The game is simple. The player and banker each receive two cards, and whoever bets on the hand whose total value is closest to nine wins. The values of the cards are determined by adding their numerical values (aces have zero value, and the number ten counts as a one) and ignoring the suit. Unlike blackjack, no player can split or double-down, and gamesmanship or the ability to read other players isn’t involved. The game also has one of the lowest house edges in the casino.
The house’s advantage on banker bets is a mere 1.06 percent compared to the 2.7 percent edge of European roulette with a single zero (played in Macau), or the 5.26 percent edge of American roulette with its double-zero pocket. But baccarat is not without its detractors.
As casinos continue to spruce up their tables and improve the overall experience for their customers, it is important that they pay attention to all of the details. Often, seemingly minor things can make a big difference when it comes to customer satisfaction.
Baccarat scoreboards are a good example of this. These scoreboards, located at the table and visible to players, display the previous results of all hands played. These results can be displayed as either a “bread pan” or “big road” format and are used to inform players of past winning or losing outcomes for the Player and Banker.
In addition to displaying the current results, these scoreboards can be used as a predictive tool, suggesting which hand is more likely to win the next round. This can help players to decide whether or not to place a bet and to increase or decrease their stakes accordingly.
The use of pre-shuffled playing cards is another key innovation in baccarat that has increased the speed and efficiency of the game. Traditionally, when eight new decks of cards are introduced to the game, they must be individually inspected for both the back and face of each card by both the floor supervisor and dealer before they can be inserted into a shuffling machine or manually shuffled together. The process can take up to 10 minutes. By using pre-shuffled cards, the process is shortened to about 30 seconds.
Another way that baccarat scoreboards have increased the game’s efficiency is through the introduction of free hands. When a player makes a mistake at the table, such as mistaking the dealer’s hand for their own, they can ask to have their bets returned. In lieu of burning the error card, similar to standard blackjack error procedures, the free hand is dealt and the mistake forgotten. This not only maintains the order of the shoe but allows the dealer to avoid a possible recurrence of the same error. Ultimately, this saves the casino time and money. In fact, it is estimated that baccarat scoreboards reduce the number of errors by about 75 percent. This, in turn, reduces the number of re-deals and the associated cost to the casino.