Live casinos are an innovative form of internet gambling, which aspires to provide the real-life experience of playing in traditional casino venues without the need for travel or expenses. As well as providing the social aspect of playing in a casino, live casinos also provide the gamer the opportunity to try his/her hand at different casino games. The games played in live casinos are determined by a computer instead of being purely an automated system. Despite being very popular amongst online gamblers, live casino games still require the casino owner/operator to make a significant financial investment in technological infrastructure and skilled staff.
Live gaming has been popularised by progressive casinos as a way of attracting new clients and creating long-term business ties with existing ones. Live gaming is also becoming more prominent in online gambling as a way of promoting tournaments and other forms of wagering competitions. Live casinos also allow the players to make use of their skills and experience in making bets. Live gaming can be defined as gambling that involves actual gambling (with dealers, software and random chance) as opposed to pure gaming where the player uses a set of rules or instructions provided by the casino.
There are two types of live casinos, namely land-based casinos and online-only casinos. Online-only casinos can be classified as those which are based either on the location of the operator or on a service which is obtained online, while land-based casinos are the same as those which are physically present within the casino. While the casinos based on a service provided online tend to be cheaper than those based on a physical location, there are no obvious differences in the overall quality of gambling offered by these two. Land-based casinos on the other hand have significantly more to offer, despite the fact that they are generally located in remote areas.