The games

The studio behind a live table, and the edge written into the rules

A live table is a television studio with a licence. The difference from a software game is not the dealer but the arithmetic: a live game's house edge is fixed by the rules of the game itself, and the same table cannot be set to return less at one site than at another.

A television studio with a licence

A «live dealer» table is filmed, not rendered; there is a room (a croupier) (a real wheel or a real shoe of cards), several cameras and an optical recognition system reading the result and settling the bets, and the whole thing is streamed to several thousand people at once. That is a different industrial object from a slot, and it costs accordingly. A handful of companies run the studios that supply almost the entire British market, from sites in Malta, Latvia, Georgia and increasingly from rooms built inside licensed British casinos, which is how a table can be branded for one operator and shared by none.

The edge is in the rules, which is the useful part

A live game's «house edge» (the share of every stake the rules keep) is set by the rules of the game rather than by a configuration, and this is the single most valuable fact about the category. A European roulette wheel has thirty-seven pockets and pays thirty-five to one, which costs the player two point seven per cent of every stake, and an American wheel with a «double zero» (the extra pocket on the American wheel) costs five point two six for a game that looks identical.

Nobody can set a live blackjack table to return less than its rules imply; what an operator can do is choose which rules to offer, and the rules that matter are whether blackjack pays three to two or six to five, and whether the dealer stands on a «soft seventeen».

The game shows, which are a different product

The wheel-based game shows that now dominate live lobbies are not table games with a presenter: they are lotteries with a studio around them, and their house edges run considerably higher than roulette or blackjack, frequently between three and six per cent depending on which segment of the wheel a player backs. They are also where the production budget goes, and they are extremely effective at it. You who enjoys them should know what they cost relative to a roulette table, because the difference is a multiple rather than a margin.

What the licence has to do with it

Live dealer games sit under the casino entitlement, so every brand on this site with "Casino (Remote)" on its licence may offer them, which is all twenty, and the studios themselves hold supplier licences, and a British operator may only use a studio licensed to supply this market. That is a tighter arrangement than it sounds, and it is the reason a British live «lobby» is smaller than an international one: tables that exist elsewhere are absent here because the studio has not licensed them for Great Britain.

Questions readers ask

Are live games fairer than software games?

They are differently verifiable rather than fairer. A live result is produced by a physical wheel or shoe that a player can watch, which many people prefer. A software result is produced by a tested generator. Both are audited, and the «house edge» of each is set by the rules.

Can an operator change the odds on a live table?

No. The edge follows the rules of the game, and the same table under the same rules costs the same at every operator carrying it. What an operator chooses is which variants to offer, which is where the three-to-two versus six-to-five decision lives.

Why are the game shows so much more expensive to play?

Because their house edges run between about three and six per cent against two point seven for European roulette. They are closer to a lottery with a presenter than to a table game, and the production values are paid for out of that difference.

Where are the studios?

Mostly Malta, Latvia and Georgia, with a growing number of rooms inside licensed British land-based casinos. A handful of suppliers run almost the entire market, which is why the same tables appear at operators with no other connection.

By the UK Pound Casino editorial team · Last updated November 2026 · Online since 2026