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Where Are the Best Live Dealer Baccarat Games?
Long considered an interesting but mysterious pastime, a centuries-old Italian card game has found renewed popularity as live dealer baccarat. Now available at any number of online gaming sites—and dealt from a growing number of video studios specializing in live dealer games—baccarat and its dozens of variants is now enjoyed in the homes and offices of millions of people from all walks of life.
But even with greatly increased visibility and accessibility, live dealer baccarat still raises many questions. What’s the best site to play live dealer baccarat? How do you play it? And, as far as the live dealer games themselves are concerned, which live dealer studio produces the more useable and intuitive version?
We’ve got answers to those questions, and more. Let’s get started.
Disclosure: At GamblingSites.com, our mission is to connect you with the best gambling sites and informational resources available. If you click one of the links on our site, we may earn a commission payment at no extra charge to you.
Best Online Live Dealer Baccarat Casinos
- DuckyLuck – Best Overall for Live Baccarat
- Lupin Casino – Best Video Quality
- Slots.lv – Most Interactive Dealers
- Ignition Casino – Great Mobile Experience
DuckyLuck Best Overall for Live Baccarat
The best all-around live dealer baccarat site is DuckyLuck Casino. While it deals only baccarat, the game is easy to access and, once you’ve made a deposit, quite easy to play. It is one of the few that features games dealt by Fresh Deck Studios. The table offers two stakes levels: $1-$200 and $10-$1500, and the Fresh Deck set-up focuses on a single active table rather than using the other tables as background.
You don’t need to worry about finding a full live dealer table at DuckyLuck—the game features “bet-behind”, meaning multiple players can sit at the same seat without interfering with the play of others.
If you’re new to the online baccarat live dealer tables, the site offers a very informative how-to on the game. If you’re more experienced, you’ll be impressed with the simplicity of placing bets and following the deal.
Fresh Deck deals DuckyLuck’s live dealer baccarat from an eight-deck shoe, and the cards have oversized faces that are easy to read on PC screens, but a bit more difficult to read on a mobile phone.
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- Bonus: 500% up to $7,500
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Lupin Casino Best Video Quality
Lupin Casino features two Visionary iGaming tables dealing baccarat, and another two dealing Super 6—all four of which offer stakes limits of $5-100, $25-$500, and $50-$1000. The quality of the ViG playing screen can be scaled all the way to full screen, which may or may not be necessary depending on your PC’s screen size, but it’s a handy option.
Without going into the technical specifics of live dealer video streaming, Lupin Casino’s live dealer baccarat video is selectable at low, high, or auto settings. The low setting is slightly murky but still detailed enough to read the cards easily (but perhaps not to count the dealer’s teeth with any degree of accuracy). On the other hand, the high setting is quite crisp. Think of it as the difference between normal lighting and Hollywood lighting.
There’s also a handy “disable video” button, which turns off the dealer stream entirely, replacing it with a static silhouette of a dealer. This ensures that players with concerns about data usage charges or a mobile phone’s battery life won’t have to cut their baccarat sessions short.
The screen displays the traditional scorecard on either side of the betting area (Bead Road to the left, and the other four to the right)—and you’ll need that full screen to read it clearly, even on the PC.
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Slots.lv Most Interactive Dealers
While both Fresh Deck and ViG employ friendly and professional dealers, the ViG dealers at Slots.lv appear more engaging. Overall, they chat more, they speak more clearly, and frankly, they appear to enjoy their jobs more. A smile is just a smile, they say, but nobody wants to sit across from a dealer who might be better employed at the DMV. ViG dealers not only narrate their deals (as you would expect) but will also respond to player chat. They welcome new players as they join, and congratulate big wins. A tip is invariably acknowledged aloud, and with some degree of ceremony.
Even on a mobile platform, where you might not be able to listen to the audio, a smile and animated engagement comes across well. Amina, a dealer at the baccarat table, has proven to be particularly engaging and enthusiastic over a series of sessions—both on the PC and on the mobile platform.
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- Bonus: 100% up to $2,000
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Ignition Casino Great Mobile Experience
With Visionary iGaming’s superior playing screen, Ignition Casino’s baccarat and Super 6 are easier to play on mobile platforms. As with other ViG live dealer sites, you can choose three different table limits on both games, $5-$100, $25-$1000, or $100-$2500. Ignition provides a single page listing all of its available live dealer games; scroll down to the bottom to find your baccarat and Super 6 tables, and then select the table wagering limits you prefer to join the game.
