Baccarat is the oldest of all casino gambling card games and is thought to have migrated into France from Italy during the reign of Charles VIII of France (1483-1498).

There are three accepted variations of the game: Baccarat chemin de fer (railway), Baccarat banque (deux tableaux) and Punto banco (North American baccarat). Baccarat, (pronounced Back-a-arah) is a very simple game of chance with only three possible bets and results: the Player wins, the banker wins or there is a Tie. The term ‘Player’ does not refer to the person actually playing and ‘Banker’ is not the casino. They are just the betting possibilities.

Baccarat is an unusual game in that in any score of double digits, the first digit is dropped, making a score of 10 worth 0, or ‘Baccarat’ and the highest score that can be achieved is 9. Two picture cards would thus score 0. A 9 and a 6 would not equal 15, but 5. An ace counts as 1 and the rest of the cards retain their face value.