A live dealer game is a physical game with a camera on it. The wheel, the shoe and the dealer are real, the rules are the ones printed on the table, and the house edge is the same as it is in a room you could walk into. What the technology changes is not the mathematics but the pace — and pace is the thing the edge is charged on.
The number that actually moves
A physical roulette table runs roughly thirty to forty spins an hour, because chips have to be placed, collected and paid by hand. A streamed table with a timer runs faster, and an auto-roulette wheel with no dealer faster still. The house edge of single-zero roulette is 2.7% of each bet, so doubling the number of spins per hour doubles the expected cost of the hour while the game itself looks unchanged.
| Format | Rounds per hour, roughly | Edge applied per hour at 2.7% |
|---|---|---|
| Physical table | 30–40 | 0.81–1.08 units per unit staked |
| Streamed live table | 40–60 | 1.08–1.62 |
| Auto-roulette | 60–100 | 1.62–2.70 |
The table is arithmetic rather than a measurement of any particular casino: multiply your average stake by the number of rounds and by the edge, and the result is what the hour is expected to cost.
What the stream genuinely adds
Multiple camera angles, a visible shoe, and a chat window are real differences, and they do what they are meant to do: make a remote table legible and sociable. Optical recognition reads the wheel or the cards and settles bets automatically, which removes dealer error in one direction and removes the pause that used to slow the game in the other.
Side bets and game shows are a different product
The main game on a blackjack table carries one of the lowest edges in the building. The side bets printed beside it do not, and the money-wheel formats built for streaming — the ones with bonus rounds and multipliers — are priced like entertainment rather than like blackjack. They are not hidden: each one publishes its own return to player, and the gap between the main game and the extras is usually larger than any difference between casinos.
What to take to the table
- Count rounds, not minutes: the cost of a session is the number of decisions multiplied by the stake and the edge.
- Read the return to player of the specific variant, including each side bet, before the first hand rather than after.
- Treat the chat and the camera work as what they are — the part of the product designed to keep you seated.
Questions and answers
Are live dealer games fairer than software games?
They are differently verified rather than fairer. A live game is a physical device you can watch; a software game is a certified generator that a laboratory has tested. Both publish a return to player, and that figure is the one that decides the cost.
Can a live dealer influence where the ball lands?
Not in any way that helps you. Wheels are checked for bias, dealers rotate, and the result is settled by optical recognition. A dealer who could place the ball reliably would be a problem for the casino, not a service to the player.
Why does an hour at a live table cost more than I expected?
Usually because the streamed table runs more rounds per hour than a physical one. The edge is charged on each round, so a faster game is a more expensive hour at the same stake.