Baccarat commission is easiest to understand when it is treated as part of the Banker payout, not as an unrelated charge added after the game. In standard commission baccarat, a winning Player bet normally earns 1 unit of profit for each unit wagered. A winning Banker bet normally earns only 0.95 units of profit because 5% of the gross Banker win is retained as commission, or vigorish.
That small difference is the mechanism that turns Banker from a side with a slight structural win-probability advantage into a negative-expectation casino wager.
The math behind the 5% Banker charge
Under the standard drawing rules, Banker wins slightly more often than Player because the Banker drawing decision can depend on the Player’s third card. That does not mean Banker is guaranteed to win more often in a short shoe, and it does not mean every individual Banker decision is favorable. It means that across the complete mathematical distribution of standard baccarat outcomes, Banker has the higher win probability.
For a conventional eight-deck punto banco game, commonly cited full-shoe probabilities are approximately:
| Result | Probability |
|---|---|
| Banker wins | 45.8597% |
| Player wins | 44.6247% |
| Tie | 9.5156% |
Banker and Player wagers normally push on a Tie, so the Tie does not create a direct win or loss on those two main bets. The relevant expected-value calculation for a 1-unit Banker wager is therefore:
Banker EV = (P(Banker win) × 0.95) - (P(Player win) × 1)
Using the probabilities above:
Banker EV ≈ (0.458597 × 0.95) - 0.446247
Banker EV ≈ -0.01058 units per unit wagered
That is a house edge of about 1.06%. The exact published percentage can differ slightly according to deck count and rule implementation, but this is the familiar standard-baccarat figure.
The important point is that the 5% commission is not chosen because 5% itself equals the house edge. It does not. Commission is collected only when Banker wins. The long-run house edge emerges from the interaction between Banker’s higher win probability and the reduced payout on those wins.
For the probability side of the story, see Why Banker Wins More Often and Banker Bet House Edge.
What a 5% commission means in dollars
The arithmetic on a single winning Banker wager is direct:
Commission = Gross Banker Win × 0.05
Net Banker Profit = Gross Banker Win - Commission
A few examples make the payout relationship clear:
| Banker wager | Gross even-money win | 5% commission | Net profit | Stake + profit returned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20 | $20 | $1 | $19 | $39 |
| $50 | $50 | $2.50 | $47.50 | $97.50 |
| $100 | $100 | $5 | $95 | $195 |
| $300 | $300 | $15 | $285 | $585 |
| $1,000 | $1,000 | $50 | $950 | $1,950 |
A $100 winning Banker bet therefore does not produce $100 profit plus a separate $5 charge. Economically, the wager simply pays $95 profit. Describing the payout this way prevents a common mental-accounting error in which the commission is treated as if it were detached from the wager that created it.
Commission is not 5% of every Banker bet
Another frequent mistake is to say that the player “pays 5% every time they bet Banker.” The player pays commission only on a winning Banker result under the classic structure.
Using the approximate eight-deck Banker win probability above, the expected commission collected per 1 unit originally wagered is roughly:
0.458597 × 0.05 = 0.02293 units
So the expected commission amount is about 2.29% of the initial Banker wager per coup, not 5%. But that 2.29% is still not the house edge, because without the payout reduction Banker’s higher win probability would work in the player’s favor. The correct house-edge calculation has to include both the probability advantage and the payout reduction.
This distinction matters when comparing baccarat with games whose house advantage comes from an entirely different mechanism.
Immediate collection and accrued commission produce the same basic economics
Casinos can handle Banker commission operationally in more than one way. One table may deduct commission from each winning Banker payout immediately. Another may mark commission owed at the player position and collect the accumulated amount later, often before the player leaves or before a new shoe begins. Chip denominations and local rounding procedures can also affect how small amounts are physically settled.
The accounting timing changes the table workflow, but it does not change the underlying 5% payout adjustment if the same commission is ultimately collected.
For example, suppose a player has these four Banker outcomes at $100 each:
- Banker wins: $5 commission owed.
- Player wins: no commission because the Banker wager lost.
- Tie: the Banker wager pushes; no winning commission arises.
- Banker wins: another $5 commission owed.
If the casino collects immediately, $5 is removed after each of the two winning Banker hands. If the casino tracks it, the player may owe $10 later. The economic result is the same before any rounding convention.
