Are Live or RNG baccarat games better?
RNG games use random numbers generated by computer programs. They should give you true randomness that will over time produce wins according to the mathematical odds. But the real key here is ‘over time’. In an 8 deck game there are almost 5,000 billion different possible combinations for a single hand.
So those RNG games are only as good as the computer RNG programs. This is why you will hear and read about some suspected flaws in the programming code. However, most people will concentrate more on the odds of which hand is supposed to win.
Of all those possible outcomes, the numbers say that the bankers hand will win 45.86% of the time, the players hand will win 44.62% of the time and ties will happen the other 9.52% of the time. As you can see from these percents, the banker has a slight edge over the dealers hand. Even after you figure in the house commission, the houses edge is lower on the banker hands.
House Edge – Banker Hand 1.06% vs Player Hand 1.24% vs Tie 14.36%
But, those odds are supposed to be the same regardless of whether the game is live or computer based. But is it really the same?
Live Games obviously use real cards and real people to deal them out. However, most of the time those cards are shuffled by a machine rather than by hand. So the live dealer is normally a side issue and more of a social interaction thing than a potential game changing feature. Also, either method can produce returns that vary from true random patterns.
A shoe bias will give you results that are not random. Mechanical shoe shufflers are sophisticated but slower and more prone to variances than any computer program.
That is the real basis of any system that relies upon card games played in a real casino versus RNG games. Also, since live online games are played in a real casino, there should be no difference in the live games played at real casinos that are broadcast over the internet and those that are not.
The outcome of RNG games are determined by a computer program whereas the outcome of live games are determined by a mechanical shuffler.
So which version do you trust?
Since live games do have a more likelihood of being ‘less random’ and thus ‘more predictable’. In essence, computer based games will give you results closer to statistical probability – which is a loss, regardless of which hand you bet on. For that reason alone, I prefer live dealer games.
Even so, since randomness is fickle on both live and RNG games, you can take advantage of ‘lucky’ streaks by betting more when you are ahead.
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