The invention has particular application to the card game Baccarat in which a commission, for example 5%, is paid to the House on winning a bet on the "Bankers" hand.

However, the invention can be adapted to other bets in which a commission is paid on the win.

The invention is applicable to the payment of gambling bets to individuals but is particularly applicable to groups of gamblers and, in particular, to groups of gamblers enrolled in one of the many "marketing programs" offered by modern gambling Casinos.

In the game of Baccarat, there is a "Player's" hand and a "Banker's" hand. Two cards are dealt to the "Player's" hand and two cards are dealt to the "Banker's" hand. An additional card may be played to each hand depending upon what cards are initially dealt. The object of the game is for a hand to contain cards which add up to nine, or close to nine. The gambler(s) bets on either the Player's hand or the Banker's hand winning. All winning bets pay even money, but a win on the Banker's hand is subject to a commission (say 5% of the even money win) payable to the House/Casino.

As indicated above, there are programs/schemes known as, and hereinafter referred to as "marketing programs" promoted by gambling Casinos to encourage individual or groups of gamblers, particularly those gambling relatively high amounts of money, to gamble at their Casino, thereby increasing the turnover of the Casino. To encourage the gamblers, the casino, by way of the "marketing program", offers the gamblers some form of incentive reward or bonus. For example, the reward may depend upon the amount and/or turnover of money gambled by the gambler and the reward may be a percentage of that turnover.

One such "marketing program" involves a group of gamblers being required to deposit an agreed amount of money prior to commencement of gambling. These gamblers are issued with special marketing program chips known as, and hereinafter referred to as "non-negotiable" chips, which may not be redeemed for cash at the conventional Casino pay-out cages. Instead, any winnings are paid back through their account to record their increase in turnover and may be used to buy further non-negotiable chips. Their account is monitored, and the gambler is accorded a bonus/reward calculated on the basis of the individual or group cash turnover. The bonus may take the form of, for example, cash or further chips.

With specific reference to the card game Baccarat, a group of Baccarat gamblers will make the necessary cash deposit, the individual gambler will be issued with the special "non-negotiable" marketing program chips and the gambler will use these chips to play Baccarat. Any wins on the "Player" are paid even money and the House Dealer pays out the appropriate amount of cash redeemable chips. Any wins on the "banker" are subject to a 5% House commission and thus the House dealer makes the appropriate calculation and then issues the appropriate amount of cash chips. The cash chips are fed back through the account to record the turnover. The gambler may then be issued with a voucher with which to buy more "non-negotiable" chips.

One problem of the house commission payment, is that the time taken to compute the calculation of the commission payable and also the time taken to resolve occasional disputes slows down play. Additionally, occasional errors arise in the calculation of the commission. One solution to the problem as proposed in US patent 5362064 is to modify the rules of the game so as to eliminate the need for a house commission.

The present invention aims to overcome or alleviate one

or more of the above problems. Thus the invention, in one aspect, resides broadly in a method of paying a winning bet which is subject to a house commission, the method including paying the winner with a chip or the like to the value of the amount won, but from which the commission is not deducted until the chip is redeemed.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a gaming chip or the like for use in the above method of paying a winning bet wherein the redemption value of the chip is the face value minus a commission.

This new chip (a "House Commission Chip"), is preferably used in conjunction with non-negotiable chips. However, it may be used in conjunction with other casino chips such as cash redeemable chips. The chip may be marked with an indication of its face value, say $1000. In addition the chip may be marked with an indication that the face value of $1000 is subject to a discount/commission of, say, 5% upon redemption.

Thus, applying the method of this invention, there is no necessity for the House Dealer to make the calculations necessary to take into account the house commission. The Dealer simply pays to the winner a House Commission Chip to the face value of an evens win and the calculation is made automatically on redemption of the chip.

The method may be applied to any suitable betting transaction but has been found to be particularly suitable to the card game Baccarat.

