Baccarat Review
Baccarat is not such a popular choice with European and UK players as it is in Asia, however it is gaining interest and few online casinos can afford not to offer it amongst their choices for table games. NetEnt has always offered a very complete range of casino games for online operators and, as part of its Professional Series of casino card games, has maintained its own version of this classic game for many years.
To be clear, this Baccarat is of the Punto Banco persuasion which is the dominant variation of the game to be found in the majority of casinos around the world, so offers the simplest and most familiar rules of play. An eight-deck shoe is recreated by the RNG under the hood here, and the presentation is a classic, green baize Baccarat table seen from the point-of-view of a player seated centrally. A simple and intuitive set of user controls makes it exceptionally easy to stake a preferred bet, accompanied by satisfying sound effects as chips are placed.
Clearing a bet, if you change your mind about it before hitting the Deal button, is a little less elegant – you need to select a ‘dummy’ chip in the rack then click that on the chips you want to clear on the layout. The method obviously works and you soon get used to it, but it seemed a touch clumsy to us. What we feel is really clumsy is the terrible, lounge jazz background music NetEnt has applied to this game. Thankfully it can be muted, but we do have a personal wish for NetEnt to just drop the dismal library music it’s prone to adding to its table games or have it switched off by default!
The overall experience of playing this online Baccarat is very pleasing, with smooth animation of the cards and their correct perspective on the table helping with the convincing illusion of playing a real-world table. There is also the option of enabling a ‘History’ display if tracking previous play informs your future bet choices. The speed of play is also suitably nippy, probably explaining why the ‘Fast Play’ option visible in the settings menu is actually greyed out since it is clearly superfluous.
Verdict
Dreadful (but optional) background music aside, Baccarat Professional Series is an excellent RNG-driven Baccarat table that is both a great option for newcomers and seasoned players alike. Its presentation works very well on mobile devices too, so it’s clearly a very versatile choice if putting some Punto Banco in your pocket is a key element of the Baccarat needs you demand from an online casino.
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