The game of Baccarat is one of the oldest casino games still played today. It is an elegant game believed to have been introduced in France as early as the late 15th century. The original game was called Chemin de Fer, and it was a popular game amongst the French nobility due to the very high cost of printing the cards in the very early days of the of the printing press. It popularized in the 1900s when, during the reign of King Louis Phillip, playing card games for money was made illegal in 1837, shifting the game underground. This move combined with the increase of printing possibilities spread the game throughout all social classes. Despite this fact, Baccarat has been able to retain its aura of royalty to this day.

The game was then taken to the Americas through European immigration, and another variation developed called Punto Banco, famous in the casinos in Mar Del Plata in Argentina which can also still be played today in many casinos. From here, it was taken to the casinos of Las Vegas in the 1950s where it was introduced alongside the more popular games of Blackjack and Craps and became a casino game staple.

Finally in the 1980s, casinos introduced mini-baccarat. The creation of mini-baccarat was designed to make the game more accessible to the masses. Regular baccarat pits usually have much higher limits than most other casino table games. These roped off areas are typically reserved for high-roller types. If you try to enter a high-stakes baccarat pit in a tank-top and flip-flops, you'll likely be asked to leave and come back dressed in more appropriate attire. This is not the case in mini-baccarat.

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