How Does Live Casino Work?
Live casino runs on real dealers, real cards and a real wheel, streamed from a dedicated studio rather than simulated by a random number generator. It's usually its own tab at a UK casino, separate from both the RNG table games and the instant-win titles this site focuses on — worth understanding on its own terms if you've only ever played the reveal-and-go format.
Real dealer, real equipment
A professional dealer runs the game from a studio table with genuine cards, chips and wheels — not a rendered animation.
Multi-camera stream
Several camera angles plus a game control unit convert the physical result into the data your screen displays in real time.
Shared table, real time
Every player at a table sees the same live result at the same moment, same as sitting at a physical table would feel.
What actually happens behind the stream
Live tables are filmed in purpose-built studios, not on a casino floor — rows of tables staffed by professional dealers, each covered by multiple cameras and a game control unit (GCU) tucked just out of shot. The GCU reads the physical result (where the roulette ball lands, what a card scanner sees in the shoe) and converts it into the data that updates every connected player's screen within a second or two of the real event happening.
That's a meaningfully different guarantee to an RNG game: the fairness question isn't "was the algorithm tested," it's "was the physical equipment and the studio process independently audited," which UK-licensed live providers are, on an ongoing basis under the UK Gambling Commission's oversight rather than a one-off certificate.
Live blackjack, roulette & game shows
The core live catalogue at most UK operators covers blackjack and roulette in something close to their classic floor-table rules, often across several tables running at different stake levels and dealer styles. Sitting alongside them is a newer category of game-show-format live titles — a studio host running a large wheel or a card-reveal format with its own quickfire betting rules, built specifically for a streamed audience rather than adapted from a physical floor game.
Not every operator streams from the same kind of setup, either. Grosvenor — one of the ten operators verified on our top casinos page — streams its live tables from its own real UK venues rather than a dedicated studio, a genuinely different setup from the studio-only model most online live providers use.
| Live format | What it is | Typical stake range |
|---|---|---|
| Live Blackjack | Classic floor-table rules, real dealer and shoe | Low to high, often several tables per stake level |
| Live Roulette | A real spinning wheel read by an optical camera | Low to high, single- and double-zero wheels both exist |
| Live Baccarat | Banker/player format, dealt from a real shoe | Often higher minimums than blackjack or roulette |
| Game shows | A studio host running a large wheel or card-reveal format | Usually low, built for a broad streamed audience |
What to check before you join a table
Not every table running the same game plays identically. Stake limits vary table to table, so check the minimum and maximum before you sit down rather than after. Table rules can differ too — the number of decks in a blackjack shoe, whether a roulette wheel is single- or double-zero, or which side bets a table offers — all shown in the table's own info panel. A stable connection matters more here than on an RNG game, since you're watching a continuous video feed rather than loading a single result on demand.
Live casino vs RNG table games
Most UK operators also carry a separate, software-dealt version of the same games — RNG table games, available instantly with no wait for a seat or a new shoe. Live casino trades that instant availability for a genuine human dealer and real equipment; which one suits you is really a question of whether you want the social, real-time feel of a real table or the speed of an always-open RNG round, not a question of which one is more "real" in a fairness sense — both are independently audited, just through different mechanisms.
Straight answers
Is live casino rigged?
No more than a physical casino table is — a real dealer shuffles real cards or spins a real wheel, and the result is read by camera and sensor hardware, not simulated by software. UK-licensed live studios are audited by the same independent testing bodies that certify RNG games.
How is the result actually generated?
Through real physical equipment rather than a random number generator. A roulette wheel has an optical camera reading exactly where the ball lands; a card shoe or automatic shuffler is tracked by the game control unit (GCU), a piece of hardware behind the table that converts the real-world result into data the software displays to every player watching.
Can I play live casino on mobile?
Yes — live tables stream the same way to a phone or tablet browser as to desktop, though a stable connection matters more here than on an RNG game, since you're watching a continuous video feed rather than loading a single result.
Do live dealers see or hear me?
No — dealers can read the public chat if a table has one enabled, but they cannot see or hear individual players, only the aggregate table data (bets placed, seats taken) that the software feeds them.
What's the minimum stake on a live table?
It varies by operator and table, but many UK-licensed live blackjack and roulette tables accept stakes from as little as £1 — check the table's own limits panel before you sit down, since it varies more than on RNG games.
Is there a live-dealer scratch card?
Not really — scratch cards are a fixed-panel instant-win format built to resolve in one reveal, which doesn't map onto a continuous live stream the way a card or wheel game does. Live casino and instant-win scratch titles sit in separate tabs at essentially every operator for that reason.
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