Dating to this time period, Baccarat Banque is the earliest form of baccarat it is a three-person game and mentioned in Album des jeux by Charles Van-Tenac. : 230 During the Napoleonic era and before the legalization of casino gambling in 1907, people in France commonly played baccarat in private gaming rooms. īaccarat has been popular among the French nobility since the 19th century. Other sources claim that the game was introduced into France from Italy at the end of the 15th century by soldiers returning from the Italian Wars during the reign of Charles VIII. The origins of the game are disputed, and some sources claim that it dates to the 19th century. The winning odds are in favour of the bank, with a house edge of at least 1 percent. In baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices. In punto banco, each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. There are three popular variants of the game: punto banco, baccarat chemin de fer, and baccarat banque (or à deux tableaux). Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: 'player' (player has the higher score), 'banker', and 'tie'. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the 'player' and the 'banker'. For other uses, see Baccarat (disambiguation).īaccarat or baccara ( / ˈ b æ k ə r æ t, b ɑː k ə ˈ r ɑː/ French: ) is a card game played at casinos.