How Live Dealer Roulette Works?
The most fascinating thing about live dealer roulette, arguably more so than the strategy of roulette itself, is how the “live” aspect of the game is executed. And, as we will find out, the answer to that is delightfully complex and just a technological marvel worth admiring on its own merits. To better understand all of the interconnected pieces that make playing live roulette possible, we will break things down into four key parts.
The Studio
The first core component of all online live roulette casinos is the studio that hosts each game. Each live dealer studio is effectively its own live broadcast set equipped with cameras, microphones, bright studio lighting, and the prompters and equipment that the croupier or dealer uses to interact with the people playing roulette on the other side.
Each live roulette table setup usually requires its own set of equipment, and depending on the capabilities of the operator. Top studios like the ones at Evolution Gaming casinos, will usually contain anywhere between 5 to 10 sets housed in a single building that broadcasts their games simultaneously. In some cases, live roulette tables have used actual land-based casinos as the backdrop of their sets.
The Table
The next item on our list is, of course, the gaming table, where all of the action, as well as a little bit of magic, takes place. Whether you are playing American roulette or at a European roulette casino, their live roulette tables are largely identical to the tables you’d find in a traditional brick-and-mortar casino. The tables might have a little more going on beneath the felt depending on how the live game’s creator has the roulette game set up.
The reason for this ties into the software that acts as the bridge between the players and the live roulette casino. At the time of publishing this article, there are two popular ways of going about this: the first method is to simply use a regular old table from a typical land-based casino, then use image recognition software through the studio cameras that tracks game objects (such as betting chips and the roulette ball) as they move around while playing live dealer roulette.
Alternatively, the roulette table, wheel, ball, and betting chips could all be embedded with sensors that would digitally detect the presence and location of these game objects, which is especially useful in the case of tracking which pocket on the roulette wheel the ball landed in.
The Dealer
Whether the game is played at a land-based casino or online, the role of the dealer in live roulette is essentially the same: moving the bettors’ chips to their desired locations, spinning the wheel and ball, keeping track of player payouts, and clearing the table to begin the process all over again.
Except that, instead of physically present players around the table, the dealer replies to player wagers in accordance with instructions displayed on prompters in the studio and communicates with the players through the chat function built into the game software if it is available.
The Software
Even though all of the fancy equipment that we’ve covered so far serves their key roles in making great live dealer games, all of them are rendered ineffective if the casino software connecting the players to the studio is not up to par.
This is especially true in the case of live dealer roulette as the game handles a large volume and variety of information all at the same time. For instance, the software has to keep track of the type and amount of each player’s wager and communicate this information to the dealer. Second, the software also has to ensure that the location of the chips on the live roulette table and the roulette ball as it falls into the wheel is correct. And finally, the live roulette software also has to do secondary calculations to update the real money balances of each player in the game.
Now take all of this processing and do it in real time while also translating information back and forth between camera broadcasts and a digital game interface and now you understand the amount of effort and refinement that goes into such a game to make it work smoothly.