Bellagio

TL;DR

• Opened October 1998; MGM Resorts property at 3600 S Las Vegas Blvd
• Punto Banco from $25 on the main floor; the Salon Privé (Club Privé) handles high-limit and VIP baccarat
• 24 hours; no membership required for main floor; the Salon Privé requires a high-limit player status or prior arrangement

Annabel's take

I've sat at the Bellagio's Baccarat Bar on a Tuesday afternoon and watched the Asian VIPs take their seats in the adjacent high-limit section with the quiet deliberateness of people who've done this many times. The Baccarat Bar itself is a useful position: it's in the baccarat room, it's open 24 hours, and from a stool you can watch both the standard floor and the entrance to the higher-limit area without appearing to study either.

The Bellagio opened in October 1998 with a $1.6 billion construction cost that was, at the time, the most expensive hotel ever built. Steve Wynn sold the Mirage Resorts portfolio to MGM in 2000; the Bellagio became an MGM Resorts property. The casino retains its reputation as the Strip's most recognisable address for serious baccarat partly because of the Salon Privé (marketed as Club Privé), which handles the high-limit and VIP play in a separated room, and partly because the property's overall level of finish attracts exactly the clientele that tends to play baccarat seriously.

The Conservatory and Botanical Gardens atrium beyond the lobby changes its floral installation five times a year; it's one of Las Vegas's reliable spectacles and draws a crowd that has no interest in the baccarat tables at all. Which is fine. The two populations of visitors coexist without friction.

On the main casino floor, baccarat runs at $25 minimums on a standard Punto Banco basis. The squeeze is not a feature of the main floor; cards are dealt face-up by the dealer at pace. In the Salon Privé, different arrangements apply: the play is slower, the minimums are significantly higher, and the specific terms are arranged through the casino's host team or the high-limit services desk.

What you'll find at the baccarat tables

Standard Punto Banco on the main Bellagio floor: 1.06% edge on Banker, 1.24% on Player, 14.36% on Tie. Five percent commission on Banker wins settled at end of shoe. Floor minimums at $25 on the main floor, though minimums can rise significantly at peak weekend hours.

The Club Privé high-limit room operates Punto Banco with higher table limits. MGM Resorts does not publish its high-limit maximums openly; posted maximums on the Strip at time of writing are around $25,000 per hand for posted limits, with negotiated higher limits available through the host team. The Salon Privé requires no membership but does require prior arrangement or high-limit player status through MGM Rewards.

Road maps are used on the main floor but less obsessively than in Macau. The player profile on the Bellagio's baccarat floor includes a significant proportion of Asian high-rollers, particularly those staying at the Tower Suites, for whom the road maps are a standard tool. The Bead Road and Big Road are the minimum; the derived roads depend on the specific table and the preferences of the players present.

Getting in

The Bellagio casino is open 24 hours. No membership required. Minimum age 21. The property is at 3600 S Las Vegas Blvd; the self-park garage is accessed from Flamingo Road. The nearest monorail stop is the Bally's/Paris stop, a ten-minute walk. Dress code is smart casual; the casino is not strict by European standards, though the high-limit room has a marginally more elevated expectation.

The neighbourhood

The Bellagio sits between the Paris Las Vegas and CityCenter on the central Strip. The Cosmopolitan is directly across the Las Vegas Boulevard. Aria, Vdara, and the Park MGM complex are a short walk south. The High Roller observation wheel at the LINQ is ten minutes north on foot.

For the baccarat player staying at the Bellagio, the Tower Suites provide the natural base. The casino host team manages the relationship between the suite floor and the Salon Privé. The fountains show on the hour and half-hour from early evening; they're visible from the Baccarat Bar window seats if you're positioned correctly. It's worth noting, once.

Sources

Sources: Bellagio official casino page, Bellagio Baccarat Bar page, WATG design profile: Bellagio Club Privé.