Live Dealer Games at Online Casinos
Online casinos have brought real money casino gambling right to your computer and mobile devices, 24 hours a day, whenever or wherever you wish. The computer-generated graphics you play on are stunning, but many players long for the good old fashioned table games with real tables and dealers. Live dealer casinos are real physical casinos which you play at through a high-quality live video feed. Let us show you how realistic and exciting live dealer casinos can be.
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Live Dealer Gambling – An Introduction
Traditional casinos have long offered players a choice between playing casino games at machines versus table games run by live dealers, from the first slot machines to today’s flashy electronic slots. The table games actually well pre-dated slots, and while slots have taken over in terms of popularity at casinos now, both types of casino gaming have its strong followers.
There are many players who swear by slots and will sit at a seat in front of them for hours with their buckets, never tiring of the excitement of the action. Others prefer the old-fashioned versions of casino games, games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, casino poker, and other popular variations.
When real money online casino gaming hit the scene, this brought the whole experience into the electronic realm where the games and the action unfold on your device screen just like a slot machine would. With this form, you could play not just slots but anything else you wanted, anything you would find in traditional casinos and then some.
Those who do prefer the classic games played on real tables rather than computer generated ones could only enjoy this experience by physically traveling to a land-based casino, and in between trips, had to settle for the computer versions of their favorite casino table games.
What if you could play real casino games without having to physically travel to a casino? What if you could actually take a seat at a real casino table, with real tables, wheels, cards, and human dealers, without having to leave your seat at home? What if you could enjoy the best of both worlds? Welcome to the world of live dealer casinos.
The Internet Has Exploded People’s Access to Real Money Casino Gaming
Once the internet really started catching on, it didn’t take long for people to realize that they could offer people a way to play popular casino games without actually travelling to one. Up until this time, if you wanted to play casino games, you had to go to a physical location to do it. We didn’t consider the limitations of this because there just wasn’t any other way to do it back then, nothing to compare it with.
It turns out that traditional casinos are very limited in scope, due to the requirement of needing to be physically at one. There’s a lot to be said for playing at a traditional casino though, and there’s nothing like the experience of a top land-based casino, which is why so many people continue to go to Las Vegas in spite of not having to anymore.
Trips to casinos involve a certain additional expense on top of the money that you plan on using to gamble, and in some cases, considerably more, like spending all that money on airfare, hotel, and other expenses in travelling to Las Vegas. There is also the expense of time, what you spend going from your home to the casino, and depending on how far away it is, you may need to take time off work as well to make the journey.
If you can just log into an internet site instead and be at a casino in mere seconds, at no expense, you no longer have to go to a casino. If, instead, it comes to you, any time you wish, to wherever you are, that’s a big deal indeed, and this opened the floodgates to real money casino gambling.
While so many wished that they had easier access to casinos, where they didn’t have to travel so far to one, and wishing that more would open up closer to them, real money online casinos simply erased the element of physicality completely and turned the entire world into a casino, by allowing players to casinos located across the world instantly through the magic of the internet.
These online casinos were also much more efficient, where the overhead of running these new casinos were slashed to nearly nothing from the high cost of maintenance that land-based casinos suffer from. This resulted in things like better payouts for players for slots, and online casinos being able to offer the smallest limits, where you can even play for a penny a hand or spin if you wish.
Online casinos didn’t just bring casino gaming to the people, they brought it to all the people, all the time, whether you had a big bankroll or were playing with pocket change. Democracy had arrived to casino gaming, and this didn’t just improve it, it took it to its theoretical maximum.
Some land-based casinos also started to offer electronic versions of popular table games such as blackjack and roulette, which some prefer, which isn’t surprising given how much more popular electronic gaming is at these casinos then the old-fashioned table games they offer.
At a traditional casino, at least at those that offer more than just electronic casino gaming, players who preferred the real thing could always go to the part of the casino that offered these games. Online players who preferred these games had to settle for the electronic ones, but no more.
The Door to Online Live Dealer Casino Games Has Now Opened
There are many reasons why a lot of casino players prefer playing at real tables with real dealers, even though the computer-generated versions do completely replicate the experience of the gambling component of the experience, and do it in a way that no other means can even touch. You can play at whatever pace you want, from slow to turbo speed, to pack in all the wagering per hour you want and always have the gaming completely corresponding to your preferences.
Anyone who has ever played live dealer games at casinos though will understand just now different this is from just playing on a screen. The main difference can actually be summed up pretty simply, as this has a human element, which cannot really be replicated by any machine, at least not as of yet.
They don’t call this live dealer casino for nothing, and just like at traditional casinos, this involves real people dealing real cards and spinning real wheels at a real table that you sit at virtually. Just like the availability of the internet caused online casino gambling itself to be born, the increasing bandwidth of the internet as it matured made the idea of live dealer casino online possible.
