Baccarat is a card game played in casinos around the world. It’s a comparing card game that uses two hands, the “player” and the “banker”. The winner is determined by which hand is closest to nine.

The rules are simple and require no technical skill to play. Players must wager on either the Bank or Player hand and place their bets before the dealer calls “no more bets”.

When all players have placed their bets, the dealer deals one card to each box. This is repeated twice so that each box contains two cards.

After all the boxes are filled, the dealer draws another card. If neither the Player nor the Banker hand totals 8 or 9, this is called a natural win and the round ends.

The dealer takes a 5% commission on winning bets on the Banker hand. This enables the casino to maintain a House Advantage in this game.

Baccarat was founded in 1764 in the town of Baccarat in Lorraine, France. It was not France’s first glass workshop, but it would become a leading producer of the most iconic pieces of glassware for both exhibition and use.

Today, original 19th Century Baccarat pieces are prized by collectors. Many of their most iconic designs can be seen at the Baccarat Museum in Paris.

The first head of the Baccarat factory was the-then Bishop of Orleans, Cardinal Louis-Joseph de Laval-Montmorency. He was impressed by the factory’s glasswork and commissioned a variety of items from it in the mid-18th Century. Several French monarchs and Emperors were later commissioned to buy Baccarat glasses. In the 19th Century, they began to make glass candelabra for the court of the Shah of Persia, Naser od-Din. They also made a series of monumental chandeliers for the palaces in Dolmbahce, Turkey.