Live Dealer Baccarat

Where These Rules Apply

The regulations quoted on this page are Pennsylvania's. Chapter 631a of 58 Pa. Code specifies this game for the physical tables Pennsylvania licenses, and it is quoted here because it is the clearest published specification of how the game is dealt and paid. Pennsylvania's own interactive gaming rule, 58 Pa. Code § 816a.1(d), carries only three things across to a live-dealer stream — the surveillance requirement at § 465a.9, the dealer training standards in Chapter 611a, and game approval under Chapter 816a — so this chapter does not itself govern the stream you open. Outside Pennsylvania the table is specified by the operator and by whichever regulator licenses it, and the figures can differ.

What Live-Dealer Baccarat Is

Live-dealer baccarat is a physical game of baccarat, dealt by a person in a studio, with the stream and the betting interface standing in for a seat at the table. The player bets on the Banker's hand, the Player's hand or a tie, and the hand closer to nine wins. Ontario Lottery and Gaming, the Ontario government's gaming agency, describes baccarat as a game of pure chance, and that is accurate in a precise sense: once the bet is down, whether a third card is drawn is decided by rule rather than by anyone at the table.

The Studio Is Regulated as Well as the Game

In Pennsylvania the live studio has its own chapter of regulation. Under Pennsylvania's interactive gaming rule 58 Pa. Code § 816a.1 an operator must obtain Board approval to simulcast authorised table games and separate approval for the location of the studio, and the entity producing, hosting or otherwise providing the live studio service must itself be licensed before it does so. The same section requires table game simulcasting to run through a simulcast control server, which must give the player real-time visual access to the game, prevent anyone from seeing the outcome before a wager is finalised, record dealer-verified results before posting them, and be able to void a result. Dealers come under the table game training standards in Chapter 611a, where the minimum curriculum for banked card games is a hundred hours of instruction over five weeks.

Why a Single House Edge Figure Does Not Fit

OLG publishes 1.06% on the Banker bet and 1.24% on the Player bet, both assuming the 5% commission the dealer takes from a winning Banker bet, and 14.36% on the Tie when the Tie pays 8 to 1. Two of those bets are among the cheapest on a casino floor; the third, on the same table, is one of the more expensive. A live lobby adds a further complication, because the commission itself is a rule the studio chooses. Evolution publishes that its No Commission Baccarat takes no 5% commission on Banker wins, with the exception that a Banker win on a total of 6 pays half the original bet, or 0.5:1. That is a different bet with a different cost, and the 1.06% figure does not describe it.

The Rules Belong to the Table, and Are Published There

Pennsylvania's interactive gaming rule 58 Pa. Code § 816a.2 requires a live studio provider to file a Rules Submission specifying which options it will use in the conduct of the game, and to have it approved before the game is offered. That is why live baccarat guides cannot state the commission, the tie payout or the side bet paytable as universal facts. § 816a.1 closes the loop for the player: the table minimum and maximum wagers, the number of decks used, dealer actions, the vigorish amount and the payout odds must all be readily available on the site before play begins and at all times during play.

How the Live Variants Differ

Evolution deals its standard live Baccarat with the cards face down at a bean-shaped table, with pair side bets and a choice of roads for statistics. Baccarat Squeeze uses more than fifteen cameras and has the dealer squeeze the cards of the hand carrying the larger total wager; in Control Squeeze the cards are dealt face down onto glass inlays in the table and the player peels back an overlay mask to reveal them. Live Speed Baccarat deals the cards face up and completes a game round in 27 seconds, against the 48 seconds Evolution publishes for a standard round. None of these changes the draw rules; they change the pace and the ritual, and in the case of No Commission Baccarat the payouts.

Side Bets

Evolution's standard live Baccarat offers Perfect Pair, Either Pair, Player Pair and Banker Pair side bets. Where a Perfect Pairs wager is licensed under Pennsylvania's table-game rule 58 Pa. Code § 631c.1 the paytables pay a perfect pair 25 to 1 or 30 to 1, a coloured pair 12 to 1, 10 to 1 or 15 to 1 and a mixed pair 6 to 1 or 5 to 1, and which of the three applies is the operator's filed choice. No Commission Baccarat carries a Super 6 insurance side bet that Evolution publishes at 15:1 when the Banker scores a 6. No regulator or provider publishes a house edge for any of these bets.

What Is Being Streamed

A live-dealer baccarat round is a physical round of baccarat played in a studio and relayed to the player's screen. The player does not handle cards; bets are placed through the interface and the dealer deals. In Pennsylvania the arrangement is regulated in its own right: 58 Pa. Code § 816a.1 requires an operator to obtain Board approval both to simulcast table games and for the location of the studio, and requires the entity producing or hosting the live studio service to be licensed before it provides it.

