---
title: "Baccarat's three bets and the commission on banker"
url: https://rankplan.net/2026/06/baccarat-three-bets/
description: "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."
published: 2026-06-01
updated: 2026-06-01
---

# Baccarat's three bets and the commission on banker

Published 2026-06-01

Filed under: [Card games](https://rankplan.net/categories/card-games/), [Table games](https://rankplan.net/categories/table-games/) — [permalink](https://rankplan.net/2026/06/baccarat-three-bets/)

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.