Baccarat is one of the oldest games, but it came to the United States as late as the early 20th century, becoming popular much later, in about 1950.
Baccarat has three differnet versions:
A variation of punto banco is mini-baccarat, which is the most popular version played today.
The main objective is to have a higher hand value (9 is the maximum) than the dealer. Baccarat is completely based on luck. Despite this, the house still has a very low edge.