The overwhelming majority of casino baccarat games in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland, and Macau, are "Punto banco" baccarat. In Punto banco the casino banks the game at all times, and commits to playing out both hands according to a predetermined system of drawing rules, unlike the other more historic Baccarat games where each hand is played by a separate person who can choose freely whether or not to draw an additional card. Customers may bet on either the "punto/player" or the "banco/banker", which are merely designations for the two hands dealt in each game. In some countries, this version of the game is known as "tableau" (French: "diagram") which refers to the rules for drawing cards which both hands are obliged to follow.
In punto banco, the "player" hand is not associated with the customer, nor the "banker" with the house; "player" and "banker" are simply two competing hands which the bettor can back.
Punto banco is dealt from a shoe containing 4, 6 or 8 decks of cards shuffled together. A cut-card is placed in front of the seventh-last card, and the drawing of the cut-card indicates the last coup of the shoe. For each coup, two cards are dealt face to each hand, starting from "player" and alternating between the hands. The croupier may call the initial total (e.g. "five to the player, three to the banker"). At this point the drawing rules are used to determine firstly whether the player should receive a third card, and then, based on the value of any card drawn to the player, whether the banker should receive a third card. The outcome is then determined by comparing the totals.
