Level 5 · Lesson 21 of 4 · Advanced Player
The History of Baccarat: From 15th-Century Florence to Macau
The Italian origins
The precise origin of baccarat is contested by historians. The most commonly cited account: an Italian game called baccara emerged in the fifteenth century, possibly around Florence or Naples. The word means zero in both Italian and French, referring to the value of face cards.
The early Italian version had a nine-sided tableau. Some gaming history texts connect the zero result to an older ritual, in which a die roll determined a fate. Eight or nine elevated; six or seven condemned; zero through five meant death. This may be retroactive embellishment. What's clear is that a card comparison game called baccarat moved from Italy to France sometime in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.
The Britannica entry on baccarat traces the French arrival as early as the reign of Charles VIII.
France and the aristocratic game
By the late nineteenth century, Chemin de Fer was established in the private gaming rooms of the French Riviera. The Casino de Monte-Carlo, which opened in 1863, incorporated Chemin de Fer into its Salons Prives. It was a game associated with wealth, leisure, and the ability to sustain losses that would ruin most people.
British aristocracy encountered it via Monte Carlo and via the informal gambling networks connecting Mayfair to the continent. By the early twentieth century, Chemin de Fer was played at private London clubs: the predecessors of Les Ambassadeurs, Crockfords, and the Clermont.
The Tranby Croft scandal of 1890 is the most notable early British baccarat controversy: a cheating accusation at a house party attended by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). It went to trial and became a national scandal. Not a casino story, but it demonstrates that baccarat was genuinely embedded in British high society before any casino held a licence to offer it.
The American arrival
Punto Banco was developed for the American market based on a Cuban variant. Tommy Renzoni, an Italian-American casino executive who had worked in Havana before Castro closed the casinos, brought the format to Las Vegas in 1959 and introduced it at the Sands. The Sands at that time was the centre of the Rat Pack's world. Sinatra was there.
The launch was theatrical: Renzoni arrived with a prop shoe and a plan to fill a slow Monday night. The game caught on. By the 1970s, Punto Banco had displaced Chemin de Fer in the American market entirely. When Atlantic City opened in 1978, the format spread to a broader American audience.
The 1.06% house edge on Banker and high table limits made it appealing to high-stakes players who had previously played blackjack.
London's baccarat rooms
London's baccarat history runs through private members' clubs, most now closed.
Crockfords at 30 Curzon Street in Mayfair was founded in 1828 by William Crockford, a fishmonger's son who built a fortune from gambling. It survived as a private gaming club through various iterations for nearly two centuries. In 2012, it was the site of Phil Ivey's edge-sorting session: Ivey won approximately £7.7 million playing Punto Banco by exploiting asymmetries in the card backs. The UK Supreme Court's ruling in Ivey v Genting [2017] UKSC 67 established that this constituted dishonest conduct under civil law, even though Ivey never touched the backs during play. Crockfords closed in November 2023 following a lease dispute.
The Ritz Club on Piccadilly opened as a casino in 1978 and became London's most prestigious Punto Banco room in the 1980s and 1990s. It closed in March 2020 and has not reopened.
The Clermont Club in Berkeley Square closed in 2018.
Les Ambassadeurs Club at 5 Hamilton Place, Mayfair, has been a gaming club in various forms since the early twentieth century. Ian Fleming was a member. It still offers Chemin de Fer and Punto Banco.
The Hippodrome Casino on Leicester Square opened in 2012. It is public-access: London's most accessible live baccarat room.
The Macau transformation
Macau had licensed gambling since the 1850s. Stanley Ho's STDM held a monopoly from 1962 to 2002. During this period, baccarat became the dominant game at Casino Lisboa (opened 1970), reflecting the preferences of the predominantly Cantonese and Fujian gamblers who formed the core player base.
Macau's market liberalised in 2002. Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn entered. The Venetian Macao, Galaxy Macau, and City of Dreams followed. The Macau DICJ reports baccarat generating approximately 88% of gross gaming revenue: a figure stable across regulatory environments. No other major gaming jurisdiction comes close to that concentration in a single game.
Outside the Anglo-American tradition
The game also found a distinctive home in Portugal. Casino Estoril, opened in 1916 on the coast outside Lisbon, became a prominent European casino in the mid-twentieth century: visited by intelligence officers, diplomats, and exiles during the war years, and one of the inspirations for Fleming's fictional Royale-les-Eaux. Casino Estoril runs live Punto Banco to this day.
Casino di Venezia, in Venice, is the oldest operating casino in the world, with origins dating to 1638. It predates Punto Banco by three centuries and has run card games continuously across more centuries than any other institution in this history. The game that casino's sixteenth-century visitors played bears little resemblance to the eight-deck Punto Banco you'll find at the Venetian Macao. But the line from one to the other is traceable.