The playing screen on a mobile platform allows for both portrait and landscape play, with all the wager settings centered and equally accessible to both left- and right-handed players. The game allows for toggling sound effects and video audio on and off independently—handy when you’re getting a hand or two of baccarat in during that all-important HR meeting.
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- Bonus: 300% up to $3,000
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Best Live Baccarat Casinos Compared
How We Find the Best Online Live Dealer Baccarat Casinos
We built our B.E.S.T. ranking system to cover the four most important characteristics of casinos offering live dealer baccarat. Each of the four is graded and ranked on a number of specifics, from which an interim score is built to add to the other interim scores. That final score gives the site between a zero-and five-star overall rating.
- Bonuses — We take all bonuses offered by the site into consideration, adjusting our rating dependent on the rollover required to earn out the bonus, how many types of bonuses are offered (a reload bonus, for example, or free spins). We even keep an eye out for the rare live dealer bonus.
- Entertainment Features — This score covers quite a number of the intangibles of a gambling site. Are the games fun? Does the site offer a good mix of gambling options? Do they load fast? Is the site well-designed, simple to use, and intuitive to navigate? In order to get a good score in this category, they’ll have to do all that and more.
- Safety and Security — The most heavily-weighted score in our system, every aspect of safety and security offered by a gambling site is looked at and graded, from the clarity of its Privacy Policy to its data security overall, including verifying the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) throughout their site.
- Transactions — We take everything financial into consideration here, from the number and reliability of the deposit methods offered to the speed and accuracy of withdrawal methods. We also ensure that the site uses banking-level encryption for all financial transactions.
How to Find the Best Live Baccarat Online Casino for You
chooseIt may seem counterintuitive to judge online casinos differently when most of them partner with one of half-a-dozen live dealer streaming studios, but there are differences in how each site has tailored its offering to its patrons.
Incidentally, don’t confuse live dealer with virtual dealer. Live dealer games consist of a human being dealing an actual game inside of a studio, then streaming the games being dealt live to hundreds or even thousands of players around the world. A virtual dealer, on the other hand, is a computer construct that mimics pure chance by using algorithms to randomly generate numbers that are used in the game.
Back to live dealer baccarat. If you’re a new player, you’ll probably want a site that offers low minimum wagers and provides ample help screens. More experienced baccarat players will probably want readable scoreboards, higher table limits, and dealers they have become comfortable with.
Here are some of the different criteria you should consider when choosing the best live dealer baccarat site for you:
How Regularly Do You Want to Play
If you want to play live dealer baccarat once per week or less, you’re better suited to play at sites like SlotsandCasino which offers a single version of live baccarat with a low $1 minimum bet.
If you want to play more often, even daily, we recommend Bovada. Here you’ll find several live dealer baccarat tables, including Super 6, and a range of betting limits.
Do You Want to Play Live Baccarat on Mobile?
If you plan to play mobile live dealer baccarat, you’re going to want to choose your sites from those featuring Visionary iGaming tables, such as Ignition Casino.
We prefer ViG mobile live dealer games because they use digital copies of each card which are easier to read on your phone. You can also disable streaming, which is ideal for reducing both battery and data usage.
What Kind of Experience are You Looking For?
Do you like a lot of interaction with the dealer? Are you new to the game and need assistance? You’ll want to think about the experience you want to have when deciding where to play live baccarat online.
If you’re unfamiliar with baccarat — perhaps you’re uncertain about the purpose of those charts and graphs on every baccarat playing screen — then we recommend playing at DuckyLuck. Another good option is Slots.lv.
How to Play Online Live Dealer Baccarat
If you have visited gaming sites in the past and found that while some are touted as offering live dealer games, you’ve been unable to find that option on a casual visit to the site. That’s because many gaming sites don’t display that option to unregistered visitors. Still, you can register with a site (usually with just your name and email address) and view the site’s live dealer options without actually making a deposit.
Most online casinos will have a link to their live dealer games on their main page, but some may list it on their main “Games” page. In either case, look for “Live Dealer” or “Live Casino” option. Clicking on that should bring you to either a page listing all the live dealer games available (Visionary iGaming), or a landing page where you’ll be asked to click a button to enter the live casino lobby (Fresh Deck Studios). In the case of Fresh Deck, you’ll need to actually log in to your account at that casino to access the live dealer tables.