Thus, according to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of playing Baccarat in which a win on the Banker's hand is subject to a house commission, wherein when a gambler wins on the Banker's hand, the House does not calculate the commission but pays the winner with a chip or the like to the value of an evens win, and the commission is calculated/deducted when the chip is redeemed.

The new method of playing can be applied to single and group

players but it is particularly suitable to players on one of the "marketing programs" which pay bonuses and the like based upon the amount of turnover, and which use "non-negotiable" chips.

Whilst the time savings and increased cash turnover may not be large for a single player during one particular game, the savings and turnover can be substantial for an individual marketing program player who may play for several hours or more. The time savings are of benefit to both parties. They are to the benefit of the player/gambler who is keen to increase turnover to maximise their bonus, and of course they are of benefit to the Casino to increase the overall Casino turnover.

Even more time savings and hence increases in respective turnovers can be gained where groups of say 14, marketing program players, are betting at the table at the same time.

Of course there is the additional advantage of reducing the likelihood of errors which can result from the necessary speedy manual calculations required at the table of the known present method of paying a win subject to a house commission.

In yet another aspect this invention resides in a method of conducting the game of Baccarat, the method including:- providing chips with designated face values, including face value chips which are redeemable at face value and house commission chips which are redeemable at value discounted by a house commission; playing the game with the chips, and providing payouts for Player wins with face value chips and payouts for Banker wins with house commission chips.

In yet a further aspect this invention resides in a method of marketing Baccarat to casino gamblers, the method including: - instituting a system which encourages gamblers to deposit funds for the purchase of non-negotiable chips in respect of which a bonus is paid on turnover, irrespective of

losses or wins; providing the non-negotiable chips in the form of chips with designated face values, including face value chips which are accountable at face value and house commission chips which are accountable upon return to the house at a value discounted by a house commission; providing baccarat games at which gamblers play with the non-negotiable chips, and providing payouts for Player wins with face value chips and payouts for Banker wins with house commission chips.

The house commission chip for the above aspects of his invention may be machine readable to enable the house commission calculation and hence the payout to be computed automatically and may be automatically credited to the gambler or his account. The chip may be of any size or shape, for example it may be adapted to cooperate with different gaming machines or different machine readable devices.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the following example of a preferred embodiment of the invention:- A Baccarat gambler deposits an agreed amount of money with the Casino under a "marketing program" where a bonus is paid depending upon the amount of cash turned over by the gambler.

The gambler plays 80 hands over a period of approximately two hours.

Under the known system it takes a particular Dealer approximately 30 seconds longer to pay a Banker win than a Player win because of the need to calculate and take into account the house commission of 5% on such wins. (Obviously, the time taken will vary, depending upon the exact amount of the bet and the complexity and speed of the calculation) Assuming that approximately 40 of the hands are Banker

wins during the two hour period, then the extra time taken to pay the wins is 40 x 30 seconds = 20 minutes.

Using the method of the present invention, the time taken for the Dealer to pay a Banker win is substantially the same as the time taken to pay a Player win. The Dealer simply issues a cash chip for a Player win or issues the same value of "House Commission Chip" for a Banker win. The 5% house commission calculation is not necessary until the "House Commission Chip" is redeemed when the gambler or his assistant pay the winnings into the "marketing program" account.

Thus, using the method and the "House Commission Chip" of the present invention (thus dispensing with the 30 second commission calculation time for a Banker hand win) it should be possible to play an approximately extra 20 hands in the 2 hour period. This would be to the benefit of both the gambler and the Casino because of their respective increases in turnover.

The attached drawings illustrate the difference between a conventional chip, illustrated in Fig. 1 and designated 10, and a chip of the present invention, illustrated in Fig. 2 and designated 11, which is clearly marked so that it is readily distinguished to guard against any possible confusion when such chips are redeemed. As well as marking by indicia, the coin 11 may also be denoted by way of form or size or by a machine readable characteristic for electronic processing of such chips if desired.

It will of course be realised that whilst the above has been given by way of an illustrative example of the invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto, as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art, are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is claimed herein.