When I connect my computer to my giant plasma TV every weekend for a little live dealer gambling, I often wonder why more of my friends who gamble online don’t yet play live dealer games. I think the answer is simple – most online gamblers where I live, in the US, don’t really know much about live dealer games.

Whereas live dealer technology has been around for a while, it isn’t all that well-known yet in the US, and there are fewer live dealer casinos that accept US customers than those aimed at other markets. Here’s a quick breakdown of what live dealer gambling is and how it works.

What Is a Live Dealer?

Casinos started offering live dealer games a few years ago – the name itself should tell you exactly what it is. Unlike traditional Internet gambling, live dealer games use webcams to connect you to an actual person dealing and running your game.

Let’s say you like to play roulette. When you sign up at a live dealer casino, you can choose to play with a virtual or live croupier spinning the wheel and placing your bets. Interacting with a live dealer makes online gambling more like actual casino action. You can watch as the dealer lays your bets, spins the wheel, announces the results, and (in some cases) even play multi-player games where other gamblers interact along with you.

What Type of Games are Available at Live Dealer Casinos?

Any casino game that uses a live dealer is available to online casino gamblers in this format. Obviously, slot machines and video poker titles don’t need live dealers – they don’t have them in casinos and they aren’t necessary. But pretty much any other casino game you can think of is available at casinos that offer real dealer games.

Blackjack, roulette, craps, and casino poker are among the most popular games played by live dealer casino fans – these are games where dealer interaction are most important in live casinos, so naturally they’re the most popular live casino games.

How Does Live Dealer Technology Work?

As webcam technology and bandwidth improves around the world, the ability of a casino to connect customers to live streams also improves. All a casino has to do to open a live dealer game is set up a dealer, a game, and a webcam, and when you choose to stream that dealer, you’ve started a live game. While it’s arguably more expensive for casinos to host live dealer games, since they have to pay a human dealer, it’s become the next big thing in online gambling, and the world’s biggest casino sites are competing for customers by offering more live options.

Playing along with a live human being takes Internet casino play to a new level. Since I started my gambling career in live casinos, hooking my live dealer game up to my TV when I play blackjack makes me feel like I’m back in my old casino haunts. Live dealer games are now available at casinos all over the world, and gambling sites are racing to offer the widest variety and largest number of these popular games, in which real people deal cards, throw dice, and spin wheels rather than digital simulations.