Baccarat is a card game popularly played in casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". The main objective of this game is to guess, based on the cards dealt, which hand will obtain a score closer to 9. The game starts with the players placing a bet on which hand they think will win. The game can be divided into three stages: the deal, the point count, and the settlement. After the bet is placed the cards are dealt and the hand with the highest-value cards wins.
The origins of baccarat date back as far as the 15th century. It has been mentioned in various literature including Ian Fleming’s 007 novel Casino Royale. According to some sources, it may have been brought to France from Italy by soldiers of Charles VIII. Over the centuries, the game has grown to become extremely popular worldwide, with each culture adding to the development and success of the game.