If you only remember one thing about baccarat, make it this: the Banker bet is the better one. It wins more often and costs less over time - a house edge of 1.06% against Player's 1.24% - even after the 5% commission. Neither is a way to beat the casino, but Banker is the cheaper seat at the table.
The two bets, side by side
Baccarat gives you three bets, but really only two worth considering: Banker and Player. (The third, Tie, carries a 14.36% edge and is best left alone.) On an 8-deck shoe the two main bets are remarkably close - and remarkably cheap by casino standards.
Banker
Player
The remaining ~9.5% of hands are ties, which push (return your stake) on both Banker and Player. So among hands that are actually decided, Banker takes about 50.7% - a small but permanent lean in its favour.
Why Banker wins more often
- Banker acts second, drawing its third card after seeing what the Player drew.
- That extra information lets the rules work slightly in Banker's favour.
- It is a fixed, mechanical advantage - no skill, no card counting, just running order.
In baccarat you make no decisions once your chips are down; the drawing rules are automatic. The Player hand always acts first. The Banker hand then draws or stands based partly on the Player's third card - and acting with that knowledge is worth a small, consistent edge. It is the same reason the dealer's "act last" position matters in blackjack, stripped down to a fixed table of rules. You can see exactly when each side draws in our rules guide.
Why Banker pays a commission
If Banker won more often and paid the same as Player, nobody would ever bet Player and the casino would lose its edge on half the table. The 5% commission on Banker wins exists to claw that advantage back. Crucially, it is priced so that Banker still comes out marginally ahead - the casino balances the bet without quite erasing its quality.
Watch for "no-commission" baccarat, which pays Banker wins at full 1:1 but only half on a Banker win totalling six. That single rule pushes the house edge up to roughly 1.46% - worse than the standard commissioned game. The house-edge calculator lets you set any commission and see the true cost.
The verdict
Backing Banker on every hand is, on the maths, the cheapest way to sit at a baccarat table. But be honest about the size of the gap: the difference between Banker and Player is about 18p per £100 you stake. It is real over thousands of hands, and meaningless over a handful.
When the choice actually matters
The Banker-versus-Player decision matters most when you play often and stake seriously - that is when an 18p-per-£100 difference compounds into real money. For a casual session it barely registers. What moves the needle far more is what you don't do: skip the Tie, ignore the side bets, and never chase losses with a betting system. The simulator shows why no staking pattern rescues a negative-edge bet, and our streak tester shows why "Banker is hot" is never a reason to bet.
So: prefer Banker, accept the commission, and put your energy into stake control rather than bet-switching. That is the whole of sound baccarat strategy in a sentence.