The live online casino option is a popular development in the sector

Since the introduction of online gambling we have seen a huge increase in the number of people in Ireland enjoying their gambling through the internet. The internet has of course changed the way many of us carry out a lot of our everyday activities, so it is perhaps not surprising that so many of us have started to use it to help us enjoy our leisure time as well. It really is not that long ago that the leading bookmakers decided to offer their sports gambling customers the opportunity to place their bets online rather than needing to visit their nearest betting shop, and even later when we saw the first steps towards online casino gambling. The first online sports gambling sites quickly became very popular with both existing betting shop customers and new sports gambling fans who were attracted by the convenience of placing bets through their home computer. The bookmakers’ online gambling sites also offered a much wider range of betting options than they could ever really do in their betting shops, so a whole new range of sports and sporting events were suddenly available for us to enjoy. However it was not these first online sports gambling sites that were responsible for the biggest surge in interest in gambling online, it was the online casinos. Here at onlinecasino.ie we have watched the remarkable development of online casinos in Ireland, from the first introduction of a few casino games on the online sports gambling sites operated by the big bookmakers through to the latest specialised online casinos which have recently come on stream. All these online casinos have one thing in common, and that is the huge range of different casino games they offer for us to enjoy. There is no doubt that this is the primary reason why playing casino games online has become so popular in such a short period of time, but we should also give praise to the online casino operators and the casino software suppliers for their continuing development of new ideas to improve the online casino gambling experience even more. Perhaps the most welcome of these relatively new developments has been the live online casino option, particularly for fans of the traditional casino game of roulette. For those who do not know the history of the live online casino option and why it was developed, we should go back to the early days in the development of online casinos. When the big bookmakers decided to try to improve the potential returns on their initial investment in the technology necessary to operate an online gambling site, they began to add a few gambling games to their existing sports gambling sites. The idea proved so popular that more and more games were added and what we now call online casinos quickly became an important part of their online business. Most of these casino games were and still are slots games in a variety of forms, and this sort of game was perfect for transferring from arcade machines to a computer screen. In fact many of the slots games we can now play online have characteristics which are only possible because they are internet games. Many of the other casino games which were introduced by the site operators and their software suppliers were also easily adaptable to being played at an online casino, but one traditional casino game in particular proved difficult. The casino games of roulette is of course one of the most popular traditional casino games in the world, and almost every real casino anywhere in the world will feature at least one roulette table. Because of this popularity roulette had to be made available at every online casino, but developing the software and graphics necessary to satisfactorily feature roulette online proved very difficult indeed. The problem was that almost every online casino game relies on a Random Number Generator to select the winning scenario and the computer graphics associated with the game of roulette was not capable of illustrating the movement of the ball on the roulette wheel as it was moved to the selected winning number. The result was that many existing roulette enthusiasts began to distrust the fairness of the game because of the apparently strange movement of the ball. When it comes to operating any online platform, trust is absolutely essential so clearly something had to be done.

The obvious solution was of course to use a real roulette wheel to determine the winning numbers, and fortunately the leading casino software supplier Playtech was able to develop the software necessary to offer a live online casino option. It worked by playing the game in a remote studio with a real roulette wheel and real dealers, and then streaming the game live to our computer screens. Clearly the live online casino option offered in this way resolves any perceived problems with the computer graphics relating to the game of roulette, but there are also potential disadvantages. The need to finance a studio and employ real dealers obviously increases the costs of operating a game of roulette online, and many online casinos have therefore increased the minimum table stakes when playing roulette or any other casino games in the live online casino mode. Although this is an understandable reaction to the increased costs, it is also unfortunate because for many online casino customers it is the very small table stakes which attracts them to playing casino games online. There is another inherent disadvantage to playing roulette in the live online casino mode, and that is the time limitation on placing your bets. Although anyone who has played roulette at a real casino will have experienced such a time limit and the often hectic rush to place bets on the table, many new players enjoy being able to take their time when placing multiple bets on the roulette table and this is not possible if the game is being run from a remote studio where the dealers cannot see the players. Despite these disadvantages the live online casino option is very popular with some players and we can now even play games streamed live from a real casino at the All Irish casino.