As an independent observer outside of the boardroom it is difficult to know exactly what were the thought processes behind the decision of some of the major bookmakers to add a few gambling games to their online sports gambling sites, and whether they realised how successful that decision would turn out to be. Whatever their initial objectives were however that decision totally changed the gambling habits of thousands of people and created a whole new type of gambling which we now know as the online casino sector. Since those early beginnings of online casinos when they were all just part of the increasingly popular online sports gambling sites, we have not only seen the number of casino games featured on those sites increase dramatically but there are now also several entirely new specialist online casinos available with yet another range of interesting games from different casino software suppliers. Here at onlinecasino.ie we have witnessed and recorded this huge transformation in the online casino sector over several years both through our regular online casino reviews and of course by simply enjoying playing the games. The vast increase in the number of casino games we can now play online is however not the only major development we have seen at our online casinos since they first came on stream. One of the first and in some people’s opinion one of the most important of the new innovations actually became available very early in the history of online casinos, namely the live online casino option. It could be said that the live online casino option was not initially a part of the planned development of online casinos, but was actually devised in response to a series of complaints from existing fans of the casino game of roulette who had been used to playing the game in a real casino and did not like the appearance of the game as it was displayed online. The problem was that the casino software suppliers were unable to satisfactorily simulate the movement of the ball on the virtual roulette wheel as it moved to the pre-determined winning number. The winning combination of almost every online casino game is of course determined by a Random Number Generator, and most of us have nowadays come to accept this as a fair and acceptable method to employ but that was not necessarily true in the early days of online casinos. Some people were naturally suspicious of any new technology which may be costing them money, so the strange movement of the ball on a roulette wheel was enough to fuel those suspicions in the eyes of the sceptics. The online casino operators knew they had to respond to those doubts and the live online casino option was their solution. It was decided that the only way to dispel the doubts associated with the online roulette graphics was to use a real roulette wheel operated by real dealers, and to stream the games live to our screens from a remote studio. Playtech are generally credited with being the first to develop the software necessary to manage this form of live online casino, but the live casino option is now available at almost every online casino for the game of roulette, and can now also often be used to play other casino games such as blackjack and baccarat. The live online casino option was certainly an important development in the online casino sector and helped to reinforce our trust in the fairness of the online casino games they featured, but it is still not universally popular and we are told that most of us do not generally play our online casino games in the live casino mode.
One reason for this may be that many online casinos have increased the minimum table stakes for casino games played in the live online casino mode. Clearly operating a studio with a real roulette wheel and employing real dealers is far more costly than operating a normal internet site, so it is understandable that some of the site operators feel it is necessary for them to increase the table stakes in line with those commonly found at any land based casino. The problem is that one of the biggest factors in the appeal of playing casino games online is that customers can play all the games for very small stakes, so increasing the stakes to the levels found in a real casino reduces the competitive edge enjoyed by online casinos over their land based rivals. Clearly the increased stakes only apply to the casino games which are available to play in the live casino mode, and we all know that the most popular online casino games are the slots which obviously would not benefit at all from being available in a live casino mode. It is only casino games such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat which most online casino operators make available in the live online casino mode, and these games represent a very small part of the range of casino games offered by most online casinos. The remote studio approach to the idea of a live casino is no longer the only option available however. The All Irish casino for example has now gone one step further towards solving the perceived problem with the roulette wheel by actually streaming a range of casino games live from a real casino in Malta. Players can now play roulette, blackjack and baccarat live and in the company of casino fans playing at the Portomaso casino on the island of Malta. This is probably the closest online casino experience yet devised to replicate the atmosphere of playing casino games in a real casino. It will never be totally the same but this form of live online casino is definitely worth a look if you miss the real casino experience but enjoy the convenience of playing casino games online from your own home. For those who are not particularly worried about the use of an RNG or imitating the atmosphere of a real casino, every online casino still offers these games in instant or download mode played against the house.