The role of the bank can be played differently and this the main difference between different Baccarat variations. In Baccarat Chemin de Fer different players play the role of the banker, which passes form player to player in the clockwise direction every time the shooter loses. The house, however, provides the banker with funds throughout the game. The role of the banker can be passed to the next player. The objective of each version of the game is the same: to reach 9. The game starts by the banker dealing four cards to each player and to himself, then each player turns his cards over and sum the value of all cards. If your total is lower than 5 you’d better draw, if the total is 5 or higher you’d better stand. The hands are then compared and the person who has the hand closest to 8 or 9 receives the pay-out.

There are a lot of ideas about the origin of Punto Banco. Punto Banco is said to have originated from George Raft’s Capri casinos in Cuba. Punto Banco is said to have been brought to Las Vegas by Tommy Renzoni in the late 1950s. Renzoni wrote that his game owed its roots to European "Chemin de Fer" via Argentina. He claimed that the night of the game's first modern American play, the Sands casino lost 0,000. The first version of the game appeared in Italy in the 1480s from a deck a tarot cards. The Italian word "baccarat" means "zero" because most of the cards then hold a point value of zero-tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings of all suits. Early Baccarat stories claim that the game is based on an old Etruscan ritual of the nine gods, who prayed to a blonde virgin on their tiptoes waiting for her to throw a nine-sided die. Her fate was dependent on the result of the die. If 8 or 9 was rolled she became a priestess of these gods. If 6 or 7 was rolled the virgin was prohibited from any further religious activities. If any other number was rolled she could walk into the sea.In the 1550s the game appeared in France, where it got its new name. Now it was called ‘Chemin de Fer’. Some people say that it was France, where the game appeared. Then, in the 1950's, Baccarat made the long voyage from France to Argentina. It landed at the casinos of Mar del Plata, home to the South American upper echelon.