The operational side is covered separately in Baccarat Commission Procedure.
Why Player can pay even money while Banker cannot
Player is not charged a standard commission because Player does not have the same structural win-probability advantage. A standard Player wager generally pays 1 to 1 and still has a house edge of roughly 1.24% in the familiar eight-deck game.
That creates an initially surprising ranking:
- Banker wins more often, but pays less than even money after commission.
- Player wins slightly less often, but pays full even money.
- Tie wins far less often and normally pays a much larger posted multiple, with a substantially higher house edge under common paytables.
The best main wager by house edge is usually still Banker in standard commission baccarat, but “best” only means least unfavorable among the normal main bets. It does not turn Banker into a positive-expectation bet.
What happens if the 5% were removed without changing any other rule
This thought experiment shows why the commission exists.
If Banker retained its normal win probability and paid a full 1 to 1 on every Banker win, then the expected value would be approximately:
EV without commission = P(Banker win) - P(Player win)
≈ 0.458597 - 0.446247
≈ +0.01235
That would be about +1.24% to the player on the original wager before considering ties as pushes. A casino therefore cannot normally remove the Banker payout adjustment and leave everything else unchanged while preserving the standard game economics.
No-commission baccarat solves the problem by changing some other settlement rule. A common version pays only half on a winning Banker total of 6. EZ Baccarat uses a different Banker exception. Those rules must be evaluated on their own mathematics; “no commission” describes the collection method, not the house edge.
Compare No-Commission Baccarat and Banker 6 Half-Pay Math before assuming a smoother payout means a cheaper bet.
Why commission errors matter to the casino
At table speed, commission is not merely a formula. It is also a control point. A missed $1 commission is small. Repeated missed commissions across hundreds of Banker wins can become material leakage. Overcollection creates the opposite problem: a player dispute, an incorrect table result, and potentially a reportable procedural issue depending on the jurisdiction.
Typical control concerns include:
- applying commission only to the amount actually won;
- handling partial-unit or odd-chip amounts consistently;
- marking accrued commission to the correct player position;
- collecting outstanding commission at the required point;
- distinguishing standard commission tables from approved no-commission variants;
- avoiding commission on wagers that the approved rules do not subject to vigorish;
- ensuring dealer, floor, rating, and surveillance records agree when a dispute occurs.
A current Massachusetts regulatory example states that a winning Banker wager is paid at 1 to 1 subject to 5% vigorish, and it permits either immediate collection or later tracked collection under the licensee’s approved procedure. The rules also describe rounding and the required handling of outstanding vigorish. See the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s July 2026 midi baccarat rules for one jurisdiction-specific implementation. Other jurisdictions can prescribe different procedures, so the local approved rules always control.
A more useful way to compare baccarat payout structures
When evaluating two baccarat tables, do not compare them only by the presence or absence of visible commission. Compare the entire settlement rule.
Ask:
- What does a normal Banker win pay?
- Is any Banker total treated differently?
- Does a particular Banker outcome push instead of win?
- Are commissions rounded, tracked, or collected immediately?
- What are the resulting house edges on Banker and Player?
- Are side bets being mixed into the comparison?
This prevents a marketing label from replacing the actual math.
For a standard commission table, the compact summary is:
Net Banker profit = Banker stake × 0.95 on a normal Banker win.
But for long-run cost, the more important formula is:
Expected loss = Total Banker action × Banker house edge
A player putting $5,000 of total Banker action through a game with a 1.06% edge has a long-run expected loss of roughly:
$5,000 × 0.0106 ≈ $53
That is an expectation, not a forecast of the session. Actual results can be hundreds or thousands of dollars away from the theoretical value over short play.
Use the Baccarat Odds Calculator to separate probability from payout, and read Standard Commission Baccarat for the full rule structure.
The number to remember
The cleanest mental model is not “Banker costs 5%.” It is this:
Standard Banker normally pays 0.95 units of profit for each unit won because Banker has the stronger underlying win probability.
That reduced payout leaves the familiar Banker wager with a house edge of about 1.06% under conventional eight-deck rules. The visible 5% commission is therefore only one ingredient in the calculation; the full result comes from probability, payout, and tie treatment working together.