Editing Baccarat (section)

== History ==
[[File:Au bac.jpg|thumb|1897 illustration of baccarat players]]
The origins of the game are disputed. Some sources claim that it dates to the 19th century,<ref name="Parlett">{{cite web|last1=Parlett
|first1=David|title=Blackjack: Related face-count games|url=http://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/blackjack.html#rels|website=Gourmet Games
|publisher=[[David Parlett]]|access-date=9 December 2017|archive-date=26 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126165231/http://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/blackjack.html#rels|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Depaulis>{{cite journal|last1=Depaulis|first1=Thierry|title=Dawson's Game: Blackjack and Klondike|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2010|volume=38|issue=4|page=238}}</ref> others that the game was introduced into France from Italy at the end of the 15th century by soldiers returning from the [[Italian Wars]] during the reign of King of France [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Academy, Volume 41 page 207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cDcZAAAAYAAJ&q=baccara+italy&pg=PA207|website=Google Books
|year=1892|access-date=23 March 2017|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816072743/https://books.google.com/books?id=cDcZAAAAYAAJ&q=baccara+italy&pg=PA207|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture page 336|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k308014/f340.image
|publisher=Bibliotheque nationale de France|access-date=23 March 2017|archive-date=24 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324000852/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k308014/f340.image|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[David Parlett]] considers Macao as the immediate precursor to baccarat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parlett|first1=David|title=The Oxford Guide to Card Games|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetocar00parl|url-access=registration|date=1990|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetocar00parl/page/81 81–82]|isbn=978-0-19-214165-1}}</ref> Its name and rules suggest it may have been brought over by sailors returning from Asia where similar card games have been played since the early 17th century such as San zhang, [[Oicho-Kabu]], and [[Tujeon#Games|Gabo japgi]].<ref name="von Leyden">{{cite journal|last1=von Leyden|first1=Rudolf|title=The Naksha Game of Bishnupur and its implications|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1978|volume=6|issue=3|page=79}}</ref> Macao appeared in Europe at the end of the 18th century and was popular for all classes. Its notoriety led to King [[Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia|Victor-Amadeus III]] banning it in [[Savoyard state|all his realms]] in 1788.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Depaulis|first1=Thierry|title=La bassette, entre réglementation et répression|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1994|volume=23|issue=1|page=8}}</ref> It was the most popular game in [[Watier's]], an exclusive [[gentlemen's club]] in London, where it led to the ruin of [[Beau Brummell]]. It was declared illegal late in the 19th century, as a gambling game of almost pure chance; however it remained wildly popular in high society, aficionados including the Prince of Wales (the future [[Edward VII]]), who was compelled to testify in court following the [[Royal baccarat scandal]] of 1890, in which a player was accused of cheating during games held at [[Tranby Croft]] in Yorkshire, England.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Havers|first1=Michael|author-link1=Michael Havers, Baron Havers|last2=Grayson|first2=Edward|last3=Shankland|first3=Peter|title=The Royal Baccarat Scandal|year=1988|publisher=Souvenir Press Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-0-285-62852-6}}</ref> The match in [[Arthur Schnitzler]]'s 1926 novella ''Night Games'' (''Spiel im Morgengrauen'') contains instructions for Macao under the name of ''baccarat''. Its popularity in the United States waned after the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parlett|first1=David|title=The Penguin Book of Card Games|date=2008|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|page=597|edition=3rd}}</ref> The game still has a following in [[Continental Europe]], especially in Russia. Like Macao and Victoria, baccarat was banned in Russia during the 19th century<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Burnett|first1=P.P.|title=Russian Playing Card History - From the Beginnings to 1917|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1985|volume=13|issue=4|pages=104}}</ref> though the rules continued to be printed in game books.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco |author-link1=Franco Pratesi|title=Russian Card Games and Their Literature|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1996|volume=25|issue=1|pages=3, 8}}</ref>

Baccarat has been popular among the French nobility since the 19th century.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=230}}. Before the legalization of casino gambling in 1907, people in France commonly played baccarat in private gaming rooms. Dating to this time period, ''Baccarat Banque'' is the earliest form of baccarat; it is a three-person game and mentioned in ''Album des jeux'' by Charles Van-Tenac.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Album des jeux|last=Van-Tenac|first=Charles|publisher=Gustave Harvard|year=1847|location=Paros}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofplaying00harg|url-access=registration|last=Hargrave|first=Catherine Perry|publisher=Dover Publications|year=1966|location=United Kingdom}}</ref> Later, ''Chemin de Fer'' emerged as a two-person, zero-sum game from ''Baccarat Banque''. ''Chemin de fer'' is a version which first appeared in the late 19th century. Its name, which is the French term for ''railway'', comes from the version being quicker than the original game,<ref name="Quinola">{{cite book |last=Quinola |first=Jean |date=1893 |title=Nouvelle Academie des Jeux |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aCA4nQEACAAJ |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=Garnier |page=225 |quote=Le Chemin de Fer est un jeu d'invention récente, ainsi nommé à cause de la rapidité de sa marche. |access-date=15 October 2020 |archive-date=15 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815023129/https://books.google.com/books?id=aCA4nQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> the railway being at that time the fastest means of transport. It is still the most popular version in France.

''Baccarat Punto Banco'', in which the bettor bets on whether the Player or the Banker hand wins, was a significant change in the development of modern baccarat. It developed into a house-banked game in [[Havana]] in the 1940s, and is the most popular modern form.<ref>Hart, G. D. (Director). (7 December 2017). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkKNCKqczQ&t=2717s High rollers : A history of gambling in America] [Video file]. Retrieved 1 March 2019, from </ref>