s that it gained popularity in casinos, with the variants punto banco, baccarat banque and chemin de fer becoming widely offered.
- Nowadays, you'll find many different variants available both in land casinos and of course online as well. Most internet casinos will offer a selection of baccarat games, with live dealer baccarat often a popular choice for players.
Baccarat FAQs
What makes up a winning baccarat hand?
The objective in baccarat is to make the hand with the closest value to 9. No hand can be valued at more than 9. If the total of your hand is more than 9 then the value will drop its first digit. Thus 12 becomes a 2, and 18 becomes an 8.
What is baccarat?
Contrary to popular belief, this century old game is one of the easiest casino card games for new players to learn. In many ways it's similar to blackjack. Baccarat features a player and a banker, with each being dealt two cards.
What variations are available?
There are a lot of different baccarat variants out there, many of which can also be played online with a live dealer. The objective of most variants remains the same, with just some slight changes to the rules of play. Some online casino favorites include punto banco, chemin de fer, baccarat banque and mini baccarat.
What are the odds of winning at baccarat?
The average payout percentage for baccarat is around 98%, giving the player fairly decent odds against the house. The bets with the highest odds of success are on the banker or the player. Bets on a tie are much less likely to win, although the payout is much greater.
Is baccarat a game of skill?
No, baccarat is all based on luck and the only choice you make is what you bet on when playing. As long as you place a bet on the player or dealer hand, you have a decent chance of winning with each round.
How do you win at baccarat?
You place a bet on the hand of cards that wins in the game. In some instances, the banker's hand will be more valuable and win, in others the player's hand will be more valuable and in rare instances a tie bet will win.
What is the best bet?
A bet on either the player or the bank is most likely to win, with the bank having a slight edge. It's also worth bearing in mind that while a bet on the bank does have this slight advantage over bets on the player, there is a commission that must be paid on winnings made from a bet on the bank.
Is it possible to count cards in baccarat?
Yes, it is possible to count cards in baccarat. However, it's very difficult to get an edge over the house and you might only gain a small advantage toward the very end of the shoe, meaning it's not really worth your while. When playing online, casinos will use an RNG that generates random cards each time a hand is dealt, making card counting impossible.
Are online baccarat games rigged?
No. At all good casinos, such as those recommended on our site, a random number generator will be used to draw cards. If you're unsure whether a casino is operating fairly, look out for a seal from an independent auditing body such as eCOGRA. If you're wondering about house edge, you should be able to check this on the casino's site before you start playing.
Can I play online baccarat for free?
Yes, many online casinos will give you the chance to play a free version of their baccarat games before you play for real money. You'll also find a selection of free baccarat games available on our site. Just head to our free games page and choose the filter 'table games' to discover some great free titles.
