Best Live Dealer Casinos Online
Ever since online gambling first became popular, casinos have tried their hardest to simulate the live gaming experience as best as possible. With today’s technology, many casinos now offer games with a live dealer that are closer to the real thing. Many people prefer to play at the best live casino sites because they feel the results with a live dealer are more fair than with a random number generator.
Online casino sites replicate casino games, offer bonuses and comp points like a real land-based casino, and even use realistic 3D graphics to try and make the experience as real as possible. No matter what gimmicks a site tries, the fact that you’re gambling by yourself on your computer or smartphone and interacting with computer software means that online casinos are missing a major aspect of real-world gambling; the human interaction that takes place between a gambler and a dealer.
Before the advent of live dealer casinos, online gambling meant interacting with a graphical representation of a blackjack table, or a roulette wheel, or a slot machine. After you place your wager, an invisible software-powered dealer conducts the game, making online casino gambling a pretty lonely affair. Playing casino games this way has its advantages: taking a human dealer out of the equation makes casino games more efficient, less likely to face human error, and much cheaper. The downside? People miss the camaraderie of the real live dealer, a factor that no piece of software can match. A big part of the excitement in a game like blackjack comes from the relationship between the player and the blackjack dealer; the same is true for other casino games.
Best Casinos with Live Dealers
Rank | Online Casino | Bonus | Mobile | Learn More |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | $1000 | Droid / iPhone / iPad | BetOnline Casino |
Thanks to the latest innovation in online gambling technology (and thanks to increased customer access to faster broadband networks), live dealers are popping up at online casinos all over the world. Live online casino dealers return a little bit of the human element to casino gambling, using streaming webcam technology to offer online casino gamblers a little taste of the real thing.
How Do Live Dealer Casinos Work?
Live dealer online casino games are a sort of compromise between the graphical content of a standard online casino game and the streaming technology displaying a live dealer. Live dealer online casinos are still displayed on a screen on your computer, and the software designers have yet to come up with a way to pump in the smells of the casino or comp you a free drink. But live dealer casinos break the fourth wall, displaying their skills right there on your computer screen, though for the most part you’ll still have an image of a gambling table that exists only on the Internet. This digital betting surface allows you to make bets through the site’s user interface, while the streaming video on the screen displayed the live dealer working the game.
Live dealer games liven up the standard online casino playing format, as a kind of window-dressing that partially replicates what it’s like to play casino games with a real dealer. The video of the dealer that you watch is a real live broadcast; you’re actually watching a live dealer run your casino game from a remote location. Feel free to chat with your dealer and interact the way you would with a casino employee; that’s what they’re on the screen for.
If you’re unconvinced, you can give live dealer games a try without spending any real money. Yes, most live dealer casinos allow people to play their live dealer games for free, to test out the new and unfamiliar technology. You will be time-limited if you choose to play live dealer games for play money; live dealer games have a limited number of seats for customers, so free play live dealer games are time limited. Even if you just get a few minutes to test out live dealer games, you’ll probably be extremely impressed. Adding live dealers to online casino games was the logical next step up from 3D graphics.
Benefits of Live Dealer Casinos
Live online gambling is the latest trend sweeping online casino sites. The most obvious benefits of playing with a live dealer are the increased entertainment value of playing with a live person, the increased realism of having a live dealer using real cards and chips on a real table, and (surprisingly) a little bit of strategic advantage. But don’t think of the live dealer as a passing fad; live dealers have been around for a little over a year now and the trend is spreading. Players like to see live dealer games offered at casinos because it lends the casino an air of legitimacy. Being able to watch cards as they are dealt, to watch the game outcome on a streaming live broadcast, means that you’re sure the game you’re playing is fair. Even though online casinos have gaming licenses and advertise their third party testing service, it’s always felt funny to some of us to depend so heavily on a random number generator for our casino gaming. With a live dealer, you know the site is hosting legit games.
Providing live dealer games means added expense for the online casinos: salaries for live dealers, investment in technology, etc. When an online casino makes an investment like this, it means they’re going out of their way to entertain their customers, no matter the cost. The online casinos I frequent all offer live dealer games; it gives me a sense of security. If a casino site is going to go out of its way to provide me with live dealer games, they’re probably not going to defraud me or refuse to honor my withdrawals.
Live Dealer Casino Strategy
Some games with live dealer options come with a strategic advantage. Take blackjack, for example. When you’re playing online blackjack, you can’t see the shuffling of the cards or the inner-workings of the shoe. Since blackjack is vulnerable to card counting, being able to watch the dealer manipulate the cards allows card counters to practice their craft at online casinos. Live dealer blackjack in online casinos uses real finite decks, not random number generators. That opportunity to keep some kind of card count gives online live dealer blackjack players a distinct advantage.
But even those live dealer games where having a real human dealer doesn’t give you an advantage are a lot of fun. If you’ve never played a live dealer casino game before, go ahead and sign up at a live dealer casino and try out some of the games for free. If you’ve always thought online casino games were missing something, test out some live dealer casinos.
Live Play Vs. Virtual Play
There are both advantages and disadvantages to playing in both live casino games and games using a random number generator. Many people prefer to play at the best live casino sites because they feel it is a more fair option than a random number generator. The ability to see the game happening before their eyes makes many players feel that the live option is more secure. The big downside to playing at the best live casino sites however is the time it takes to complete each game. For many people, playing online is about speed, but having a live dealer means play slows down considerably as each live player must make decisions and place wagers one at a time. Depending on the player, this may only be a slight disadvantage.
The best live casino sites are places where players can participate in games in real time. The games themselves are run by live dealers, and players are given chat options to interact with the dealer and the other players. Many people prefer to play at the best live casino sites because the fairness is less questionable. Live casino games offered include Baccarat, Roulette and Blackjack. The only real downside to playing at a live casino site is the amount of time it will take to complete a game.