of the top baccarat gambling sites
Best Online Baccarat Casinos - How To Play Baccarat
Welcome to onlinebaccaratcasinos.com, players’ ultimate guide to the world of online baccarat! We review the safest, most entertaining and well-established virtual gambling platforms for baccarat – game of the wealthy, the blue-blooded and James Bond. Find the best venues for live dealer baccarat, learn the basics of the game and catch up on valuable tips and tricks.
Our fair, in-depth casino reviews will provide you with all the information you need to pick the best sites for playing the famously unbeatable game. Our selection criteria laid out below covers everything from fun features to safety:
BEST ONLINE BACCARAT CASINOS
| # | Online Casino | Rating | Bonus* | Games | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 888casino | Rating: | Bonus: £100 | Games: 300+ | Visit |
| 2 | Miami Club | Rating: | Bonus: $800 | Games: 120+ | Visit |
| 3 | Sloto’Cash | Rating: | Bonus: 200% jackpot bonus | Games: 150+ | Visit |
| 4 | Uptown Aces | Rating: | Bonus: $4,000 | Games: 150+ | Visit |
| 5 | bet365 | Rating: | Bonus: $1,000 | Games: 200+ | Visit |
| *C18+ New Casino customers only. Deposit min. 10$. Applies to first deposit to Casino only. Max. bonus 1000$. 20x wagering (game weighting applies) on deposit and bonus to make the bonus balance withdrawable. Time limits and T&Cs apply. | |||||
Baccarat Software & RNG Varieties
Most online casinos offer only one type of RNG baccarat. This is due to an increased interest in live baccarat, which best reflects the social and ceremonial nature of the game’s classic version. If a site has multiple RNG baccarat games in their selection, it is either baccarat by different software companies or, more commonly, the games vary slightly in side bets/deck size. For instance, top provider Microgaming has regular Baccarat and Baccarat Gold that features the Player/Banker Pair side bet. NetEnt, known for its visually stunning and smooth software, has 8-deck Baccarat and 6-deck Punto Banco.
The RNG version has either 6 or 8 decks of 52 cards each. Some software providers offer multiple side bets, others provide none beyond the main ones, i.e. Banker, Player and Tie. The most common side bets are Small/Big, Perfect/Either Pair, Egalities, Bonus Bet etc. Some more innovative features may include clicking on the edges of the fourth drawn card to ‘peek’ and ‘squeeze’, just like in the traditional big table games in land-based casinos. Some of the best baccarat software providers out there are NetEnt, Microgaming, Playtech, RealTime Gaming (RTG), Amaya (part of NYX Gaming), Random Logic, Visionary iGaming and others.
The game fares under titles like Baccarat and Punto Banco, used interchangeably online. Asian players are more familiar with the former, and American players – with the latter title. Popular alternative names include EZ Baccarat, offered by software companies like Visionary iGaming, and Super Six, offered by the likes of Visionary iGaming and Amaya. Both games feature a rule variation: lifting the 5% commission on a winning Banker bet at the cost of certain payouts. It is uncommon to find an online game of Chemin de Fer, a traditionally French variant where players don’t pick a side to bet on and can choose whether to draw a third card or not.
Casino Bonuses - Find The Best Baccarat Bonus
The great majority of players sign up to gambling sites solely because they were beckoned by an attractive welcome bonus.Bonuses prolong game play at no cost for the player, but also come with various terms and conditions, and don’t cover all types of games. Unfortunately, many casinos still overlook baccarat bonuses. The special baccarat-only bonuses out there are very rare and they usually require 200/300x bonus rollover for 3-digit bonuses.
Most reputable sites have a generous or at least decent Welcome/Sign-Up bonus offer that either excludes table games completely, or in the best cases, includes certain table games while imposing tighter staking rules. In the latter scenario, baccarat usually counts as 10-20% towards the wagering requirements. For loyal members, most casinos put forth regular bonuses that apply specifically to card and table games.
Live Dealer Baccarat - Play Baccarat At Live Casino
What is the hype about?
The biggest sites of virtual gambling have already introduced and keep enhancing their live dealer casino on a regular basis with new features and games. It is a burning hot trend, because the platform comes as close to a real casino floor as possible, an experience so comforting to many seasoned players. Live casinos recreate the lively ambiance of brick-and-mortar establishments and employ real professional dealers, who can interact with players via a live chat function.
