Live casino is an area of online gambling that brings the experience of a real-life casino right to your home. Using state-of-the-art technology and human dealers, live casinos combine the best of both worlds to bring you an online gaming experience that is as close to reality as possible. There are a number of things that go into providing this authentic experience, including the equipment in the studio and the games themselves.
The games themselves are a lot like regular online casino games. You make your bets by pressing buttons and the outcome is decided by the use of real casino equipment, such as a deck of cards for blackjack or a roulette wheel. However, the live dealer element adds a social feel to the game that you just don’t get from playing traditional online casino games. You can also communicate with the dealers through a chat window, which again gives you a true feeling of being in a brick-and-mortar casino.
You will start by entering a site that offers live casino games and then browsing through the different options displayed in the live lobby, just as you would scope out a game on the actual casino floor. Once you have found a game of your choice, click on it and you will be whisked away to the table, where you can then proceed to make your bets. In some cases, you may be playing with other people at the same time, while others are not, so it’s worth checking out the terms and conditions before you play.
There are a number of different types of live casino games on offer, but some of the most popular include blackjack and roulette. These games are designed and run by specialist companies who have your playing experience in mind, ensuring that the games work across all devices and browsers. They also make sure that the software runs smoothly and quickly, ensuring a smooth experience for everyone.
In the studio, you will find a number of different pieces of hardware, including cameras that record each round of the game, a monitor for the dealer to show their gamblers and the actual game table. Each dealer will also have a piece of equipment called a Game Control Unit (GCU), which is about the size of a shoe box and is responsible for encoding all the video that you see on your screen.
The GCU is an essential piece of kit that all live casinos have, and without it there wouldn’t be any games at all. It is used to recognise the symbols on each card and the dealer’s action, and it also uses the same optical character recognition technology that car parks use to read the license plates of cars as they enter or leave.
The live casino industry has come on leaps and bounds since its early days, and with the ever-increasing capabilities of digital technology, the future looks bright for players and developers alike. The quality of the games has improved dramatically in recent years, and the number of people playing them continues to increase, making this a truly exciting area of online gaming.