Of all the games you’ll find spread inside a casino after signing up with your free
Star bonus, there are few that offer as little
scope for lowering the house edge than baccarat. While blackjack can be
tamed with some shrewd card counting and roulette twisted into submission with some canny betting, baccarat is a lot tougher to beat.
However, just because something is difficult it doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. Indeed, if you want something badly enough you’ll
always be able to find a way to get it and, at the baccarat table, that means betting the bank.
Betting the bank means you’ll gain a 1.36% edge over the casino, compared to a 1.36% disadvantage when you take the contrasting option of betting on the player.
If this is the case then surely there isn’t a problem because all you have to do is bet on the bank and you’ll always win.
However, while this may appear to be the case on first inspection, it’s not the full story. Because casinos
aren’t in the business of giving money away they impose a 5% tax for betting on the bank This means that when you
combine this tax with the edge gained from betting on the bank, you’re left with an overall house edge of 1.17%.
Although this is still very much in the casino’s favour, you can see that it’s actual more profitable that betting on the player hand. Indeed, as we previously mentioned,
betting on the player hand exposes you to a 1.36% casino edge which is slightly worse than the 1.17% you face when betting the bank.
For this reason it’s a much wiser move to bet on the bank. Having worked through the logic of the move it becomes
clear it’s the lesser of two evils. While you’re always going to face an edge at the baccarat table, it’s the amount you can reduce that edge that
matters. Gambling is all about finding the most +EV spots and in the game of baccarat that’s betting on the bank.
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