Baccarat belongs in Monaco where the big gambling money is. There the men are all in black evening suits and the women in wispy wild Thai silk wraps. To see this crowd relocated to an apartment on Seventh Avenue came as quite a shock – I never thought my neighbors were in this class. I stand and watch, mesmerized at the scenes in the online casino.

Baccarat is a game involving no skill on the part of the player. The player has the choice of betting on his own hand winning, the banker’s hand winning, or a tie. The player and the banker are each dealt two cards. If the hand you are betting on wins, you win even money. This is a 1 to 1 bet, meaning that if you bet five dollars you would get back your five plus five. So you are ahead an amount equal to your bet. If you bet on a tie and it turns out to be a tie you are paid at the rate of 8 to 1. So if you had bet $5 you would win back your original bet plus $40 dollars in addition. There are about 10 players standing around the computer which is logged into an online casino and these guys are not fooling about. I lean in to see the betting – and almost faint with shock. Most of them are playing with $100 chips and some with $500 chips. I listen to the action - they are running side bets in addition to betting on the game. I back away slowly; this is not for me with my income of a struggling artist. As I leave, I see my neighbor grinning from ear to ear and rubbing his hands in glee. I raise my eyebrows and he explains. “As the host I get ten percent off all bets. I’m making thousands tonight. Why are you leaving?”

Posted on: March 27, 2008

Add This Gambling Article To:
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb

Back to March 2008's archive
Back to latest Articles