Tipping in Baccarat
added 26.09.2011, 12:37AM
One important thing to realize when you play casino baccarat is that dealers expect tips (the monetary kind, not advice). The reason why is because casinos only pay baccarat dealers minimum wage, so they rely on tips to earn a decent salary. But before you tip a dealer in casino baccarat, there are a couple of important things to take into account.
For one thing, your tips should be given as a result of something good happening. After all, some baccarat dealers might feel insulted if you simply throw money at them like they're poor, so make sure there's a reason for tips. A couple of good reasons for tipping the dealer include playing at the table for a few hours (since you've been dealt to for a while), and if the dealer does an excellent job by keeping things running smoothly. In short, don't just show up to the baccarat table and start tipping.
As for the size of the tip, most low stakes baccarat players ($25 per hand and less) give the dealer $5 an hour, while some of the wealthier players pay the dealer $10 or more. Casino baccarat is a high class game, so it's perfectly fine to give the dealer $10 tips or more. What isn't considered perfectly fine is stiffing the dealer on tips because it's supposed to be a part of the game. Furthermore, if you have no intention of tipping the dealer, you should play games like slots and video poker because no tips are required.
Of course, you can always opt for online baccarat, which doesn't have real dealers, so no tips are involved. Instead, the cards are dealt by the software, so you only have to worry about playing hands and using good baccarat strategy. In fact, many people consider playing the online version of the game good baccarat strategy simply because it doesn't require them to make tips.
To illustrate this point, let's say that you normally make a $5 tip every hour in casino baccarat. Assuming you used good baccarat strategy, you would be giving the house a 1.06% edge. However, when $5 tips are included into the equation, the true house edge actually increases because of the extra money you're paying dealers. So if you want to keep the house edge at 1.06%, you should only play online blackjack.
