The clearest example is baccarat, where the banker bet wins 45.86% of hands against the player's 44.62%. Paid at even money with no deduction that is a 1.24% advantage to whoever backs it, which no casino can offer.
The standard 5% charge on winning banker bets converts that into a 1.06% house edge, still the cheapest bet on the table. Most tables track the commission and settle when you leave rather than taking it hand by hand, which makes it feel smaller than it is.
Commission also appears on craps buy and lay bets, where paying 5% to receive true odds instead of a short price is a good deal on the 4 and 10 and a bad one on the 6 and 8.
Watch for tables advertising no commission. In baccarat those usually pay only half on a banker win with a total of 6, which typically works out slightly worse than paying the 5%.
Where the numbers come from
Related terms in casino floor
- Push — A tie in which the bet neither wins nor loses and the stake is returned.
- Natural — A hand that wins immediately on the first cards dealt.
- Shoe — The box holding several shuffled decks from which cards are dealt.
- Cut card — A coloured plastic card placed in the shoe to mark where dealing stops.
- Penetration — The proportion of a shoe dealt before the reshuffle.
- Comp — Complimentary goods or services given to players based on tracked play.
Where an entry quotes a number, that figure comes from the computed sections of this site rather than from another glossary, so the definition and the derivation cannot drift apart. Each entry links to the page where the number is worked out.