Dragon Bonus Baccarat: Side Bet Rules, Payouts and House Edge

The Dragon Bonus is a baccarat side bet that pays when the hand you back, Player or Banker, wins with a natural or wins by four points or more. Payouts climb with the margin, from 1:1 up to 30:1 for a non-natural win by nine. According to Wizard of Odds, the Player Dragon Bonus has a house edge of 2.65% with eight decks, while the Banker Dragon Bonus costs 9.37%, so the side you pick matters far more than the table you play at.

Updated October 2026. This page used to review a single Asia Gaming table. We rebuilt it around the bet itself, added the full pay table with probabilities from Wizard of Odds, checked which US-facing casinos carry the bet today, and removed claims we could not verify.

Where to Play Dragon Bonus Baccarat (October 2026)

Three of the casinos we review showed the Dragon Bonus at their live baccarat tables when we checked from a US connection in October 2026. All three are offshore operators without a US state licence. Eight states have legalised online casinos; seven markets are live (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island), and Maine legalised a tribal-only market (LD 1164: became law without the governor’s signature in January 2026, effective 29 July 2026) that had not launched as of October 2026. If you live in one of the seven live states, a state-licensed casino is the safer choice.

1. 1
   

   Bovada

   Crypto: 125% up to $1,250 on each of your first 3 deposits ($3,750). Card: 100% up to $1,000 x3 ($3,000)

   • 95 live tables and games: 38 blackjack, 10 VIP blackjack, 16 roulette, 15 baccarat (October 2026)
   • Separate welcome offers for crypto and card deposits
   • Crypto payouts within hours of approval, no Bovada withdrawal fees

   ★ 4.3/5 · Licence: No US licence. Offshore; footer cites Union of the Comoros. Harp Media B.V. and Hove Media named in the 2024 Massachusetts AG cease-and-desist

   Visit siteRead our review18+. 25x rollover on deposit + bonus. Live dealer games count 0% and bonus funds cannot be used at live tables. Not available in AZ, CO, CT, DE, KS, LA, MD, MA, MI, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, TN, VT, WV or DC (Bovada terms, October 2026).
2. 2
   

   Ignition

   Crypto: 300% up to $3,000 on your first deposit ($1,500 casino + $1,500 poker). Card: 200% up to $2,000

   • Large live lobby: blackjack (incl. high-stakes tables), roulette, baccarat and game shows
   • Large US poker room with Zone and Incognito poker on the same account
   • Crypto payouts in about 1 hour after approval for most coins

   ★ 4.2/5 · Licence: Offshore, no US state licence (operator Bamboo Media, Anjouan; licensee Arachis Media Ltd, Anjouan Gaming Board, per Ignition site footer)

   Visit siteRead our review18+. $20 minimum deposit. Casino part 25x deposit + bonus; live dealer games count 0%. Poker part unlocks via Ignition Miles in 30 days. Not available in DE, MD, NV, NJ or NY.
3. 3
   

   BetOnline

   No Strings welcome: 50% of your first deposit as sportsbook Free Bets (up to $250) + 100 casino free spins

   • Two live lobbies: Visionary iGaming and Fresh Deck Studios
   • Live blackjack from $1 to $50,000 a hand
   • 17 cryptocurrencies; crypto payouts processed within 24 hours

   ★ 4.0/5 · Licence: Panama (Junta de Control de Juegos, per BetOnline's terms). No US licence

   Visit siteRead our review18+. New customers, first deposit of $10+, North America only. Free Bet: sportsbook only, odds of -200 or longer, expires after 30 days. Spins: 10 a day for 10 days, $100 max winnings. Casino bonuses exclude baccarat, roulette, sic bo and craps. No published restricted-state list; Michigan, Tennessee and Massachusetts issued cease-and-desist orders in 2025.

MyBookie is not on this list. Its live lobby showed standard, Speed, Turbo and Super 6 tables, but we could not confirm a Dragon Bonus there today. Our Super 6 guide covers the no-commission tables it does run.

Two practical points. First, bonus money will not help here: live dealer games count 0% towards the welcome bonus at Bovada and Ignition, and BetOnline’s casino bonuses exclude baccarat, so play with cash. Second, offshore sites carry real risk. If a payout is disputed there is no state regulator to complain to, and your balance is not protected; the Massachusetts Attorney General sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bovada’s operators on 3 October 2024. Each site also excludes some states, listed in the terms on each card.

