Baccarat's three bets and the commission on banker

Baccarat offers three bets, and the commission on one of them exists precisely because it wins slightly too often to be paid at even money. The commission is not a fee attached for its own sake; it is the correction that makes the payout schedule work.

Why banker wins more often

The player hand acts first under a fixed drawing rule. The banker hand then acts with knowledge of what the player drew, and its own drawing rule depends on that card. Acting second with more information is a structural advantage, and it shows up as a small but persistent excess of banker wins over player wins.

What the commission does

Paying the banker bet at full even money would hand that structural advantage to whoever backs it. Deducting a commission from winning banker bets removes most of it, leaving a small residual edge in the game's favour. The player bet needs no such correction, which is why it carries none.

The tie bet

The tie is a separate proposition with a much larger payout and a much lower frequency, and its edge is considerably higher than either main bet. This is the general pattern for long-odds side bets across table games: the headline payout rises faster than the true price would justify.

Commission-free variants

Some variants drop the commission and instead reduce the payout on one specific winning banker total. That is the same correction applied in a different place. Comparing variants therefore means comparing the whole payout schedule rather than looking only at whether the word commission appears.