There’s a Camera, a Computer, and a Dealer Between You and That CardHow live dealer games turn a real shuffle and a real wheel into a digital result — the studios, the hardware, and how fairness gets checked differently than it does for a slot
A live dealer table looks simple on screen: a real person, real cards, a real wheel. Underneath that, there’s a genuinely interesting pipeline turning a physical event into a digital result the platform can trust, a small number of studios quietly running most of the live tables on the internet at once, and a fairness-testing discipline that has almost nothing in common with how a slot’s RNG gets certified. This page covers how the studio and hardware actually work, who’s really running the table behind the branding, how integrity gets verified for a physical game instead of a software one, and why live tables tend to cost more to sit down at and count for less toward a bonus. Last reviewed September 2026.
Jump to: The studio · The hardware · The providers · Verifying fairness · Stakes & bonuses · Game-show hybrids · Glossary · FAQ
A television production, not a casino floor
Most live dealer tables are filmed in purpose-built studios rather than on an actual casino floor — dedicated spaces designed around multiple camera angles, broadcast-quality lighting, and professionally trained dealers, run as a continuous production rather than a single table among many in a physical venue. A smaller number of setups are filmed on a real casino floor instead, usually tied to a specific land-based brand, but the dedicated-studio model is the dominant one across the industry. Either way, the cards, wheels, shoes, and dealers involved are genuinely physical and real — nothing about the visible action is simulated.
The small box that turns a real card into a digital result
The piece of equipment doing the actual translation is commonly called a Game Control Unit, or GCU — a compact device positioned at or near the table that encodes the video feed being broadcast and, more importantly, converts what’s physically happening into structured digital data the betting platform can act on in sync with what viewers see on screen. When a card is revealed, cameras positioned over the table capture it and optical character recognition software reads its rank and suit, feeding that result to the GCU. Roulette results are generally captured through some combination of ball-tracking cameras and sensors built into or around the wheel. The exact sensor technology varies by provider and isn’t something manufacturers publish in detail — some providers, for instance, use hybrid digital-physical wheel designs — but the underlying job is consistent: turn a real, physical outcome into a digital one the platform, and every player’s client, can rely on at the same moment.
A handful of studios feed nearly every casino you’ll find them on
Rather than each casino running its own live studio, the dominant model is a small number of major providers operating centralized studios and streaming the same live tables out to many different casino brands at once — which is exactly why the same dealer and the same table can turn up on several competing casino sites simultaneously, sometimes with a different overlay or background branding layered on top of an otherwise identical feed. A handful of names account for most of what’s actually running behind the scenes:
The largest player in the space, operating under a single simplified “Evolution” brand while also owning NetEnt, Red Tiger, Ezugi, Big Time Gaming, Nolimit City, and DigiWheel — a broad portfolio built through a long run of acquisitions over the past several years.
The live-casino division of Playtech, which remains an independently listed company rather than part of a larger rival’s portfolio.
A major and fast-growing studio operator in its own right, particularly strong across mobile-first and multi-currency markets.
Ezugi (part of Evolution’s portfolio), Authentic Gaming (owned by Light & Wonder, not Evolution — worth getting right since ownership in this space shifts often), and a longer tail of smaller studio operators round out the field.
A large operator or land-based brand occasionally runs its own dedicated, branded tables — but even those are frequently built on a major provider’s underlying technology and simply given a bespoke look, rather than representing a genuinely separate studio and tech stack from the ground up.
Why fairness testing looks different here than it does for a slot
RNG certification, covered in more detail elsewhere on this site, verifies that a piece of software behaves randomly and pays out according to a disclosed model. Live dealer testing verifies something else entirely, since there’s a real physical process and real people involved instead. Independent testing bodies run what’s often called synchronicity testing — confirming that what a camera shows and what the system records and pays out actually match — alongside broader scrutiny of dealer training and procedure, the physical operation of shuffling and wheel equipment, network and hardware redundancy, video feed quality, and security against collusion. Sessions are also commonly recorded with timestamps specifically so a disputed round can be reviewed after the fact.