The Object of the Game

Two hands are dealt, the Player's hand and the Banker's hand, and the bet goes on which finishes closer to a total of nine, or on the two hands tying. Picture cards and tens count zero, cards two to nine count at face value, and an ace counts one. Totals are taken modulo ten, so a nine and a six total fifteen and the hand is worth five. Nine is the highest a hand can be worth.

How a Round Runs

1. Bets are placed on Banker, Player or Tie, plus any side bets, before a card is dealt.
2. Two cards go to each hand.
3. Eight or nine on the first two cards of either hand is a natural, and the round ends there.
4. Otherwise a third card may be drawn, under fixed rules rather than anyone's choice.
5. The hand closer to nine wins. Neither hand ever receives more than three cards.

Settlement and the Commission

A winning Player bet pays 1 to 1. A winning Banker bet also pays 1 to 1, but the dealer takes a commission of 5% of the amount won. A winning Tie pays 8 to 1 on the rule set Ontario Lottery and Gaming describes, which is also the minimum Pennsylvania's table-game rule 58 Pa. Code § 631a.13 allows. When the hands tie, Banker and Player bets neither win nor lose.

Where the Live Versions Differ

• Standard Baccarat. Evolution deals its standard live Baccarat with the cards face down at a bean-shaped table, and publishes the length of a standard game round as 48 seconds.
• Speed Baccarat. Cards are dealt face up and Evolution publishes a completed game round of 27 seconds.
• Squeeze and Control Squeeze. Evolution's Baccarat Squeeze uses more than fifteen cameras and has the dealer squeeze the cards of the hand carrying the larger total wager. In Control Squeeze the cards are dealt face down onto glass inlays and the player reveals them through an overlay mask.
• No Commission Baccarat. Evolution removes the 5% commission on Banker wins and instead pays a Banker win on a total of 6 at 0.5:1, with an optional Super 6 insurance side bet paying 15:1 when the Banker scores a 6.

What the Operator Has to Show

Under Pennsylvania's interactive gaming rule 58 Pa. Code § 816a.1 the table minimum and maximum wagers, the number of decks in use, dealer actions, the vigorish amount and the payout odds must all be readily available on the site before play begins and throughout play. Those are per-table settings, which is why they are read from the table rather than assumed from a guide.

What There Is to Decide

Baccarat gives the player one decision: which bet to make. Once it is placed, whether a third card is drawn is fixed by rule, so nothing done during the hand changes the outcome. On a live table the choice of bet is joined by a second choice the automated version does not present — which table, because the studios run several rule sets side by side.

The Three Main Bets Are Not Equivalent

Ontario Lottery and Gaming publishes the house edge on the Banker bet as 1.06% and on the Player bet as 1.24%, both on the standard 5% commission, and the Tie bet at 14.36% when the Tie pays 8 to 1. The Banker bet is the cheapest of the three and the Tie is far the most expensive of them: 14.36% against 1.06% on Banker and 1.24% on Player. No single multiple describes the gap, because the two even-money bets do not cost the same. No betting pattern changes those figures, and no bet in baccarat has a positive expectation for the player.

Read the Table's Own Rules

Two table settings move the numbers above, and both are published per table rather than per game. The first is the commission: Evolution's No Commission Baccarat takes no 5% commission on Banker wins but pays a Banker win on a total of 6 at only 0.5:1, so the Banker bet on that table is not the Banker bet the 1.06% figure describes. The second is the Tie payout, which OLG's figure assumes at 8 to 1. Pennsylvania's interactive gaming rule 58 Pa. Code § 816a.1 requires the payout odds, the vigorish amount and the table minimum and maximum to be available on the site before play starts, so both are there to be checked.

Side Bets and Roads

The pair side bets Evolution offers — Perfect Pair, Either Pair, Player Pair and Banker Pair — are separate wagers settled on the first two cards, and no provider or regulator publishes a house edge for them. The licensed Perfect Pairs paytables in Pennsylvania's table-game rule 58 Pa. Code § 631c.1 pay a perfect pair 25 to 1 or 30 to 1, a coloured pair 12 to 1, 10 to 1 or 15 to 1 and a mixed pair 6 to 1 or 5 to 1; which of the three paytables applies is the operator's filed choice, so the figure on one table is not the figure on another. Live tables also display roads and statistics recording previous results. A record of past rounds is a record, not information about the next one: the draw rules and the payouts are identical on every round regardless of what came before.