The games are streamed via the internet from studios located in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia or the Caribbean. The studios are managed by casino software companies and the best live baccarat games are offered by the likes of Evolution Gaming, Playtech and Microgaming. To date, NetEnt doesn’t have live baccarat.
When choosing a live dealer baccarat casino, the chief criteria is a top-notch software that ensures state-of-the-art game transmission, smoothly running sessions and an intuitive, smart layout. From there, the live platform should be your oyster. The more game titles, features and table variations, the better.
Live baccarat comes in variations like standard big table baccarat for multiple players and mini baccarat for single play; VIP and no-commission tables; speed baccarat with fast sessions and squeeze baccarat. For instance, Playtech’s premium live tables now have a ‘squeeze’ feature where the live dealer squeezes the last card to be revealed, and Evolution Gaming has gone a step further by introducing player-controlled squeezing.
In this latest innovation, the dealer places the cards face-down over special glass inlays with cameras underneath, then the software relays the card face with an obscurity filter, and the player can tap or click on the edges of the cards.
Each live software has a different set of side bets accompanied by fairly standard payouts. Playtech has side bets such as Perfect/Either Pair and Big/Small. Microgaming has Live Baccarat with a few common side bets and Live Bonus Baccarat with even more additional side bets: Big/Small; multiple Bonus Bets that pay for a guessed number of winning points; the proprietary Turtle Pair Bet which pays for a pair of any kind; and the proprietary Phoenix Pair Bet that pays for a pair of the same suit.
Playtech’s Asian platform also has In-Running Baccarat where multiple series of bets can be placed after every dealt card, and Progressive Baccarat where a tie of a suited Ace+8 wins the jackpot.
Entertainment on The Go
There are two ways to play casino games on the go, via a native app and directly in browser. Online casinos offer either or both, and game quality may vary. Native apps are developed for specific operating systems such as Android and iOS, and are much more advanced in terms of quality and smoothness of the gaming experience. However, due to legal constraints, casino mobile apps are not available to players from all countries. Generally, the App Store is more liberal than Google Play, which only recently allowed real money casino app downloads for the UK, France and Ireland.
Mobile casino sites and casino apps still have a smaller game library. Online casinos strive to add new titles as often as possible, but mobile optimization is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Even if the new casino games are made mobile-friendly straightaway from conception, older player favorites will still take time and money to bring to the tablet. For gamblers playing away from the desk, the ideal mobile casino will have a broad game spectrum, smooth interface, available bonuses, live casino and banking options. Currently, these still vary greatly from site to site.
Speed, Fairness and Convenience
The best online casinos have a wide array of available payment options that usually include the most ubiquitous methods worldwide, as well as some local methods. The particular selection of available banking options for deposits and withdrawals is determined by the casino. It is not uncommon for popular gambling sites, which otherwise score high on game variety and bonuses, to still have slow and unfairly-handled payouts. Thus, speedy identity verification and short withdrawal times are one of the most valued attributes of online casinos among players, but are often hard to achieve and maintain.
Player’s country of origin also plays a role in the convenience of banking. U.S. players, for instance, are highly limited in choosing banking methods due to restrictive U.S.-wide legislation. Minimum and maximum deposits and withdrawals vary for each casino, and are equally important to both low and high rollers. If an online casino only pays up to $20,000 a month, a jackpot or massive winnings may take years to pay off.
Prompt, Professional, and 24/7 Assistance
The importance of online casino customer service may not be immediately obvious, but it is indeed a crucial element to a satisfying and smooth gambling experience. Whether it is something minor, such as needing clarification of some bonus offer, or something more pressing like withdrawal glitches and dispute resolution, customer care is a player’s only point of reference. Needless to say, rumor spreads quickly online, when players are not met by a friendly, professional and approachable team on the other end of the line.
The best sites offer multiple outlets for gamblers to contact their customer care unit, most commonly Email, phone and live chat. Live chat is the most preferred option, although not all casinos still have it or are eager to offer it. 24/7 availability is wide-spread, especially considering that online gambling sites source customers from most time zones in the world.
Licensing and Security:
a Measure of TrustworthinessThe legal matters of online gambling are set on a fluid, constantly changing terrain. On a global scale, there are vast differences: UK punters are served by a mature, highly regulated online gambling market, whereas US gamblers are legally constrained to a varying degree depending on state and are denied financial transactions with online casinos (the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act).
