When you play at a live casino, the game is streamed from studios in real time to your computer or mobile device. This allows players to interact with the dealer in a more natural way, as well as other players at the same table. The games function in much the same way as regular online casino games, with bets placed by pressing buttons and a chat box for interacting with the dealer. However, there is a lot more behind the scenes that goes into making these experiences as authentic as possible for players and viewers.
As the online casino industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar global industry, operators have spared no expense in developing the technology that makes playing on a screen as close as possible to the experience of being on the casino floor. And, it’s not just the visuals that are getting better and better – the actual experience of playing is also being improved by developments in the software that underpins them.
There are now many options for players to choose from when it comes to playing a live casino game and they can be played on a variety of devices. These can range from the latest smart phones and tablets, through to PCs and laptops and even television sets. Depending on the game, it may also be available as an app or as a desktop instant-play version.
The way a live casino works is by using cameras to capture the action and then transmitting that footage in real-time to the player’s device. There is a lot of technology that goes into this, including optical character recognition, the same sort of technology that car parks use to recognise number plates and an ingenious piece of hardware called a GCU (which stands for Game Control Unit) that digitizes all of the data for the specific game being played.
This is then transmitted to the player via a live feed, which can be adjusted to suit their needs and the game can be enjoyed in a way that is as close to the experience of being on the floor as possible. In addition, the games are usually streamed in high definition and so look as good on a television set as they do on a computer monitor.
While the convenience of online casinos is hugely appealing for many people, there are still plenty who yearn for the atmosphere of a bricks and mortar casino and that is where the genesis of the live casino came from. These are designed to provide an experience that is as close as possible to a real casino and have become increasingly popular.
The croupiers and dealers in a live casino are not merely stand-ins but actual dealers who have been trained to deal the cards and spin the roulette wheel. In the studio, they are miked up so that they can speak to the players and can be seen by the viewers on their screens. The messages they receive are then typed into a chat box which is displayed within their line of sight, so that players can interact with the dealer in a similar way to how they would with a regular barman on a casino floor.