Even before the introduction of virtual reality, online casinos have tried to make the experience more social and personal for their players. Casino games are predominantly single-player, after all, so there's no difference between a computer or a person dealing the cards or spinning the roulette wheel. Actually, there is, though - online casinos, even though they were as well-equipped as land-based ones, and they were the more convenient solution, lacked the personal touch of playing against a human instead of a computer.
To overcome this shortcoming, online casinos introduced live dealer games - in their case, the cards are dealt and the roulette wheel is spun by a real human, and his or her actions are transmitted to the player via video streaming. Today, thousands play live dealer online casino games at Vegas Palms day after day, feeling like actually sitting at a gaming table in Las Vegas. While the games are the same ones that you can play in a normal land-based or online casino, there are still a few differences between RNG and live dealer casinos that you should know about.
Game variety
The variety of games at an online casino is amazing. The Vegas Palms has a library of over 700 games, covering everything from classics like roulette or baccarat to modern slot machines, bingo, keno, scratch cards, and video poker. Only a few of these involve a dealer, though, and not all of these are offered as live dealer games. At the Vegas Palms, for example, players can only choose between live blackjack, live roulette, and live baccarat, either with a "normal" or with a "Playboy Bunny" dealer.
Betting limits
Live dealer tables usually have higher minimum betting limits. If at a normal blackjack table, the limit for a bet can be as low as 10 cents, live dealer tables can only be played at with a minimum bet of 30 credits. For roulette, the bet limits can vary - at the Vegas Palms, roulette tables are available with 0.5-10, 1-25, 2-50, 5-100 and 10-200 betting limits.
Extra features
The Vegas Palms' live blackjack tables come with an extra feature called "bet behind". With it, players don't need to play the hand per se, but can "sit" behind the "back" of the active player and bet on his or her hands. This is a feature that's exclusive to the live dealer blackjack - it can't be found in any other online blackjack game.
The future
Live dealer casino games are but a step in the evolution of online casinos. Soon, they will fuse with the emerging virtual reality, allowing players to feel completely like actually being present in a real life casino without leaving their home. This new technology is currently in the works at Microgaming, the software developer behind the Vegas Palms Casino, but once it's complete, it will change the face of the online casino business forever.
