EZ Baccarat: Rules, Payouts, House Edge and Origin
Summary
EZ Baccarat is a commission-free variant of Punto Banco baccarat in which the standard 5% commission on winning Banker bets is removed and replaced with two structural rules that preserve the house's edge without a commission mechanism: the Dragon 7, which turns a Banker win on a three-card total of 7 into a push rather than a win, and the Panda 8, an optional side bet tied to a Player three-card total of 8. The game is dealt from the same shoe and follows the same drawing rules as standard Punto Banco baccarat. It is offered at commercial and tribal casinos across the United States and at Loto-Québec properties in Canada, including Casino de Montréal.
Rules
EZ Baccarat is dealt as standard Punto Banco: two two-card hands, Player and Banker, are dealt from a shoe, typically eight decks, with a fixed table of drawing rules determining whether either hand draws a third card based on its two-card total. Players wager on Player, Banker or Tie before the cards are dealt, and neither the player nor the banker position at the table controls how the hands are played; the drawing rules are fixed and mechanical, unlike the discretionary hand-setting found in Pai Gow Poker.
The distinguishing rule is what happens when the Banker hand wins with a final three-card total of 7. In standard commission Baccarat, this result pays the Banker bet 1 to 1, minus the standard 5% commission. In EZ Baccarat, a Banker win on a three-card 7 is designated the Dragon 7 and is settled as a push: the Banker wager neither wins nor loses, and the stake is returned. This single rule change is what allows the casino to remove the 5% commission from every other Banker win while still holding a comparable edge on the Banker bet overall, since the Dragon 7 outcome converts a subset of Banker wins that would otherwise pay out into a null result instead.
The Panda 8 is a separate, optional side bet rather than a change to the core Player, Banker or Tie wagers. It pays when the Player hand wins with a final three-card total of 8. A player may choose to place this side bet in addition to a standard Player, Banker or Tie wager, or not place it at all; it has no effect on how the base game's three main outcomes are settled.
Tie bets, and the drawing rules governing when a third card is dealt to either hand, are unchanged from standard Punto Banco. A hand of 8 or 9 on the initial two cards, called a natural, ends the round immediately for that hand with no further cards drawn, exactly as in commission Baccarat.
The Player hand acts first, under a fixed rule: it draws a third card on any two-card total of 0 through 5, and stands on 6 or 7. Whether the Banker hand then draws a third card depends on its own two-card total and, where the Player has drawn, the specific value of the Player's third card.
Last verified 11 September 2026
| Banker two-card total | Banker draws a third card when |
|---|---|
| 0, 1, 2 | Always draws, regardless of the Player's third card |
| 3 | Draws unless Player's third card is an 8 |
| 4 | Draws if Player's third card is 2 through 7 |
| 5 | Draws if Player's third card is 4 through 7 |
| 6 | Draws if Player's third card is 6 or 7 |
| 7 | Always stands |
If the Player stands on a two-card 6 or 7, the Banker draws on its own two-card total of 0 through 5 and stands on 6 or 7, following the same fixed logic used when no Player third card is available to consult. None of these drawing decisions are discretionary; the tableau is fixed and applied identically by the dealer regardless of the format, EZ or standard commission, being played.
Payouts
Last verified 11 September 2026
| Bet | Payout |
|---|---|
| Player wins | 1 to 1 |
| Banker wins (excluding a Dragon 7) | 1 to 1, no commission deducted |
| Banker wins with a three-card 7 (Dragon 7) | Push, stake returned |
| Tie | 8 to 1 |
| Dragon 7 side bet (optional, where offered) | 40 to 1 |
| Panda 8 side bet (optional, where offered) | 25 to 1 |
The core difference from standard commission Baccarat is visible directly in this table: a winning Banker bet returns the full 1 to 1 with nothing deducted, rather than 1 to 1 minus a 5% commission taken from the win. The Dragon 7 and Panda 8 side bets are offered independently of the main wagers and are not available at every table carrying the EZ Baccarat name; a table's own placard states which side bets, if any, are in play.
