Vigorish

Example

Let’s look at an example of how vigorish works in baccarat. Suppose a player bets $200 on the banker hand, and the banker hand wins. Normally, the banker bet pays 1:1, meaning the player would win $200 in addition to their original $200 bet, for a total of $400. However, because of the vigorish, the casino takes a 5% commission on the winnings. In this case, the winnings are $200, and the vigorish fee would be 5% of that amount, or $10. So, instead of receiving the full $400, the player would receive $390 after the vigorish is deducted.

Now, if the player had bet on the player hand or the tie, the vigorish would not apply. Let’s say a player placed the same $200 on the player hand, and the player hand won. In this case, the player would receive a payout of $400, without any commission taken by the casino, since there is no vigorish fee on the player bet. Similarly, if the bet were on the tie and won, there would be no vigorish fee, but the payout would be much higher, often around 8:1, depending on the casino’s rules. The table below summarizes this example:

In this table, you can see how the vigorish affects the banker bet, reducing the payout by $10, while the player and tie bets remain unaffected by the commission. The key takeaway is that the vigorish only applies to the banker bet, but it still makes it the most profitable bet in the game over time, despite the slight reduction in payout.