We’ve since seen an explosion of the use of remote video over the internet lately, but online casinos have been using this technology for a few years now. Players can now take a seat at real casino tables located anywhere in the world, and enjoy real versions of popular casino table games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and casino poker, just like you were there, because in a very real sense, you are.
You take a seat at a roulette table and click to place your bet. Real chips are placed on the table for you as well as for the other players that are sitting at your table virtually. You get to interact with both the dealer and other players. The dealer spins the wheel and then calls no more bets. You watch the little ball bounce around in the slots and wonder where it will land. Your number is hit and the table cheers as the dealer slides that big stack of chips you just won.
This is so much more than playing something on a machine, this is real. You not only see all the action unfold in front of you like you would at a land-based live dealer table, you interact in the same way you would there as well. The only differences are that they can’t see your face and you didn’t have to leave the house to play there, but other than that, this is the real thing, as you come to understand as you toss one of your chips to the dealer after your big win.
If you love real dealer casino games played on real tables, you will also love online live dealer casino games, because they are one in the same. You will have to get your own drinks though, as they haven’t been able to figure out how to send them to you over the internet. They do have everything else figured out though, to the delight of so many players who have now found the best of both worlds.
Comparing Live Dealer and Computer-Generated Casino Gaming
The biggest difference between playing live roulette, live blackjack, live baccarat, and live casino poker versus the computer-generated graphical representations of these popular casino table games is the pace. You can play as fast as you can click when playing computer versions, with outcomes dealt at the speed of light, placing you in complete control of the pace of what you are playing.
You can’t do this at a physical casino of course, and live dealer casino actually takes place at a real casino. On the other hand, the pace set by dealers is not to their physical capacity, rushing around like mad so that their players can get in more hands, even though the casino owners might not mind. Players at these games prefer a more deliberate pace, to enhance their experiences, and this is exactly what you get at an online live dealer casino game as well.
Those who prefer to play turbo style can get their complete fill of this whenever they wish at the multitude of games that are available on the computer game side, but still may wish to slow it down more by playing live dealer games. All casinos that offer live dealer games also offer the digital kind, and those who do enjoy the old-fashioned way can play them as little or as much as they like.
This is therefore not a matter of deciding whether you are going to have to choose between one or the other, as far as where you are going to play, and with all real money online casino games, you can flip to something else anytime you want, in a flash.
There are some other differences between the two that are worth bearing in mind. Just like a real casino, the minimum limits at live dealer tables are of a modest size, as in $5 to $10, as the casino is spending all this extra money for the casino space and staff and needs to hit a minimum hourly handle to make this work.
You see exactly the same thing at a land-based casino, for the exact same reasons. Just like at land-based casinos though, the maximums also tend to be higher than they let you wager at the computer versions, although the maximum stakes are also a lot higher. The reach of online casinos now even extends to including some pretty high rollers as well as run of the mill players.
Just like at land-based casinos, there aren’t as many things that you can play in a live dealer format online as you can with the computer-generated versions of casino games. The level of interest required to roll out a type of digital game is just so much lower, as the additional cost is limited to justifying writing new software. Live dealer games have to be popular enough, but the good news is that the game selection continues to expand as more and more real money online casino players find out about and get turned on to this new way to play online.
This does not mean that the odds are worse playing these live dealer games versus their computer cousins, as these are games whose odds are decided by the rules of the game, not some level of payout that the casino selects with their slot machines. The only notable difference was live dealer casinos started out by only rolling out double zero roulette, American Roulette as they call it, with their live dealer games, while they offered single-zero European Roulette electronically, but some casinos now offer the single-zero option with their live dealer format as well now.
Choosing a Great Live Dealer Casino
Since most live dealer players also enjoy other casino games, the quality of an online casino site’s offerings overall matters, and you not want to just be looking at just the merits of a site’s live dealer games. We still need to start with looking at what a site has for live dealer casino games if this is an interest of ours, as if a casino doesn’t measure up to our expectations for this, we certainly aren’t interested in them as a place to play live dealer games.
Few players are so committed to a single form of casino table game that a site not having it would be a deal breaker, and we really need to look at everything a live dealer casino has to offer to be able to decide properly. Perhaps one site has our favorite, but another site has two games we really enjoy.
More is generally better though. The majority of these sites offer the true staples, blackjack and roulette, which happen to be the two most popular casino table games there are. Many sites also offer baccarat, a game that lends itself to the social experience of live dealer gaming even more than blackjack or roulette does.
Craps is the ultimate social casino game, with players teaming up and cheering together so much. Craps is less popular than roulette or blackjack though overall, and while the same is true with baccarat, baccarat attracts bigger players, so it’s rolled out more at live dealer casinos, but we’re starting to see sites roll out live craps as well now.
