The Live Online Casino option has greatly improved since it started

As with almost every other new idea the online casinos have been the subject of continuous development and improvement since they were first introduced by the big bookmakers as part of their online sports gambling sites. For many people, particularly those who had started to play casino games at a real casino before online casinos became available the most important and welcome of the many new developments was the Live Online Casino option. To understand why these casino games fans were so pleased when the Live Online Casino option was introduced we need to go back to the early history of online casinos. In Ireland most real casinos were only able to feature traditional casino games such as roulette and blackjack because of a lack of floor space, so when their customers first started to take an interest in playing casino games online it was roulette and blackjack they tended to play most. Playing blackjack, or any other card game for that matter was not that much different when played at an online casino rather than a real casino except perhaps for the lack of personal contact with a dealer, but roulette presented different problems. It is a fact of life that to operate many of the casino games we can play at an online casino requires the use of a Random Number Generator or RNG to determine the winning combinations. At that stage in the introduction of online casinos most people had never heard of a Random Number Generator by that name even though they may have held Premium Bonds and were at the mercy of one of the first RNG’s, namely Ernie. There was therefore a certain amount of suspicion by some people about the validity of these machines and whether they were truly random or rigged in favour of the house. These suspicions were further exaggerated when it came to playing roulette at an online casino because the casino software designers were unable to supply computer graphics which were capable of making the movement of the ball on a roulette wheel look natural as it found the number selected by the RNG. One thing was clear and that was that the online casino operators needed to come up with some sort of solution to resolve the problem, and that is why the Live Online Casino option was introduced.

Most online casino operators chose to offer the option of playing casino games such as roulette online by streaming the game from a studio somewhere in eastern Europe in which real dealers used a real roulette wheel to run the game. Having decided that they would employ real dealers to manage the roulette table most online casino operators also added a blackjack table and even a baccarat table in some cases to expand the number of casino games which were available to play in the Live Online Casino mode. Most online casinos now also offer their Live Casino customers the opportunity to interact with the dealers during the game to bring the experience closer still to the real thing. Whilst these developments have gone a long way towards resolving the doubts in some people’s minds concerning the use of RNG’s in determining winning numbers or combinations, the Live Online Casino option is not popular with everybody. Many new casino games players who have never experienced the hustle and bustle associated with playing roulette at a busy real casino, where it can be difficult to place bets and there is also a time limit on how long you have to place your bets, often prefer the peace and quiet playing roulette at their own pace. This is of course not possible when the game is being managed remotely by real dealers, and although there is no reaching across the table and fighting to place your bets there is a time limit. Employing real dealers has also raised the cost of offering casino games online so most online casino operators have raised the minimum table stakes on casino games played in the Live Casino mode to compensate for the increase in their overheads. Again for some people this negates one of the prime advantages associated with playing casino games online as opposed to in a real casino, and that is the very low stakes they can play for. Most online casino operators have set a minimum table stake of one euro for roulette in Live Casino mode, although William Hill still currently allow bets of 0.1 euro on their site.

We have already commented that some online casinos also offer baccarat as part of their Live Online Casino option, but William Hill and Betfred also offer a version of Caribbean stud poker as part of their Live Casino package whilst Ladbrokes and Bet365 include the popular dice game Sic Bo. By shopping around fans of playing casino games in a Live Casino setting now therefore have more choice than ever before. We should also point out that not every online casino allows customers to play casino games in the Live Online Casino mode without downloading the games. Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and Betfred all offer the Live Online Casino option without the need to download, but William Hill, Bet365 and 888 all require the casino games to be downloaded before the Live option is available.

The Live Online Casino option has seen many improvements since it was first introduced but there is now also another way for online casino games players to experience the atmosphere and excitement associated with playing casino games in the company of others. Most online casino operators still run their Live Casino option from a studio, but the All Irish casino has taken an entirely different approach and operates their Live Casino facility directly from a real casino based in Malta. Customers can now play roulette, blackjack and baccarat streamed directly from the Portamaso casino on the island of Malta, with all the sounds and feel of a real casino without leaving the comfort of their own home. That really is a step forward in the development of online casinos and how we use them.