Key dates
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1400s | Baccarat appears in Italy |
| 1863 | Casino de Monte-Carlo opens; Chemin de Fer established in Salons Prives |
| 1890 | Tranby Croft scandal, UK |
| 1953 | Ian Fleming publishes Casino Royale |
| 1959 | Tommy Renzoni introduces Punto Banco to the Sands, Las Vegas |
| 1962 | Casino Lisboa, Macau; baccarat dominance begins |
| 2002 | Macau liberalises; international operators enter |
| 2012 | Phil Ivey edge-sorting session at Crockfords |
| 2017 | Ivey v Genting [2017] UKSC 67 |
| 2020 | Ritz Club closes |
| 2023 | Crockfords closes |
Sources: Britannica on baccarat, Casino de Monte-Carlo, Macau DICJ statistics 2023, UK Supreme Court Ivey v Genting, Les Ambassadeurs Club, Hippodrome baccarat.
Welcome to the lesson on the history of baccarat.
I'm Annabel, and I want to take you through the game's history in a fairly direct way. Not every detail, but the key movements: where it came from, who carried it, and why it arrived at its current form. The history matters because the rules you're playing under are a product of specific decisions made at specific moments.
The name comes from the Italian and French word baccara, meaning zero: the value of face cards. The earliest documented forms appear in fifteenth-century Italy, likely around Florence or Naples. A card comparison game tracking toward nine, with zero as the defining result.
From Italy, the game moved to France. By the late nineteenth century, Chemin de Fer was established in the private gaming rooms of the Riviera. The Casino de Monte-Carlo, opened in eighteen sixty-three, incorporated it into the Salons Prives, where it remains. The British aristocracy encountered it at Monte Carlo and brought it back to London. By the early twentieth century, Chemin de Fer was running in private London clubs that eventually became Les Ambassadeurs, Crockfords, and the Clermont.
The Tranby Croft scandal of eighteen ninety is worth a footnote. A baccarat cheating accusation at a house party attended by the Prince of Wales went to trial. It became a national scandal. It demonstrates that baccarat had genuine social weight in British high society long before any casino held a licence to offer it.
America. Punto Banco was developed for the American and Cuban markets. Tommy Renzoni brought it to Las Vegas in nineteen fifty-nine, introducing it at the Sands Casino. The Rat Pack era. Sinatra was there. The story is that Renzoni arrived with a prop shoe and a plan to fill a slow Monday night. It worked. By the nineteen seventies, Punto Banco had displaced Chemin de Fer in the American market. Atlantic City brought it to a broader audience from nineteen seventy-eight.
London. The baccarat rooms worth knowing, mostly in the past tense.
Crockfords at thirty Curzon Street in Mayfair. Founded in eighteen twenty-eight by William Crockford, a fishmonger's son. Nearly two centuries as a private gaming club. In twenty twelve, Phil Ivey won approximately seven point seven million pounds playing Punto Banco at Crockfords by exploiting asymmetries in the card backs, a technique called edge-sorting. The UK Supreme Court ruled in twenty seventeen, in Ivey v Genting, that this constituted dishonest conduct under civil law even though Ivey never touched the card backs during play. The winnings were never paid. Crockfords closed in November twenty twenty-three following a lease dispute with Genting.
The Ritz Club on Piccadilly. Opened as a casino in nineteen seventy-eight. London's most prestigious Punto Banco room in the eighties and nineties. Closed March twenty twenty and never reopened.
The Clermont Club in Berkeley Square. Closed twenty eighteen.
What remains: Les Ambassadeurs Club at five Hamilton Place, Mayfair, a private members' club offering Chemin de Fer and Punto Banco. Ian Fleming was a member. Still operating. And the Hippodrome Casino on Leicester Square, public access, Punto Banco in the Heliot Salon Prive. Opened twenty twelve.
Macau. Macau had licensed gambling since the eighteen fifties. Stanley Ho's company held a monopoly from nineteen sixty-two to two thousand and two. The Casino Lisboa, opened nineteen seventy, made baccarat the dominant game for the Cantonese and Fujian player base. Macau liberalised in two thousand and two. Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn entered. The Venetian Macao, Galaxy, and City of Dreams followed. The Macau gaming regulator's data: baccarat generates approximately eighty-eight percent of gross gaming revenue. Consistent. Stable. No other major gambling jurisdiction is this concentrated in a single game.
The rules you play under now, fixed drawing tableau, permanent casino bank, eight-deck shoe, are the product of six hundred years of movement and sixty years of volume optimisation. Knowing where they came from doesn't change them. It does make the table feel less arbitrary.