This baccarat calculator shows what each bet costs before you place it. There are only three bets in the game, and the free tool above puts a number on all of them: £10 on the Banker for 100 hands loses about £10.58 on average, £10 on the Player about £12.35, and £10 on the Tie at 8 to 1 about £143.60.
That last one isn’t a typo. The Tie pays well and lands rarely, and the difference is one of the biggest house edges in any casino.
Baccarat calculator: the odds of each bet
With the usual eight-deck shoe, every hand ends one of three ways:
| Bet | Wins | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banker | 45.86% | 1 to 1, minus 5% commission | 1.06% |
| Player | 44.62% | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Tie | 9.52% | 8 to 1 | 14.36% |
| Tie | 9.52% | 9 to 1 | 4.84% |
A tie returns Banker and Player stakes, which is why their win chances don’t add up to 100%. The Banker wins slightly more often because of the drawing rules, and the 5% commission is there to even that out. It doesn’t quite manage it, so Banker stays the cheapest bet on the table.
No-commission baccarat
Many tables now skip the commission and pay half instead when the Banker wins with a total of six. That happens in about 5.4% of hands. It sounds like a better deal and it isn’t: the house edge on Banker rises from 1.06% to 1.46%. On £10 a hand at 70 hands an hour, that’s about £7.41 an hour at a standard table and £10.21 at a no-commission one. Pick “No commission” in the calculator to compare your own stake.
Some tables charge 4% instead of 5%. That brings the Banker edge down to 0.60%, the best price you’ll find in the game if you can get it.
Does any baccarat strategy work?
Scorecards and pencils are part of the ritual, and they don’t change anything. Each hand comes from the shoe as it stands, and tracking streaks can’t shift the edge. The one choice that matters is the bet: back the Banker, skip the Tie unless it pays 9 to 1, and think about the hands-per-hour line. Live tables deal around 70 hands an hour, RNG versions can deal 150 or more, so the same stake costs twice as much on the fast game.
If you’re curious how betting systems behave over hundreds of rounds, the betting systems simulator runs Martingale, Fibonacci and others on an even-money bet.
Baccarat is quick. Set a stop point before you sit down, not after a losing run. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential if it stops being fun.