Live Casino Games and Random Number Generation

Most experienced online casino players will be aware of the acronym RNG as it applies to internet casino games. It stands for random number generator and refers to that part of the virtual graphic game software that dictates outcomes – the value of the next card dealt, the number of the die rolled, or where the ball comes to a rest on the roulette wheel.

The online casino industry began with RNG games in the mid 1990s and they continue to be the dominant form of online casino game. A plethora of platform developers have been churning out games for hundreds of licensee casinos since the first casinos went live in 1996. Some of the larger developers and their licensee casinos now offer over four hundred games, including all the regulars - blackjack, baccarat, roulette, craps and hundreds of different slot games. And while the exponential growth in online casino gambling has been well documented, the fact that a computer dictates game outcomes has been a continued source of skepticism amongst many players.

The whole concept of RNG casino games and their fairness, or true randomness has been debated ad nauseam and isn’t a topic I’d like to touch on now. However the obvious drawback of these types of games is one of perception. To a large degree, the entertainment one gets from playing a casino game is largely derived from an anticipation of possible winnings. Where doubts as to the fairness of outcomes exist (whether justified or not) this entertainment factor is diminished considerably.

In the last couple of years a new type of online game has emerged. Still played over the internet from your computer (or television as the case may be), these games place no reliance on random number generators to decide the outcome of games. Instead, they adopt a very simple and long used method to decide which card is dealt, or where the ball lands on the roulette wheel...a real dealer and real, tangible casino equipment as has been used in casinos for centuries.

In basic terms, live casino games work as follows:

Somewhere, in either a real casino or a purpose built casino studio, a dealer deals a game, typically blackjack, baccarat or roulette in front of a video camera. The vision is then streamed live and embedded in a bet interface that is served remotely to players sitting at their PC. All player bet decisions are communicated to the dealer so that he or she can deal accordingly. Effectively, you are playing a game as you would in an actual casino. The key difference of course being the fact than rather than sitting opposite the table from you the dealer is in a studio on the other side of the world.

As a relatively new game format, live casino games are far from perfect. Limitations around net connection speeds adequately supporting the live video are probably near the top of the list of issues that game developers will be looking to improve. You really want to be connected at 1Mbps or higher to enjoy reasonably seamless vision at most casinos. Anything below 500Kbps and you start to get frequent freeze frames and games become annoying and unplayable. If you're on a dial-up connection, don't even bother.

But what this new type of game does do, is take a concerted step in right direction to alleviating doubts players have had as to just how random games outcomes are.