Live Casino games have never been more popular. It is hardly surprising given that they replicate the experience of playing at a real land based casino more closely than any other type of game. You can interact with the dealer and other players, and play anytime, day or night, all from the comfort of your own home. When games with real dealers were introduced to online casinos, it’s fair to say that the choice was rather limited. The selection usually consisted of just roulette and blackjack, and sometimes baccarat at a push. Yet given our love of live games, operators soon realised that this was a key area in which to invest and expand.
Nowadays, the choice of games which you can play with a real-life dealer is ever expanding. Not only has the live game selection expanded to include other games, such as Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, Hi-Lo and Sic Bo, live game developers have also created some unique and interesting variants of the classics. Here, I will give you a rundown of 3 interesting live game variants that you can find at online casinos. If you fancy trying any of them for yourself, you will find a guide to the best live casinos in the UK that offer them here.
Immersive Roulette
Created by the live game specialist Evolution Gaming, this live roulette variant provides the ultimate, premium playing experience. As the name suggests, the game is engaging and draws you right in to the action. This is thanks to the numerous camera angles, which regularly switch to give you an all-encompassing viewpoint of the game. The action is streamed in 200 frames-per-second HD video, meaning there are no compromises when it comes to the visual quality. There are also slow motion close ups of the ball as it comes to land on the winning number, again getting you up close to the action as it happens. This game has been a big hit with both players and industry experts alike, and was awarded the coveted title of “Game of the Year 2014” at the EGR awards.
Ra Roulette
Given the enormous popularity of online slots, it makes sense that game developers would try to find a way to incorporate them into a live casino game. Extreme Live Gaming took this innovative approach with Ra Roulette, which is a live roulette/slot hybrid. This Live European Roulette game features a unique side bet using the symbols from the famous Novomatic slot, Book of Ra. Seven symbols from the iconic slot are placed on the roulette layout, and you can place a side bet on any of these. As the roulette wheel spins, so does a single reel slot, which contains the 7 symbols. Once the ball has landed on the winning number on the roulette wheel, the reel slows and comes to land on the winning symbol. This unique side bet adds an extra element of entertainment to the game, as well as the opportunity to scoop payouts of up to 80 to 1. You can find out more about the game in this well researched article.
Blackjack Party
Whilst there are tons of unique and innovative RNG blackjack variants available at online casinos, the same cannot be said for Live Blackjack. Most Live Blackjack variants follow traditional rules and gameplay. However, an interesting version has been created by Evolution Gaming. In this game, the emphasis is on fun. The game features a dealer and co-presenter/hostess duo, who are engaging, out-going and keep the party atmosphere in full swing. Music plays as the game hosts share in banter with each other and the players. Thanks to the bet behind feature, an almost unlimited number of players can take part at any time. Plus, the low-stakes option puts the game within the reach of all players.
Many people who are not intimately familiar with slots – and even some who are – believe that they’re pretty stagnant. What I mean by that is that there seems to be a common belief which states that most gamblers start off with slots and then quickly transition into more “serious” gambling activities online, such as blackjack and roulette, leaving the slots behind to the newbies and the single moms who only gamble every once in a while. Slots are almost seen as second-class when it comes to gambling despite their prevalence and spotlight in various online casinos, a bit like how traditional gamers tend to regard mobile and free to play games. However, just like how mobile games are a gigantic market that shouldn’t be underestimated, slots are also growing more and more formidable by the years, and I’ve got the data to prove it!
There have been slots based on movies and TV shows practically since there have been online slots at all. It seems like these days practically any property is prime for the slot treatment. Some turn out great (“The Avengers”), some not (“Game of Thrones”), and some are just completely unexplainable (“Bridesmaids”). Companies such as NetEnt and Microgaming continue to release licensed slot after licensed slot, seemingly content with the money that their creations are bringing them, with Microgaming recently obtaining the rights to several Universal movies such as “Jurassic World”. And now Zynga, the developer of numerous immensely successful mobile games, the most popular of which being “Farmville”, wants in on the online slot action, and their way of getting a piece of the pie involves making a slot out of one of the most beloved children’s movies ever made.
No, don’t get your hopes up, we’re not actually getting a slot based on the Marvel character Black Widow. Sadly, while Playtech has provided us with numerous awesome slots based on Marvel properties, such as “Spider-Man” and “The Avengers”, that deal expired years ago, which has left us rather unfortunately deprived of slots based on the most interesting Marvel properties – “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Regardless, it seems like another great partnership has risen up to take its place – Isle of Man-based developer Pariplay has partnered up with Atari in order to create various slots based on their classic arcade videogames (of which there are MANY – trust me, I know).
Slots machines are the most popular casino games, played by millions of people around the world, be it at land-based casinos and pubs or at online gambling destinations. Sure enough, playing on the Internet is way more convenient and even more profitable, but how can you trust a site that is specialised in offering real-money slots with you personal information? After all, it’s almost an unwritten law that where money is concern there is a lot of spam, phishing and scams. So at a first glance, providing your personal and especially your banking details to some gambling site might not seam like the best idea. But that’s only if you do not know what to look out for and who to trust.
What is up with casinos being robbed in ways that could put even Hollywood to shame recently? As you may or may not recall, a Luton casino was recently robbed by a man in black who soon disappeared without a trace, leaving police desperate for clues. Now, another career criminal has actually managed to one-up the man in black’s disappearance act by throwing a gun into the mix. At 10 o’clock on Sunday, September 6th, a man entered the Easy Dough casino (which, may I add, has either the worst or best name for a casino ever, I can’t decide which) and demanded cash. When the dealers did the reasonable thing and said “Uh, how about no” while presumably stifling a giggle, the man pulled out a gun and made his demand somewhat more reasonable. After receiving an undisclosed sum of money, the man made his daring escape through the back, most likely to join the man in black from Luton for an ironic game of poker. Just like before, police have absolutely nothing on the man, with not even the security cameras capturing anything useful. Witnesses are describing a white male between 50 and 55, but that easily describes a few million people, so at the end of the day the mysterious perpetrator is probably going to get away with it. I don’t want to say anything, but don’t you think casinos should invest a little bit more in their security? It was cool when Danny Ocean did it, but these recent incidents are proving that pretty much anyone can storm into a casino, demand some cash and then disappear into the night. If the casinos had better cameras or more security systems in place perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. But that’s none of my business.
About a week ago I was talking to a casino-playing friend of mine about slots. It was just a typical discussion – are they fair, considering they require no skill; should there be skill involved (bringing up the legislation that passed earlier this year which would allow arcade games to be implemented into slots); are 25 line slots better than 40 line ones, etc. As I said, just the standard discussion that almost everyone has when talking about online slots. Eventually, we moved onto talking about the best online slots, and, among the standard ones you’d typically hear of such as