In the regulated states, Evolution supplies live baccarat to state-licensed casinos. Its rules list the same bet as “P Bonus” and “B Bonus”, and the operator decides which side bets appear, so open the paytable in the game window before you bet.

Dragon Bonus Pay Table and Odds

The standard schedule is the same at Bovada, Visionary iGaming and Evolution tables, and it is the one Wizard of Odds analyses. The probabilities below are for eight decks, rounded to three decimals.

Source: Wizard of Odds, baccarat side bets. Add up the winning rows and the Player side pays something on about 29.0% of hands; the Banker side on about 28.3%.

How the Dragon Bonus Works

The main game does not change. Cards are dealt under the usual Punto Banco drawing rules, and you never make a decision after the deal. The side bet simply reads the final result:

1. Before the betting timer ends, place a chip on Player Dragon, Banker Dragon or both. At most tables you also have a main bet on Player, Banker or Tie; Evolution, for example, caps each Bonus bet at half of your combined main bet.
2. Two cards go to each hand. Aces count 1, cards 2 to 9 count face value, and tens and picture cards count 0. Only the last digit of a total counts.
3. If either hand has a two-card 8 or 9 (a natural), the round ends. A natural win pays your Dragon Bonus 1:1 whatever the margin, and a natural tie returns your stake.
4. Otherwise a third card may be drawn by the Player and then the Banker, following the fixed chart in our live baccarat guide.
5. Subtract the losing total from the winning total. If your hand won by 4 to 9 points, you are paid from the table above. A win by 1 to 3 points, a loss or a non-natural tie loses the side bet.

The side bet settles independently of your main bet, so the same hand can win one and lose the other.

Worked Examples

These hands show how margins are counted. Each assumes a $10 Player Dragon Bonus.

• Three-card Player 9 against a Banker 0. This is a non-natural win by nine, so the side bet pays 30:1 and you collect $300 profit.
• Natural 9 for the Player, Banker on 0. The margin is also nine, but natural wins pay only 1:1 ($10). Many players expect 30:1 here and are disappointed.
• Player 7 beats Banker 2 after both draw. Five points without a natural earns 2:1 ($20).
• Player 6 against Banker 3. Your hand wins by three. A Player main bet would collect, yet the Dragon Bonus loses.
• Both hands hold a natural 8. It is a natural tie, so the Dragon Bonus pushes and the $10 comes back.
• Five apiece after draws. Because this tie is not a natural, the side bet loses.

Over time the maths takes over. Put $10 on the Player Dragon for 100 hands and the expected loss is about $26.50. The same $10 on the Banker Dragon costs about $93.70 over 100 hands, while a $10 Banker main bet costs about $10.60. Those are averages, and individual sessions swing widely because so much of the return sits in rare 10:1 and 30:1 hits: on the Player side a 30:1 payout comes about once every 272 hands.

Why the Banker Dragon Costs More

Both sides win on a natural equally often, 16.26% of hands each. Where they differ is in non-natural wins. Because it draws last, with a chart that reacts to the Player’s third card, the Banker wins more hands overall (45.86% to 44.62% in standard baccarat, per the Wizard of Odds figures in our baccarat guide). Many of those extra wins are by one to three points, and the Dragon Bonus pays nothing on them.

The Player hand, by contrast, wins by four or more points without a natural on about 12.73% of hands, against 12.02% for the Banker. The difference looks small, but because the large margins carry the biggest payouts it adds up to an edge more than three times higher on the Banker side. Tables pay both sides from the same schedule, so the Banker Dragon is simply the worse price.

Does the number of decks matter?

Very little. Wizard of Odds gives these figures:

Visionary iGaming deals from six decks and Evolution from eight. Evolution’s published RTP for the bet, 97.35% on P Bonus and 90.63% on B Bonus, matches the eight-deck house edges exactly.

Dragon Bonus vs the Main Bets and Other Side Bets

The Player Dragon is one of the cheapest side bets in baccarat, but it still costs more than either main bet. The figures below use eight decks unless stated and match our live baccarat guide.

Source: Wizard of Odds. Pair-bet edges vary with the exact paytable and deck count; the Super 6 side bet at Visionary iGaming tables pays 12:1, which raises its edge to 29.98%, as our Super 6 guide explains.

