Baccarat is one of the casino’s most elegant table games. It’s also a relatively simple game, at least by the standards of gambling. The game’s objective is to bet on either the Player or Banker hand that will get closer to nine than the other. The rules vary slightly depending on whether you’re playing the Punto Banco or Chemin de Fer (the “seven and a half” rule) version of the game, but the principle is the same. Cards that total more than nine drop their first digit, with tens and jacks having zero value and aces counting as ones.

Unlike blackjack, where players have a myriad of decision-making options, baccarat is a pure game of chance. Players only need to decide if they want to bet on the Player or Banker, with a Tie wager being nearly a coinflip (1%-1.5%). There is no table etiquette to follow, and each round of play can be completed in seconds. In fact, it’s the fastest table game in any casino, especially non-commission versions of the game.

The game has an illustrious history that spans Europe, Asia and the US. Its roots are in Italy, where it is a variant of the game of pachislo. That game, in turn, probably spun off from pai gow, an ancient Chinese tile game that Marco Polo brought back to Europe. Nine is the highest number in baccarat, and it is what gives the game its name.

In the game’s earliest days, cards were dealt from a shuffled deck of eight. In order to introduce a new deck into the game, the entire stack had to be inspected, fronts and backs alike, by both a floor supervisor and dealer. Once that process was complete, the decks had to be scrambled or washed together and then inserted into a shuffling machine before they could be used in a baccarat hand.

Today, however, casinos use pre-shuffled cards in baccarat to speed up the process of introducing new decks into a game. This allows the dealer and floor supervisor to spend less time on paperwork and more time on their own duties.

Baccarat is a popular table game among high-limit gamblers. In Macau, bets of $100,000 a hand are not uncommon. It’s no wonder, then, that the game generates more revenue than any other table game in Las Vegas and Macau. But is baccarat’s luster wearing off as the casino patron base shifts? GGB asked Sands Global CEO Andrew MacDonald if he thinks the game has staying power.