In order to explore this fascinating aspect of playing live games online, let’s start in the middle and explore the spectrum of possibilities!
While all gaming floors have certain things in common, they all have their differences. A blackjack pit at Peppermill in Reno with bells, whistles, and side bet win celebrations will have its own vibe, ambiance, and energy just like member’s only tables under bright lights, but segregated from the mass gaming floor by a series of red velvet ropes will in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Macau.
And then, you have the approachable tables, just sitting there in the middle of the floor with low minimum bets welcoming almost everyone. Sure, there might be happy hour specials on Wednesday afternoons in a tribal gaming venue and you might have $20 minimum hands or higher on weekend nights when market forces allow it. But they are still simply “mass gaming” tables with straightforward basic gaming.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when you gamble at a sticks-and-bricks establishment. When you play online, the differences can seem far more subtle. Remote platforms seem to still be struggling to find a balance between attracting traditional players and offering an absolutely unique and profound experience to new and seasoned players alike.
Depending on your location you might find a “local” PlayTech, Evolution, or other Euro-based company offering games from a brick-and-mortar operator with a physical location in your state. For most USA players, the games will come from remote studios that serve players in every state.
What that means from a tech standpoint is that the lobby’s focus will be on the whole United States rather than niche markets in Europe or players in individual American states so the games are more generic in general.
Live gaming studios for players in the USA are almost always just that - a studio. Even those located inside bricks and mortar locations that are situated within a state with its own regulatory framework, such as Michigan or New Jersey (Atlantic City) are not part of the regular gaming floor like they might be at Portamoso in Malta - but segregated from other live in-person players.
However, the games are executed in such a way that you might never notice that other live players are not actually sitting at the tables. One reason for this is game integrity and player security - an unscrupulous in-person player simply can’t influence the game in any way to favor or handicap any online player’s fair game or gaming experience.
This feature also makes it possible to provide games to multiple operators at the same time. Players in diverse states or even different countries might be playing at the same table at the same time even if I am into Casino XYZ from state ABC and you are logged into Casino ABC and are physically located in another state.
Knowing that it’s now easy to see how a live lobby can simply be a “plug-in” module enhancing any given online gaming platform’s software. The game provider can deliver any type of game such as an augmented reality-enhanced version of crowd-play Monopoly or a giant slot machine with a host or hostess pulling the lever for a community spin. They can also offer fast-paced sessions of roulette or comfortably-timed rounds of blackjack - either to a maximum of seven players at the “seats” or with a “bet-behind” capability that allows an unlimited number of players for each hand with nobody holding up the game’s progress for other players.
Some lobbies, especially those with multiple providers, will usually provide a way for players to choose the provider they want to play with. This can be done through filtering (choose games by provider) or as simply as allowing players to hover over a game icon to see the provider.
In some cases, especially at gaming venues with only one provider, you might not know who that live lobby provider is before you log in. That’s one area LiveDealers.com is glad to help!
Let’s say you want to play live games at Casino Extreme because you’ve heard it’s been around since 1999 and pays winners within 15 minutes… You could simply read our review and you’d see that the games are provided by ViG or Visionary iGaming; the studios are in Costa Rica and all dealers speak English; there are 11 tables with a mix of roulette variations, blackjack, and baccarat including Super 6, and you can play on your mobile or any other device because there’s no need to download a desktop software client.
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