Other Names and Versions

The bet travels under several labels, which can be confusing when you move between casinos:

• Dragon Bonus. The name used at land casinos and at Bovada, which labels the betting spots Player Dragon and Banker Dragon.
• Phoenix Bonus. Wizard of Odds notes that the exact same pair of bets sometimes appears under this name.
• P Bonus and B Bonus. Evolution’s names for the bet on its live baccarat tables, including Baccarat Squeeze.
• Player Dragon and Banker Dragon. Visionary iGaming’s labels, offered next to its Player Pair, Banker Pair and Either Pair bets.

Regulators treat it as an established game. The Nevada Gaming Commission’s list of approved gambling games includes “Dragon Bonus” as a variation of baccarat approved on 14 April 2004, along with a Dragon Bonus Progressive (13 July 2012) and a Commission Free Dragon Bonus (1 November 2013).

Our old review focused on Asia Gaming’s Dragon Bonus Baccarat, a table built for Asian markets. We found no US-facing casino in our reviews that carries Asia Gaming, and we could not confirm the “Longbao” name or the RTP claims in the old text, so we removed them. The pay table above is the one to check against any table you find.

Do not confuse the side bet with Dragon Tiger, a separate one-card game, or with the Dragon 7 bet in EZ Baccarat, which pays 40:1 when the Banker wins with a three-card 7.

Dragon Bonus Strategy: What Helps and What Does Not

No betting pattern changes the house edge on any baccarat bet, and the Dragon Bonus is no exception. What you control is which bets you make and how much you stake on each.

• Choose the Player side. At 2.65% it costs less than a third of the Banker side.
• Keep it small. A side bet worth a fraction of your main bet keeps the extra cost low. A $25 Banker bet plus a $5 Player Dragon costs about 40 cents a hand on average, against about 26 cents for the Banker bet alone.
• Ignore the scoreboards. Bead plates and road maps record past results. They do not predict the next margin, and each hand is dealt from the same shoe whatever came before.
• Skip progressions. Doubling up after a loss on a bet that wins less than 30% of the time burns through a bankroll quickly, and the expected loss per dollar stays at 2.65% or 9.37%.
• Check the paytable. Look for 30, 10, 6, 4, 2 and 1 to 1, with a natural tie as a push. A table that pays less on any line has a higher edge than the figures here.

Our pieces on maximizing baccarat winnings and the Golden Secret baccarat strategy look at staking ideas in more depth, with the same conclusion: the Banker bet remains the best value at the table.

Dragon Bonus Baccarat FAQ

What is the Dragon Bonus in baccarat?

It is a side bet on the Player or the Banker hand. You are paid when your chosen hand wins with a natural (8 or 9 on the first two cards) or wins by at least four points, with payouts from 1:1 up to 30:1 for a non-natural win by nine. A natural tie pushes; everything else loses.

What is the house edge on the Dragon Bonus?

With eight decks, Wizard of Odds puts the Player Dragon Bonus at 2.65% and the Banker Dragon Bonus at 9.37%. With six decks the figures are 2.67% and 9.39%. Evolution’s rules give the same bet an RTP of 97.35% (Player) and 90.63% (Banker).

Should I bet the Player or Banker Dragon Bonus?

Player. The Player side costs 2.65% against 9.37% for the Banker side, because the Banker hand wins more often by small margins that the bet does not pay. The Player Dragon is still more expensive than a plain Banker bet at 1.06%.

How often does the Dragon Bonus pay 30 to 1?

Rarely. A non-natural win by nine points happens on about 0.37% of hands for the Player side (roughly 1 in 272) and about 0.31% for the Banker side (roughly 1 in 325), based on the Wizard of Odds eight-deck tables.

Does a natural 9 against 0 pay 30 to 1?

No. A natural win always pays 1:1, whatever the margin. The 30:1 payout is only for a non-natural win by nine, which means a three-card hand total of 9 against a Banker or Player total of 0.

Is Dragon Bonus the same as Dragon Tiger?

No. Dragon Tiger is a separate one-card game with its own odds. The Dragon Bonus is a side bet added to an ordinary baccarat table, and some studios call the same bet Phoenix Bonus, P Bonus and B Bonus, or Player Dragon and Banker Dragon.

Gambling should stay entertainment. Set a budget before you play, and if it stops being fun, call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738) or read our responsible gambling guide.