Baccarat – The High Roller’s Game
Many online casino games try and encapsulate the classy impression that casinos like to advertise and baccarat does this best. Traditionally baccarat is a millionaires game and the betting limits are so high that only high rollers consider playing the game.
However, in its origins, baccarat was not such a glamorous game, for most of its existence it lay in second place to blackjack. However, baccarat began to rise in the ranks when it came to South American casinos and then to England in the middle of last century. It wasn’t long before much of England’s and South America’s elite were playing baccarat and pushing the stakes of the game up.
T
he games reputation was furthered thanks to Ian Fleming making it James Bond’s game of choice. In the famous 1953 book ‘Casino Royale’, the secret agent James Bond was up against SMERSH member Le Chiffre at the baccarat tables. Thanks to Bond’s class and the reoccurrence of baccarat in future novels it became known in popular culture as a high society elitist game.
Also during the 1950s and 1960s baccarat began to appear again in Las Vegas casinos. It became a way for wealthy gamblers, who traditionally wanted to stay away from low rollers and common games, to find real separation on the casino floor.
This is one of the main reasons that in today’s land based casinos, the baccarat tables are often in roped off sections were only VIP members are able to play. The stereotypical baccarat player will dress in a tuxedo and will be playing with more money in one game than most people can hope to make in a month.
However, this is all changing as online baccarat has brought the game back to the masses as its cheap and available to all.
