Faro
HISTORIC EUROPEAN + AMERICAN WEST CASINO CARD GAME (17th-early 20th century). Player bets on which cards will WIN or LOSE from a dealer-drawn set. Dominant gambling game of the AMERICAN OLD WEST (1820-1915) — outshone poker in saloons + casinos. Named after Egyptian pharaoh imagery on early French decks. Fair odds (near-zero house edge in honest games) but widely CHEATED — 'buck the tiger' became slang for gambling. Fell out of favor by 1930s as casinos preferred higher-edge games; now essentially extinct. Cultural touchstone in Western films.
Quick facts
Category
Casino & Gambling
Type
Individual
Players
1–10
Duration
~60 min
Where played
indoor
Country of origin
🇮🇹 Italy
Estimated origin
17th century Italian 'Basetta' → French 'Pharaon' → English 'Faro'; peak popularity 1800s American West
Olympic
No
Popularity
obscure
How it works
Objective
Predict which card ranks will win vs lose in each dealer turn.
Rules
Basic rules
Layout of 13 spade cards (A-K) as betting board
Bet on any rank.
Dealer draws 2 cards per turn: 1st = LOSING card, 2nd = WINNING card
Signature turn structure.
Bet on rank; if that rank is drawn as winning card, dealer pays 1:1
Even money.
If drawn as losing card, dealer takes bet
Loss.
Copper on top of bet reverses the bet (now betting the rank LOSES)
Signature copper token.
Split (both cards same rank) = dealer takes half
House's only edge.
Scoring
Even-money bets; house edge only from splits (~1.7%).
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Bet wins (rank as winning card) | 1:1 |
| Bet loses (rank as losing card) | -1 (bet taken) |
| Split (both cards same rank) | House takes half of bet |
Win condition · Session-based; no fixed target.
Equipment
Standard 52-card deck
No jokers
Faro layout (13 spades laid out A-K)
Signature betting board
Dealing box (mechanical shoe, 1822 innovation)
Prevented dealer cheating (in theory)
Copper token (marker for 'lose' bets)
Places on top of chips
Terminology
- Bucking the tiger
- Playing faro (from tiger imagery on faro boxes).
- Copper
- Small token placed on bet to reverse it.
- Case keeper
- Player tracking which cards have been played (like modern card counting).
- Split
- Both cards drawn are the same rank; house takes half of bet.
- Soda / Hock
- First / last cards of deck (dead cards, no bets).
Where it is played
Frequently asked
Why did Faro die out?+
Multiple reasons: (1) HOUSE EDGE WAS TOO LOW for casinos to prefer (0.5-1.7%); (2) WIDESPREAD CHEATING (rigged dealing boxes) destroyed player trust; (3) POKER + BLACKJACK offered casinos higher edges + more exciting play; (4) 1900s casinos favored higher-margin games. By 1930s Faro was essentially dead in US commercial casinos. Occasional REVIVAL games exist as historical demos.
Was Faro really the most popular US casino game?+
YES — from ~1820 to ~1915 Faro was the #1 gambling game in the American West + American Midwest. Nearly every saloon in Dodge City, Deadwood, Tombstone, etc. offered Faro. Wyatt Earp + Doc Holliday were known Faro dealers/players. Modern culture remembers POKER as the Wild West game because of movies, but historically FARO WAS BIGGER.
Sources & provenance
- Wikipedia — Faro— Wikipedia