Evolution Gaming has a collection of live baccarat games that stream in real time to players around the world. In this Lightning Baccarat review, you will learn about one of the provider’s most successful live versions of baccarat. Like Lightning Roulette, it takes the standard gameplay and enhances it by offering extra payouts. Evolution Gaming has been around since 2006 and is a pioneer of live games.
Below is Gambling Zone’s list of the best online baccarat sites where you can play Lightning Baccarat.
There are three phases to each round of Lightning Baccarat. First, there is the betting phase where you place your wager. You can bet on the banker winning, the player winning or the game resulting in a tie. There are two optional side bets: banker pair and banker pair, which pay out if the banker or banker’s first two cards are of the same value.
Note that there is a 20% fee for all bets. The base range is £1 to £500, though with the fee this is £1.20 to £600. The extra charge is to cover the potentially large payouts from the Lightning Cards feature.
After betting, there is the Lightning Round, during which the game generates one to five Lightning Cards, each with a multiplier. Then the actual baccarat game happens, with the standard rules in play.
Remember that baccarat is a card-comparing game where two hands (banker and player) try to get as close to 9 as possible. You do not have any influence on the outcome: the real-life dealer oversees everything, acting on both the banker’s and player’s hands according to the game’s rules.
Evolution Gaming has multiple live versions of baccarat in its portfolio. Here are summaries of some of the provider’s live baccarat games.
Catering for high rollers, Evolution Gaming has four Salon Prive baccarat tables. Each of these has a high maximum bet size and a different minimum bet size. What they have in common is that they are all in an elegant gaming space that Evolution Gaming created with VIPs in mind.
This live baccarat game takes place much more quickly than others. A typical round lasts around 27 seconds, which is considerably lower than the usual time of 48 seconds or so.
This is the same as Lightning Baccarat except it has some enhancements, namely more Lightning Cards, larger multipliers and a much bigger maximum win.
Lightning Baccarat has one special feature that can result in very high payouts along with two optional side bets. Summaries of these are below.
After the betting phase, the game generates one to five Lightning Cards from a virtual deck of 52 standard playing cards. Each of these comes with a random multiplier of x2, x3, x4, x5 or x8. If you bet on the winning hand and one of its cards matches a Lightning Card, the Lightning Card’s multiplier will apply to your win. If there are two or three Lightning Cards in the winning hand, they will multiply together. This means you can get a multiplier as high as x512.
To earn the top multiplier of 262,144, you need to bet on a tie and win. All six cards need to match Lightning Cards, which need to have x8 multipliers.
Like other baccarat games, Lightning Baccarat offers two optional side bets: banker pair and player pair. These pay out if the banker or player’s first two cards are of the same value. The standard payout of both these bets is 9:1, though this rate can reach as high as 576:1 if the two winning cards match Lightning Cards that have x8 multipliers.
Lightning Baccarat’s payout table is the same as other baccarat games. However, all of its payout rates can increase due to Lightning Cards and their multipliers. In the table below, you will see the basic payout rates for all the game’s bets and each bet’s maximum payout rate.
Bet |
Payout |
Maximum Payout with Lightning Card Multipliers |
Banker Win |
1:1* |
512:1 |
Player Win |
1:1 |
512:1 |
Tie |
5:1 |
1,310,720:1 |
Banker Pair (side bet) |
9:1 |
576:1 |
Player Pair (side bet) |
9:1 |
576:1 |
*If the banker wins and you’ve bet on a banker win, the game keeps 5% of your winnings.
Lightning Baccarat is available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The game runs 24/7 so you can play it and try your luck at winning whenever you like.
Beautiful studio with black and gold art deco theming
One to five Lightning Cards per round with multipliers of up to x8
Win up to 262,144x from having Lightning Cards match winning cards
Live betting and shoe statistics
Exciting, unpredictable gameplay
Baccarat is a classic card-comparing game that is all about luck in that you simply pick an outcome and hope it happens. With Lightning Baccarat, Evolution Gaming spruces up the casino classic and makes it a lot more attractive to players. This immersive live dealer game has an excellent presentation and design, plus its Lightning Cards feature has the potential to generate some very large payouts. In short, Lightning Baccarat offers an electrifying gaming experience that gives the game of baccarat a new lease of life.
Rating: 8.0
These are some common questions people have about the Lightning Baccarat game.