The Evolution of Baccarat – From Noble Game to Casino Staple

Baccarat is a very exciting card game with simple rules played with elements of both fear of failure and excitement of success making gameplay tremendously exciting and enjoyable. Moreover, in the course of time after its invention it added features making it even more exciting.

At the same time that casinos begin to appear on an official scale, with professional dealers present, innovations in technology help make the game more accessible than ever with internet gaming.

Origins

Baccarat had long attracted players around the globe, and although it has been eclipsed by other games in recent years, it continues to attract a steady audience across generations. What makes the game so attractive? Why does it retain its appeal? It is the sense of elegance and refinement.

Historians believe the game originated in Rome in the 15th Century by Felix Falguiere (or something like that), or so they say, though his name has been spelled many ways through the centuries.

It is relatively simple to play, and yet it is still one of the most popular casino games (sometimes considered to be the casino game for high-rolling VIPs). Frank Sinatra enjoyed playing it from time to time: sometimes they had to get him to vacate the Banker’s post!

No one is sure when or where the game of baccarat was invented, but most agree that it began with Roman sacrifices, in which the nubile virgins would roll dice to determine their fate. Perhaps that’s why they liked this particular game.

Rules

Baccarat, a card game played in casinos in both Europe and the US, involves predicting which hand of cards will have the total closest to 9, while tens count as zero and aces count as one, with the remaining cards taking their face value.

After all the players make their bets, the croupier follows by drawing two cards for Player and Banker hands. The player with total most near to nine wins and, if the point values are the same for both Player and Banker hands, the outcome is a tie.

Several variants of the game with no commission have the same drawing rules as the base game, and pay winning Player bets even money for a 1.2351 per cent house edge, if played with eight-deck shoes.

Variations

Though baccarat is arguably the simplest casino game, the rules governing the game and the bets that players may place differ slightly from one variation to the next, which will alter payouts and strategy.

The two most popular versions are Punto Banco and Chemin de Fer. The latter – the most famous and favoured by high rollers – is thought by some to have originated in France when soldiers brought it back from Italy in the 15th century or earlier. It’s name might derive from fer de chemin, or iron road, and railroad, since it was said to be played so swiftly.

Payouts

Baccarat is a very thrilling card game providing an exciting experience for all of the players. To play this classic European casino card game, you have several options, either for free or with real bets. And you always have a chance of winning some valuable cash! Besides, most of these baccarat games also offer some cool bonuses and prizes.

Online casinos increase the ‘stickiness’ of baccarat gameplay and thereby the likelihood of their players coming back to the casino by providing a broad range of perks and bonuses such as bonus money (also called a welcome bonus) and reload bonuses and cashbacks; some operators even offer tournaments or competitions related to this game, so they can boost baccarat’s cultural significance while increasing its gamers’ revisit rate, which are both pillars of a ‘successful’ online casino!

Cultural significance

Baccarat can be traced back to Italy, where, according to different historians, it was invented in the 1500s by a money dealer named Felix Falguiere. He titled it ‘Baccarat’, which is Italian for zero, because in baccarat the value of the sum of all the cards, including tens, jacks and queens, is zero.

Almost immediately, this game was the rage of the French aristocracy; it was played in the châteaux of the rich. Baccarat glass works, Baccarat, France, Courtesy the Baccarat brandGoblets produced by Home Product Centre in China using 18th-century millefiori techniques. Photos © Amy Fleming 2020In 1775, one of France’s fabled crystal glassworks, Baccarat, even trademarked it – and they’re still creating glass millefiori paperweights today.

Today, it has become one of the quintessential games of casinos worldwide. According to Forbes, 88 per cent of Macau casino revenue consists of baccarat revenues; perhaps for the same reasons that this game appeals to the Asian high rollers, it also has cultural currency.