Live casino games stream a real dealer running a physical table, such as blackjack, roulette or baccarat, from a studio. Software reads the physical result, often using optical character recognition, and settles bets. Game shows add random software elements to a live presenter. A real dealer does not change the house edge or make the site running the game trustworthy. Live casino gambling faces legal restrictions in the Maldives.
On this page
Live dealer games are the part of an online casino that looks most like a physical one. This page takes the production view: who makes these games, how a physical result becomes a settled bet, and what the format does not change. For the other game families, see our casino games explainer.
What a live dealer game is
In live casino, a game presenter, or dealer, runs the game from a casino table that players follow in real time through a video stream1. The cards are real cards and the wheel is a real wheel.
That is the key difference from software games such as slots, where a random number generator produces the result.
Inside a live casino studio
Live casino is an industrial operation. Evolution, one of the largest suppliers, reported operating 24 studios across four continents at the end of 2025, with Tbilisi in Georgia as its largest hub and other studios in Riga and Malta1.
It ran about 2,000 tables for its customers, employed 22,475 people at the end of 2025, and said about 88% of its employees work at tables as hosts and dealers1. Its presenters speak 24 languages1.
The supplier's platform handles hardware, software, video, staff and user data at the same time, and game interfaces are translated into 47 languages1. The casino brand a player sees is often a separate operator that has licensed the stream.
Supply is also concentrated. Evolution's group includes brands such as NetEnt, Red Tiger, Ezugi, Big Time Gaming and Nolimit City2, so one company can sit behind both the live tables and many of the slots on a site. Our studio profiles cover the suppliers separately from the sites that carry their games.
From a physical result to a digital bet
A camera picture alone cannot settle a bet. The system needs to know, as data, which card was dealt or where the ball landed.
Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), a testing laboratory, explains that the results of the dealer's physical actions are translated into data by optical character recognition (OCR) technology3.
GLI's testing of live dealer systems combines remote testing of each game and the player interface with an on-site inspection of the studio and premises3. That kind of testing happens where a regulator requires it; it cannot be assumed on an unregulated site.
Our guide on how live casino games work covers the technology in more detail.
Common formats
Live blackjack
A dealer deals from a physical shoe. The rules are the same as in software blackjack, and rule variations still change the house edge; a 6-5 blackjack payout, for example, costs the player 1.39% compared with 3-24. See the blackjack category.
Live roulette
A dealer spins a physical wheel. The wheel type sets the margin: 2.70% for a single-zero wheel and 5.26% on most bets for a double-zero wheel5. See the roulette category.
Live baccarat
Cards are dealt to Player and Banker hands. In an eight-deck game the Banker bet carries a 1.06% house edge and the Tie bet 14.36%6. See the baccarat category.
Game shows
Evolution introduced game shows as a separate category in 2017, combining live casino with random number generation and augmented reality1. Recent titles include a live dice game and a ball-drawing game with multipliers2.
In these formats some outcomes, such as multipliers, come from software rather than the physical wheel or dice.
What "live" does not change
- The maths. A human dealer does not reduce the house edge. It is set by the rules and payouts, as on any other table.
- The legitimacy of the site. Great Britain's Gambling Commission has warned that games from licensed suppliers appear on unlicensed websites through third-party resellers7. A familiar studio on screen tells you nothing about who holds your money; our page on online casinos and the Maldives covers that side.
- Your ability to check the result. A stream shows the table, but the player cannot inspect the cards, the shoe or the software that reads them. That is why regulated markets rely on laboratory testing and studio inspections3.
- The pace. Rounds follow one another continuously, and the World Health Organization lists casino games and high-speed online platforms among the higher-harm gambling products8.
Live casino games in the database
Live game show 
Live game show 
Live blackjack 
Live baccarat 
Live game show 
Live baccarat - Live dealer
- A casino game run in real time by a human dealer or presenter using physical equipment, streamed by video to players who bet through an on-screen interface.
- House edge
- The average loss on a bet expressed as a percentage of the stake, representing the casino's built-in mathematical advantage. For a game with a fixed return, house edge equals 100% minus RTP.
- Side bet
- An optional extra wager placed alongside the main bet in a table game, with its own payouts and its own house edge.