The Fresh Deck games play in the new tab you opened when you entered the “Live Lobby”, while ViG live dealer games open in a new browser window. In either case, to “sit down” at a live dealer baccarat table, you’ll need to have an account with the site you’re visiting, and have made a deposit there. Be aware that some sites won’t permit live dealer play if you have unfulfilled bonus wagering requirements, so be sure you check every site’s bonus terms and conditions for restrictions on play.
With some sites, such as Lupin Casino, it’s possible to actually take a seat at a live dealer baccarat table to watch the game be played. You won’t be able to place a bet without making a deposit, but you can observe the game for a few minutes and familiarize yourself with the controls.
Both Fresh Deck and ViG show the games they have with a picture of the actual dealers working at each table at the moment. The picture will have table limit buttons superimposed on the picture, so you can select the level of wagering most comfortable for you.
Once you’ve arrived at the table you’ve selected, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the table layout. Both have chat buttons (for text only; neither your image nor your audio is transmitted to the table). If you enjoy talkative dealers, a good idea is to open the chat box of whatever table you’re on. If the only messages there are of the automatic “x has joined the table” variety, chances are the dealer at that table isn’t going to be particularly chatty. On the other hand, if the chat window is filled with various comments from actual players, you can anticipate a much more human conversation taking place.
If you’re wondering how to win live dealer baccarat, there are as many answers to that question as there are baccarat players. Some will advise betting the banker because the banker wins a very slight number of times more than the player does. Others insist that there are strategies based on the historical information represented by the traditional baccarat scoreboard. Still others will point out that baccarat is a game of chance and, as such, is impervious to trend analysis.
Perhaps baccarat has yet to reveal all its secrets.
Whichever strategy you choose for your live dealer baccarat experience, there are differences between the two studios’ approaches to the game screen that can affect your enjoyment of the game, if not your success at it. Visionary iGaming and Fresh Deck have very different approaches to displaying the scoreboard (some prefer to call it the roadmap). Depending on whether you follow or ignore advice on using the roadmap to win at baccarat, you’re going to have a definite preference for which studio you favor.
Let’s take a closer look at what each studio offers.
Fresh Deck Studios
Fresh Deck displays the scoreboard to the left of the table, and a click of the mouse or tap of the finger toggles the display between the various roads and minimizing the feature completely. On the table itself, you have a choice of selecting multimode, which displays a large grid on the table along with the wagers of other players, or single mode, which displays an easy to navigate grid of the available wagering options.
While multimode is relatively easy to navigate, some players may opt for the single-mode option, which is quite clear. In either case, all wagering options are accessible on-screen at once. The three main bets can be made by selecting a chip denomination at the bottom of the screen and then clicking one of the three empty circles under the “player”, “tie”, or “banker” tags. Side bets—big/small, banker pair/player pair/either pair/perfect pair)–are likewise present on the table.
If Fresh Deck has an “area of opportunity” with its live dealer baccarat screens, it is in the area of card identification. Plainly stated, the cards dealt at the baccarat tables are too small to be read easily. On mobile platforms, identifying each card dealt with any degree of confidence is extremely difficult. The player is simply left to trust the game to say whether the wager won or lost. Fresh Deck deals baccarat from an eight-deck shoe, and the deal alternates between the player and the banker.
A word about the chip denominations displayed at the bottom of the screen: during an active hand, these chips are inaccessible, covered by a transparent information band. Whenever the hand is over and new wagers may be placed, the transparent band descends and the chips brighten to show they may be actively selected. There’s also a re-bet option available there.
And don’t forget to tip–just select a chip amount and then click on the tip icon in the upper right-hand side of the table.
There are few differences between Fresh Deck’s PC and mobile versions of live dealer baccarat. The most important of which is a toggle button that switches between the main bets (along with the player pair and banker pair wagers) and the other side bets. The other major difference is that the chip selector becomes a circle of different denominations in the bottom center of the table. The tip button is also in a different spot–the lower left-hand corner.
