What a baccarat online casino actually offers
Two hands, Player and Banker, are dealt from the shoe. The one closest to nine wins, and you bet on the result, not on your own hand.
Picture one hand. Player is dealt a six and a six, which counts as two; Banker has a queen and a three, which counts as three. Player draws a seven and reaches nine. Banker, on three against a Player third card of seven, must draw, takes a ten and stays on three. Player wins, and nobody at the table made a single choice after the chips went down. That is the whole game.
The version played online in the UK is punto banco. "Player" and "Banker" are just names for the two hands. Twos to nines count at face value, aces one, tens and picture cards nothing, and a total over nine drops its first digit: seven and eight make five.
Both hands get two cards. An eight or nine is a natural and the hand stops; otherwise a fixed rule decides any third card. You bet on Player, Banker or a Tie.
Online baccarat comes in two forms: RNG baccarat, software dealing from a virtual shoe, and live baccarat, a real dealer streamed from a studio or casino. The rules and the maths are identical; the pace is not.
Any baccarat online casino licensed in the UK offers both for real money. If you play baccarat online for the first time, an RNG table lets you take each hand at your own speed; when you play baccarat online at a live table, the dealer sets the pace. Choosing where to play online baccarat, and which baccarat casino to trust with it, comes down to the tables it runs, what each bet pays and how quickly real money withdrawals arrive.