Each country has its own legislation, so a novice player’s first job is to inform themselves whether and where their country allows them to gamble and how it regulates the industry, if it does. Most online casinos will let you know if your place of residence is accepted, while the very best operators customize their sites to accommodate multiple languages and currencies. This means that you will know almost straightaway if you are welcome to play.
The top licensing jurisdictions, such as the UK and Gibraltar, have an established reputation in the industry and uphold strict licensing standards. Malta even offers ample support to players seeking dispute resolution. If the bottom section of a casino’s website quotes the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority or Government of Gibraltar’s Gambling Division, this serves as an immediate confirmation of credibility. A casino licensed in a jurisdiction which is more budget-friendly and sets low, easily achievable requirements, is not necessarily bad or to be avoided. It simply means that accountability is not vouchsafed and you'll have to do more research to confirm if a site is trustworthy.
Most licensing authorities require their licensees to have their RNG software (Random Number Generator) regularly tested by an independent third-party. Many of the respectable sites publish RNG certifications, including Return-to-Player (RTP) rates, and unfortunately, many of them don’t. eCogra, the Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), Technical Systems Testing (TST, part of GLI) and iTech Labs are undeniably the most trusted software testing labs out there
Attention: Always check if the casino site has the ‘https’ in the URL and a padlock icon appears when the page is loaded. These guarantee that your personal data is protected by 128-bit SSL encryption and all financial transactions are safe. If you do not see the ‘https’ and the padlock icon, be wise enough to leave the casino site immediately!
Why Play Baccarat Online?
Virtual gambling has given new life to this centuries-old gamethat was traditionally found only in exclusive circles and has a very low house edge, second only to blackjack.
The online reincarnation has been stripped of the multi-language terminology borrowed from French, Italian and Spanish, and uses easy English equivalents. Baccarat is no more banned into the far reaches of roped-off VIP areas, instead, online gambling has made it available within one-click reach, welcoming player entry from any place at any time and allowing low betting limits.
Online baccarat boasts a number of exciting features. Much of the game’s formal etiquette typical for brick-and-mortar casinos was dropped when online sites first started offering the game, thus significantly speeding it up for virtual play. However, nowadays, many of these rituals are coming back to life, e.g. some RNG software allows for clicking and peeking at the dealt cards, and many live baccarat casinos have the dealer perform the suspense-building ritual of ‘squeezing’ the last dealt card, with additional cameras zooming in on the pips or faces. These extra features add fun, suspense, and authenticity to the virtual gambling experience.
The Story Behind The Game
Baccarat exclusively entertained the European aristocracy throughout the Middle Ages before being exported to the New World and taking Asia by storm (Macau casinos are entirely baccarat-dominated). It may be a simple card game of chance requiring no skill, but for decades the wider gambler pool steered away from it, perhaps due to its flair of mystery and high betting limits.
Here are some Fun Facts about the game:
- The name ‘baccarat’ is of Italian origin and means ‘zero’, since 10s and face cards are counted as zero points.
- It was invented in medieval Italy in the 1400s by gambler Felix Falguiere.
- It is perhaps based on an Etruscan legend of a virgin who had to throw a nine-sided dice to determine her own destiny. 8 or 9 meant a life of priestesshood, 6 or 7 meant a free life with a ban from religious/community rituals, and anything less meant she had to drown herself in the sea.
- Originally, baccarat was played with tarot cards.
- What is a James Bond movie without evil geniuses and glamorous casino scenes? This is allegedly Agent 007’s favorite game, and the plot of the 1953 ‘Casino Royale’ centers around it.
Choosing the Right Casino
for Online Baccarat
Whether you are an experienced gambler seeking the latest updates on the top baccarat online casino sites, or you happen to be a newcomer on a quest of understanding the game and wondering where to play for real money, our site is here to assist you in a professional and efficient manner. We provide in-depth expert reviews of the top baccarat gambling sites, covering criteria like game selection and software, bonuses, live dealer platform, VIP schemes, mobile casino app, banking methods, customer service, licensing and security. If you are looking to enjoy exciting and fun games on safe and fair platforms, any time and anywhere, onlinebaccaratcasinos.com is players’ ultimate springboard into informed and fun gambling online!
