007 Bond is well-known for fast-car escapades and for wining and dining women, but if you look back at many of his movies, you will remember many casino scenes like in Goldfinger and Casino Royale. In most of these casinos, Bond plays baccarat, and it woild not be a long shot on my part to declare that he prefers baccarat to any of the other casino games. Well that is about to change: in the new Bond movie due to be released later this year, baccarat will be switched for Texas Holdem.



But does James Bond really prefer Baccarat?

No. Its not the baccarat you know or play at regular casinos but rather the French version, Chemin de Fer. This must have been the favourite game of ian Fleming because he mentions it many times in his books.

When Did Chemin de Fer First Appear?

This is the first novel about James Bond. Do not mix up the first novel with the first film adaption of one of his novels which was Dr. No. Casino Royale focuses on the game of baccarat or rather I should say Chemin de Fer. The two playing opponents are Le Chiffre, a SMERSH agent, and our very own James Bond. The backdrop is a grand classical casino in the South of France.

Does James Bond Like to Gamble?

Here is what Ian Fleming himself had to say about the attitude of his main man, Bond, when it comes to gambling: James has always liked to gamble. He loves the dry ruffle of cards and the unemphatic constant drama of silent figures around green tables. He loves the studied but tough comfort of casinos and card rooms, the thick-arms of the padded chairs, the champagne glasses near the players elbow, the leasurely but smooth attention of good waiters. Bond found the roulette ball's impartiality amusing and so to that of the deck of cards.

Though you might be tempted to assume that playing baccarat at a real-life casino is duller than what you might have seen on the wide-screen, it is not. The atmosphere is just as classy, the chairs just as padded, and the champagne just as bubbly. In all, it is authentic. Enter any one of the many brick and mortar casinos around whether in Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City or even in Monaco, London or any major city and you will notice that the players playing baccarat are not those casually dressed but dressed in sharp suits or tuxedos. Yes. Baccarat and Chemin de Fer is for the high class.

This casino game has been a high-clas pastime since the fifteenth century when it made its move to France from Italy. At the time, it was known as Baccara because the word for zero in the Italian language is baccara. But since time, the name changed to baccarat (just like many other French words which when converted to English take on a hard sound at the end). The rules too changed and many other variations developed like the American version (popular in casinos all through the United States), European baccarat (played in Great Britian) and Chemin de Fer (played in France and especially in casinos throughout the French Riviera.)

The new version of Casino Royale due to come out in movie theatres all through the world on the Seventeenth of November will become the 21st movie adaptation of one of Ian Fleming's books. Daniel Craig is making his debut in this film after Pierce Brosnan stepped down after he acted in the following four films: Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is not Enough and Die Another Day. Daniel Craig has been signed up for another Bond move which will be released in 2008.