Interactive Gaming vs. Digital: What Sets Live Gaming Apart from Other Virtual Gamess

Evolving technology has allowed online casinos to expand their offerings, with more varieties of classic games on offer than ever before, in addition to entirely new styles of games. A more recent introduction to the online casino game landscape is live casino games, which blend together online play with elements including live dealers and physical game components.

There’s an immediate, clear distinction between casino games that are entirely digital in nature and live casino games. So, let’s explore more of what sets these two online casino options apart.

How do live casino games work?

Before we get more into the differences, we should explore just how live casino games work in the first place.

They were initially conceptualised in the late 90s and early 2000s, but the technology at the time was not capable of supporting the format. It wasn’t until technology and internet infrastructure fully caught up in the 2010s that online casinos were able to properly experiment with introducing live casino games to their platforms.

Players still interact with the game through their online interface in live casino games, but the actions of the game are played out in a physical space. The live dealer runs the game in much the same way that they would in a land-based casino venue, handling the physical game components and dealing cards or spinning wheels.

This works thanks to the presence of live streaming technology, with a number of high-definition cameras capturing the live dealer and game table from various angles. In addition, technology like optical character recognition (OCR) translates the images into data that the software can process, allowing for a smooth procession of gameplay.

The key differences between live casino and other online casino games

Of course, one of the biggest differences between these two types of online casino games is the technology behind it. Digital games don’t require the use of cameras or OCR to function, as the software doesn’t need to interface with any external, live elements.

The role of the dealer in an online casino game is instead taken by the computer, with no use of physical game components. Instead, the results of the game are determined by the use of a computer algorithm – the random number generator (RNG).

RNG – as the name implies – generates strings of numbers without any discernible pattern, with each of the numbers corresponding to a different playing card, pocket on a Roulette wheel or symbol on a slot game’s reels. This makes it impossible to predict the outcome of a game, helping to maintain random chance as well as a sense of fairness.

Something else that sets live casino games apart is their set pacing. The live dealer is required to keep the game moving at a certain pace, with players having set time limits to decide on actions or make wagers. This is quite different to many digital games, where the player themselves generally decides on the pace and the RNG allows for things to play out at a quicker pace.

Live casino games are quite different from other online casino games in a variety of ways, but they also have plenty to offer for players looking to try something different.