Looking at "What game is baccarat?" means looking past the camera. Live dealer games stream a real table, a real dealer and real cards or a real wheel to a screen, with bets placed through buttons. Almost every classic game now has a live version, from blackjack and baccarat to roulette, craps and poker. How these tables work, how they compare with software versions and what happens behind the camera explains most of what players ask before taking a seat.
Other classics have live versions too. Live dealer European roulette spins a real single zero wheel, often with a slow motion replay of the ball landing. Live dealer craps online uses a real layout and dice thrown by a dealer or a mechanical shooter, with bets placed on a screen version of the table. Live dealer Texas holdem poker is a casino game against the house rather than other players, dealt by a croupier in front of the camera.
Live baccarat online is one of the busiest studio games, played at tables where the dealer turns the cards slowly for effect. To play live baccarat online, a player backs the player hand, the banker hand or a tie before the timer closes. Live dealer online baccarat also shows a scoreboard of past live baccarat results in patterns such as the big road, which many players follow even though no pattern predicts the next hand.
Live blackjack can be rigged only where no one checks it, which is why licensed studios deal from shuffled shoes on camera, log every round and let regulators inspect the footage. Live dealers hear nothing from players; the chat is typed, and the dealer reads it from a screen beside the table. A live blackjack tournament does change the goal, since players compete for the largest chip count over a set number of hands rather than against the dealer alone.
Craps and holdem also run live, with the dice or cards on screen and the bets placed on a digital layout.
Tables with a single zero keep the edge at its lowest, and replays show each spin and where the ball landed.
Players get the same starting chips and play set rounds, and the ranking goes by chip count at the end.
No. Players type in the chat and the dealer reads it and answers on camera; nothing is spoken back from the player's side.