Visionary iGaming
ViG displays the Bead Road to the left of your wagering area, and the other four roads of the scoreboard to the right. These stay on screen at all times, and is great for players who use them to determine their next bet, but taking up valuable table real estate for those who don’t.
The game is dealt from a six-deck shoe. All wagers and side bets are displayed in colored boxes in the lower center of the table. Along with the banker, player, and tie bets, there are a variety of side bets—big/small, banker pair/player pair/any pair/perfect pair—as well as one you won’t find on any Fresh Deck table: Player Dragon/Banker Dragon.
The one feature that distinguishes ViG from Fresh Deck is the concurrent display of digital cards duplicating the actual cards being dealt by the dealer. These duplicates are quite legible, even when playing on mobile.
As with Fresh Deck, ViG’s method of adjusting your wager is the selectable chip denominations below the table area. Unlike the Fresh Deck chip array, chip selection here is always available, although you can only bet between active hands. However, unlike Fresh Deck, ViG baccarat is dealt with both hands face down; the player hand is revealed first.
The tip icon is in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. On the right is a minimizable window that contains the text chat window, as well as a minigame selection window (slots, video blackjack, etc.) each of which can also be independently minimized.
A unique option at ViG live dealer baccarat tables is the option to auto-rebet, activated by clicking a circling arrows button to the far right of the chip selection row.
The ViG live dealer baccarat table provides a toggle button for the streaming dealer video, which is handy on mobile if you’re short on available data usage or your battery’s running down. You can play ViG’s live dealer baccarat on mobile in either portrait or landscape mode, and while that’s convenient, some may find the portrait perspective to be too small.
Live Baccarat Variants and Side Bets
Depending on the site, that site’s live dealer partner, and your location in the world, you are likely to encounter many versions of baccarat. Here are the most prevalent, along with where you need to be to access them.
- Punto Banco — this is one of the two forms of live dealer baccarat played on US-facing gambling sites. Banker bets have a 5% commission charged against them, since the bank is slightly favored in baccarat. Available almost everywhere.
- Mini-Baccarat — Also called Super 6, this is the only widely served live dealer baccarat game accessible at US-facing sites. It follows the same rules as punto banco, but pays a banker bet 1:1 (no commission)—and if the banker’s hand wins with a 6, the wager pays 5:1. There’s also a specific side wager called the Super 6, which pays this banker win 12:1.
- Bet on Baccarat — BetGame’s own contribution to live dealer baccarat, this game adds a fistful of prop wagers to every deal. Bet on what the suit of the next card dealt, or the color of the next card, or whether both cards to the banker or player will be the same color, or the same suit. All of this is in addition to the regular wagers and side bets. Bet on Baccarat is only available to play at Wild Casino.
- Speed Baccarat — Played like punto banco with all the same wagers and side bets, this Evolution live dealer game cuts normal coup time (coup is what the French call a single hand of baccarat) in half. If you like to deliberate before you wager, this is not the game for you.
- Lightning Baccarat — Some might think this is just a regular game of punto banco, except played much more quickly. Not the case. During each round, 1 to 5 cards are drawn from a standard 52-card deck, and each of those cards is randomly assigned a multiplier between 2x and 8x. During play, any winning wager on a hand containing one or more of these “lightning” cards has the win increased by that multiplier. The multipliers act to multiply other multipliers in the win, as well. A winning tie bet with the win consisting entirely of lightning cards could pay your wager multiplied by (ideally) 8x8x8x8x8x8. As Lightning Baccarat is provided by Evolution Gaming, it is only available in specific areas in the US.
- Baccarat Squeeze — Completely identical to punto banco, with the exception of the cards dealt being manipulated in a provocative manner to excite the hopes of gamblers. Think of it as the sizzle. While Baccarat Squeeze specifically is a Playtech game, other software providers have similar variants.
- Dragon Tiger — You won’t find this baccarat derivative at many US-facing live dealer sites, but it is popular enough around the world to merit a mention. The game deals a single card to the player and the banker. The main bets are whether the player has the bigger card, the banker has the bigger card, or the coup is a tie. Side bets are rampant, from suits and big/small wagers, to odd/even and both red/both black. Incidentally, the ace is always low, and unlike punto banco, ten is just another number.
Other Live Dealer Games You Might Enjoy
If you want to fully experience what live dealer gambling on the internet is all about, be sure to check our pages on other live dealer games you can enjoy:
