Everything You Need to Know About Live Casino Card Games

Due to the highly competitive nature of online casino gaming, it shouldn't come as a surprise that online casinos are notoriously quick to adapt to new trends and adapt their offering to suit trends. One such trend which continues to grow in popularity is that of live streaming video. It was found that 75 per cent of all internet traffic in 2017 was taken up by video streaming. The improvements in technology for both streaming and creating streams as well as the ability of mobiles to now deliver live streams have all resulted in a surge in live streaming popularity.

Live streaming has been around for many years now, and the online casino industry has been utilising its potential since the '00s to create new gaming experiences. Live casino gaming aims to blur the lines between playing online and playing in a brick-and-mortar casino, bringing real-time play, real games, and real dealers rather than those generated by a computer program. Now, a decade or so on, live games have evolved into one of the most popular sections of any online casino, delivering the authentic experience that players crave.

But, how has this come to be, and what do you need to know about playing live casino card games?

How do live casino games work?

It's all well and good being able to watch a live stream, but for live casino games to work, people need to be able to play along in real-time, reacting to the phases of the game revealed in the studio but by using their keyboard or touchscreen. So, live casino games need to be set up with a live streaming camera, as you would assume, as well as two very important pieces of tech.

For the computer to process the cards being laid out on the table, it requires optical character recognition (OCR) technology. The OCR scans and recognises set characters that have been printed onto the game's items - such as the card of a deck or the numbers on a roulette wheel - which are then converted into code and used in the computer's programming.

As for determining winners and essentially running the game, a game control unit (GCU) is used. The GCU is a scanner which encodes the data of the game, such as the cards in play, into a digital format for the user interface. This allows players to see what cards have been revealed and played via the live stream as well as if they have won, with the GCU's data also triggering an automatic payout if the player wins.

How to play live casino card games

Getting into a live casino game is very similar to doing so at a brick-and-mortar casino in that the games are played under the same rules and players are greeted by a live dealer. Once all players are seated at the virtual table, the dealer will commence the game, taking the bets, dealing the cards, and starting each new game.

It's this real-time, real-play that has made the gaming genre so popular, and why more people sign-up to online casinos to play live casino games; it's a new level of transparency formerly not found when gaming online. But, the experience doesn't merely stop at logging into a room and playing the live game - some services have taken the next step.

To help to integrate players into the casino experience and deliver a truly immersive experience, Live Beyond Live has been launched to usher in the future of live casino gaming. Instead of going from the home screen and into a game, players enter into a virtual casino floor within a penthouse to choose to sit at a blackjack or roulette table and can see other people in the virtual casino moving around and playing games in real-time.

The most popular live casino games are live baccarat, live blackjack, and live roulette, with the virtual casino taking the whole gaming experience to a new level. It may not be long before playing live games online and attending a brick-and-mortar casino offer near-indistinguishable experiences.