Live Casino is a real-time experience of gambling with a live dealer streamed directly to your desktop or mobile. You play against the dealer just as you would in a land-based casino, but with the added benefit of being able to communicate with them via chat and video. The games are filmed in a studio that is configured to include a camera, a table and cards, and a live dealer who deals the cards or throws the dice for each player.
The live dealer’s hands move around the table and they make superficial hand gestures to signal certain actions such as clearing the table, dealing the cards, or spinning the roulette wheel. In order to translate these movements into digitised data, a piece of hardware called the Game Control Unit is used. This is about the size of a shoe box, and every table has one of these devices. The GCU essentially interfaces the digital technology with the live action, and without it, there wouldn’t be any live casino.
While the set-up is very expensive, the cost to run a live casino is still very much in line with traditional online casinos. There are many advantages of this type of gambling, and players often enjoy the fact that a real person determines their winnings rather than a computerised system.
Another advantage is the availability of live casino games at any time of day. Unlike the limited number of land-based casinos that can offer games at 3am, live dealers are on shift and always available to provide you with a unique gambling experience.