House Edge
Last verified 11 September 2026
| Bet | House Edge |
|---|---|
| Banker (EZ, no commission) | Approximately 1.02% |
| Player | Approximately 1.24%, unchanged from commission Baccarat |
| Tie | Approximately 14.4%, unchanged from commission Baccarat |
| Dragon 7 side bet | Approximately 7.6% |
| Panda 8 side bet | Approximately 4.5% to 4.6% |
The Player and Tie bets carry the identical house edge found in standard commission Baccarat, since neither the Dragon 7 rule nor the Panda 8 side bet changes how those two wagers are settled. The Banker bet is the one materially altered by the EZ format, and its resulting edge, close to 1.02%, sits near the roughly 1.06% figure commonly quoted for a commission Banker bet, meaning the Dragon 7 push mechanism reproduces a broadly comparable house advantage to the 5% commission it replaces, rather than a markedly better or worse one for the player. Both side bets carry a meaningfully higher edge than any of the three main wagers, consistent with the general pattern that optional side bets across card games tend to carry a larger house advantage than a game's core bets.
A worked comparison illustrates the practical effect of the commission's removal against the Dragon 7 push: across 1,000 Banker wagers of 10 dollars each, a standard commission Banker bet at a 1.06% edge produces an expected loss of approximately 106 dollars. The equivalent 1,000 wagers on EZ Baccarat's Banker bet, at approximately 1.02%, produce an expected loss of approximately 102 dollars, a difference of only a few dollars across the full sample rather than a meaningfully better or worse outcome for the player. The commission's removal is a change in how the house collects its edge, mechanically, rather than a change in the size of that edge.
The Dragon 7 side bet specifically, rather than the main Banker wager, has been documented as vulnerable to a card-counting approach in a way standard commission Baccarat is not. Gambling mathematics analysts, including Eliot Jacobson, have published working count systems for the Dragon 7 side bet, based on an unbalanced count that weights low-to-mid cards negatively and high cards positively to track how shoe depletion shifts the probability of a three-card Banker 7. The main Banker and Player bets remain effectively resistant to counting, consistent with standard Baccarat generally. Jacobson's own published analysis notes that low table limits and the side bet's high variance make the count difficult to turn into a meaningful hourly return under real casino conditions, so the finding is best treated as a documented mathematical vulnerability specific to one side bet rather than a broadly exploitable weakness in the EZ Baccarat format.
Variant Differences
Some casinos deploy EZ Baccarat with only the Dragon 7 rule active on the main game and no Panda 8 side bet offered at all, since the Panda 8 is licensed and marketed as a separate optional feature rather than a required component of the EZ format. A table offering both side bets, one offering only the Dragon 7 side wager, and one offering neither can all legitimately carry the EZ Baccarat name, provided the core commission-free Banker rule and the Dragon 7 push are in place; the table's own posted rules state which side bets, if any, are active.
EZ Baccarat should not be confused with Mini-Baccarat, a separate variant that keeps the standard 5% commission structure intact and instead simplifies the game by having the dealer, rather than players, handle all cards, typically at a smaller table with lower minimum bets and a faster pace of play. The two variants address different aspects of standard Baccarat: Mini-Baccarat changes the pace and presentation while keeping the commission, and EZ Baccarat removes the commission while keeping standard pacing and hand handling.
Origin
EZ Baccarat's promotion and distribution is documented under DEQ Systems Corp, with press releases and casino rule filings referencing the format from the mid-2000s onward; an installation at the Paris Las Vegas casino is documented in January 2007, though some deployments may predate that specific record. Distribution rights for the format have since moved to Galaxy Gaming.
The precise authorship of EZ Baccarat is disputed rather than settled. Industry press has documented litigation in which a separate party, identified in court filings as the Talisman Group, claimed to be the format's actual creator in a dispute with DEQ Systems Corp, a claim that was later resolved through the legal process rather than through an agreed public account both sides confirm identically. No single inventor's name is consistently and independently documented across sources in the way Pai Gow Poker's invention is attributed to Sam Torosian. The format's commercial spread following its introduction is well documented, with a 2015 industry release citing more than 750 tables across more than 130 casinos worldwide; its specific origin story is not documented to the same standard and should be treated as contested rather than settled.
Responsible Gambling
Every bet described here carries a house edge, and removing the commission changes how that edge is collected, not whether it exists. Gambling in Canada is regulated province by province, so confirm an operator is licensed where you live before playing. Provincial responsible gambling services and the Responsible Gambling Council offer free, confidential support and self-exclusion options.