Dealer error or misconduct is treated as a real, non-trivial risk rather than an edge case nobody plans for. The mitigations layer on top of each other: multiple simultaneous camera angles that allow a hand to be reviewed after the fact, floor supervisors watching the studio in real time, and — specific to live dealer — the GCU’s independent digital record acting as a built-in cross-check. If what the OCR and sensor system captured doesn’t match what a dealer announced or paid out, that’s a detectable discrepancy rather than something that simply goes unnoticed.
Why the minimum bet is higher, and the bonus contribution lower
Live tables commonly carry higher minimum bets than an equivalent RNG game, and the standard economic explanation is straightforward even if it isn’t something providers publish as formal policy: a live table has real, continuous overhead — a paid dealer, studio costs, equipment — and occupies one of a limited number of concurrent table slots, unlike an RNG game, which costs the operator essentially nothing extra per additional spin or player. Low-stakes play is simply less economical to support on a table that has genuine running costs behind it.
The reduced or zero contribution live dealer games commonly receive toward bonus wagering requirements follows the same house-edge logic covered in more detail in this site’s guide on choosing games for bonus play — live blackjack and similar low-edge games would let a bonus be cleared too cheaply relative to its cost to the operator if weighted the same as a typical slot, so contribution gets scaled down or removed instead.
When a physical wheel and an RNG multiplier work together
Game-show-style live formats are where the two worlds this site covers separately actually meet in one product. A physical, host-operated wheel — a real, manufactured object with defined segments — determines the headline outcome of a spin, the same kind of physically verifiable event as a roulette result. Layered on top of that, though, is genuine software RNG: a multiplier assigned to a specific wheel segment before the spin even happens, or the mechanics inside a bonus round triggered by landing on a particular segment, are digitally determined the same way a slot’s outcome is. That means these games are certified on two entirely different tracks at once — physical-outcome integrity for the wheel itself, and RNG/RTP fairness for the digital layers riding on top of it.
Live blackjack has its own genuinely interesting scaling trick: formats built for very high player counts let effectively unlimited players sit at one virtual table, each running their own hand and betting decisions against a single, shared dealer hand shown on camera — every player’s own outcome is calculated independently, but the dealer’s actual cards are the same for everyone watching. A related feature lets additional players wager on how one of the small number of actively seated players’ hands turns out, without needing an open seat themselves — a way of letting far more people participate than the handful of physical positions at the table would otherwise allow.
Terms from behind the table
Questions about what’s actually behind the table
Usually not — most live dealer tables are filmed in purpose-built studios designed specifically for broadcast, rather than on an active casino floor. A smaller number of setups are tied to a real land-based venue instead.
Cameras and optical character recognition read card values directly off the video feed, and a combination of ball-tracking cameras and wheel sensors capture roulette results — all fed into the Game Control Unit, which turns the physical event into digital data in sync with what’s shown on screen.
On most formats, the dealer and the table are shared across every player watching that stream at once — in blackjack specifically, everyone plays their own hand independently but against the same physical dealer hand shown on camera.
A live table carries real, ongoing costs — a paid dealer, studio overhead, equipment — and only has a limited number of concurrent table slots, unlike an RNG game, which costs almost nothing extra per additional player or spin. Low stakes are simply less economical to support on a table with genuine running costs.
Live blackjack and similar games tend to have a low house edge, which would let a bonus be cleared too cheaply relative to its cost to the operator if weighted the same as a typical slot — reduced or zero contribution is the standard response.
Multiple camera angles allow any hand to be reviewed after the fact, floor supervisors monitor the studio in real time, and the Game Control Unit’s independent digital record of what actually happened acts as a built-in cross-check against what a dealer announces or pays.
On two separate tracks at once — the physical wheel itself is tested the way any live physical outcome is, while the digital multipliers and bonus-round mechanics layered on top are tested the way software RNG is tested elsewhere. These formats genuinely combine both disciplines in a single game.
Because it almost certainly is the same table — a small number of major providers run centralized studios and stream identical live tables out to many different casino brands at once, sometimes with only the visible branding changed.
Provider ownership, studio locations, and exact technical implementations change and consolidate over time — the details on this page reflect research current as of the review date above. Always check a specific provider’s own current information directly before relying on any specific claim here.