Part I: Games & Gaming · Card Games — Baccarat & Blackjack

Shoe

Baccarat (also Blackjack)

A plastic or wooden device that holds multiple decks of cards (typically 6 or 8 in baccarat) and allows the dealer to draw cards one at a time face-down. The shoe enables continuous play without frequent shuffling and is standard in all multi-deck card games. A yellow or colored cut card is inserted to indicate when the final hand of the shoe should be dealt before reshuffling.

In practice

In baccarat, shoes are replaced after each use; cards are never returned to play in the same session. Some Asian casinos use translucent shoes for transparency. Automatic shufflers are increasingly common in high-volume baccarat rooms.

One entry from the Casino Industry Glossary — 1,157 terms written for surveillance, compliance and operations professionals rather than for players. Definitions describe industry usage; where a term carries a regulatory meaning, verify against the instrument that governs your jurisdiction.