The sheer popularity of casino poker games like Ultimate Texas Hold’em and several others have pushed this type of game to the remote casino floors of live dealer sites now. Having what you want to play is therefore plenty important and a better variety is a persuasive factor in determining how sites rate.
Just like we enjoy playing on better looking and better functioning software with our computer casino games, the quality of the production and the options available are going to matter at live dealer casinos as well. There is software involved here as well, although the overall quality comes down to the quality of the video feed, and to a lesser extent, the options.
It is the sensory experience that defines live dealer casino games the most, and the better the visual experience, the more seamlessly we interact with the software and the feed, the better our experience will be overall.
The quality of the dealers don’t matter at all when playing against a machine, but they sure do when you are dealing with human dealers. Friendlier is better of course, and sites now give you the option to select a male or female dealer, as well as dealers that speak your particular language if it isn’t English. This is all about your experience, and you want to make sure it is as pleasant and enjoyable as you can make it.
Sites that make the grade here must then be evaluated on things like the quality of the site overall, including the quality of their other games and the quality of the operation as a whole. These are not things that meet the unexperienced eye and requires the expert knowledge and awareness that players simply do not have.
Our recommendations for the top live dealer casinos on the internet take into account all the things that make this online experience great, where players who wish to experience the best there is out there in terms of live dealer casinos and also wish to play on sites that are excellent overall can rest assured that they are headed to the best places there is for this.
Live Dealer Casinos FAQs
- What are live dealer casino games?
Live dealer casino games combine the experience of playing casino table games at physical casinos with the ability to play them without ever having to go to these casinos. Players travel to them by way of an interactive live video feed via the internet, and although your physical body isn’t sitting in your assigned seat at the table you are playing at, this is the only difference between these two formats.
- What types of live dealer games do online casinos offer?
Blackjack is the most popular casino table game overall, and is also the most popular at online live dealer casinos. Almost all live dealer casinos also offer roulette, another immensely popular table game. Baccarat isn’t quite as popular, but is widely offered. Online live dealer casinos have recently been adding more and more variations of online poker variations, and some also offer live dealer craps.
- Why do live dealer games have higher table limits?
With digital online casino games, the tables are rendered by computers and can be run for virtually nothing, allowing real money online casino players to play the smallest stakes. Live dealer casino games, both the ones that you need to travel to a physical casino to play and the ones in physical casinos that you play at virtually, are considerably more expensive to run and require enough money being wagered at them per hour to make them viable.
- Can you play live table games with a smaller bankroll?
When online sites started rolling out live dealer games, the minimum betting limits at these games weren’t much different than you would see at a traditional casino. However, as online live dealer casinos have grown, the limits have come down, and now you can enjoy this experience for more modest betting limits than you used to. You can also go bigger at live dealer games, and even play for up to half a million dollars a spin.
- Can live dealer casino games be fully trusted?
There are plenty of players who do not trust computer generated casino games as much as they trust real cards, wheels, and dice. As long as you are playing at a legitimate real money online casino site who have their software independently verified, it’s as safe as the real thing. The online versions of live dealer games are played at real casinos which are subject to the same strict regulation and inspection as the casinos you travel to.
- Why do so many players find live dealer casino games so enjoyable?
Even though real money online casinos do their best to make their table games such as blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and casino poker as realistic as they can, there’s only so much that you can replicate with computer graphics and sounds. Live casino action is simply a different experience, and you don’t get any more real than completely real, with real dealers and real tables with real implements.
- How does the pace differ between online live dealer and computer table games?
With computer-based real money online casino games, the computer itself is the dealer. These games are based upon taking advantage of players being able to play at a much faster pace than playing traditional table games, which definitely has its benefits if you like fast action. Live dealer games unfold at the traditional deliberate pace that you would expect at a physical casino. Many players find this pace more enjoyable, or at least a nice change of pace.
- How important is the social experience with live dealer casino games?
Ask any player who has experienced both traditional casino table games and computer generated ones what the biggest difference between them are, and they will tell you it’s the social aspect of playing. Playing a computer game is a complete social void, as the only person involved is you. Both traditional and online live dealer games bring in not only the dealer to the mix but other human players as well, and the other humans certainly make things more social.
- How important is the dealer in live dealer casino games?
The best casinos hand pick their dealers to seek those who have the ability to make gambling with them truly enjoyable. Live dealers also have a stake in this as they earn a lot of their money from tips. This is the case as well with online live dealer casino games, and these dealers do benefit from tips as well, so they do their best to earn them by being agreeable and friendly, which makes players happier and more generous.
- How can you find the best live dealer casinos on the internet?
While you can certainly use the method of trial and error to figure out where the best live dealer casinos are, it is always better rely on the recommendations of subject matter experts than poke around on your own or listen to amateurs. We are indeed subject matter experts on all things casino related, and are happy to help make your online live dealer casino experiences the best that you can make them.