What is the Banker bet in baccarat?
Last updated:
The Banker bet is a wager that the Banker hand will win the round. It’s the best-value bet in baccarat, with a house edge of around 1.06% in standard 8-deck games. It wins slightly more than half the time when natural ties are excluded.
Why the Banker bet wins more
The Banker drawing rules give the Banker hand a structural advantage. The Banker draws on different conditions than Player and can see Player’s third card before deciding whether to draw (the rules are automatic, but they’re designed around this information). Over millions of hands the Banker hand wins slightly more than the Player hand — roughly 45.9% vs 44.6% with about 9.5% ties.
The 5% commission
Because the Banker bet wins more than Player, casinos charge a 5% commission on winning Banker bets. A £100 Banker win returns £95 profit plus your stake. This commission is how the casino maintains its edge on a bet that would otherwise tilt toward the player. Some casinos offer commission-free baccarat where Banker wins on a 6 pay at 50% — check the house edge on those variants as it’s sometimes higher than the commission version.
Ben Barber got into the gambling industry through the poker rooms of London in the early 2000s. After building up a solid grounding in casino, sports betting and poker, he made the move to Malta where he spent close to a decade writing for some of the biggest affiliate networks in the region. A few years ago he relocated to Bali, which shifted his focus toward website strategy and affiliate marketing. The casino side never really left, though. He still writes reviews, how-to guides and in-depth pieces on everything from slots and live dealer tables to crypto casinos and sweepstakes sites. His approach is fact-first: help players understand how online gambling actually works before they deposit a cent.