“A curated list of the best live dealer casinos, featuring standout bonuses, game variety, and top-tier real-time gaming experiences.”
As anyone who’s played casino games in a land-based casino can attest, live dealer casino games played over the internet are the next best thing. Some might even argue that the convenience of playing on your mobile from anywhere and at any time puts live casino games ahead.
With the latest streaming technology, a wide variety of games and prizes, plus all the benefits and bonuses of regular online casinos, there’s no reason not to try your hand at the live games table. Discover a truly immersive, exciting, and authentic gaming experience. Feel the same buzz in New Zealand as a player seated under the bright lights in a mega-resort casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
The seamless real-time streaming of games live across the internet is only possible thanks to advanced audio and video streaming technology. Game developers like Evolution and Ezugi have dedicated studios that perfectly replicate the atmosphere of a real land-based casino. These studios are fully equipped with cameras, tables, dealers, and all the elements that go into creating a perfect live casino Las Vegas experience.
A live casino can only work if you have complete trust in the fairness of the live dealer games. To this end, all the best live casino sites use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. This is used to scan and digitize all the game elements, like dice and cards. These are then displayed for your viewing in real time. Along with independent casino testing agencies like iTechLabs and eCOGRA, all these tools help to provide players with reliable and trustworthy games.
High-definition cameras capture all the live casino online action and broadcast directly to your device whether you’re in Auckland, Christchurch, or Queenstown. To ensure the optimal table experience, studios use multi-angled camera views to capture all the action. These are also linked to interactive and customizable features and tools that allow live casino online players to have more control, take a closer look at the gameplay, or chat with the dealer.
Thanks to better economies of floor space, a live casino studio can host many more different games than a traditional brick-and-mortar casino. They offer many regular casino table game options and more left-field gaming activities like Dragon Tiger, Andar Bahar, and Sic Bo, with the same exciting chances to bag some tasty wins. Let’s look at some of the best live casino gaming options.
In this classic casino contest, the players pit their wits against the casino’s dealer in a race up to, but not over, 21. Because the game mixes both luck and skill, it’s a firm favorite with all NZ players as they can practice and perfect their optimal gaming strategy. Whether you’re a low or high roller, you’ll discover a massive assortment of live blackjack tables, including Party Blackjack, Traditional Blackjack, Free Bet Blackjack, and Power Blackjack, to name but a few. Some of these allow side bets and unique gameplay features like insurance.
Baccarat is a simple yet viral online casino pursuit. Here, you play directly against the dealer by betting on either the banker’s hand, your hand, or a tie. It’s also possible to place side bets such as the Player Pair and Banker Pair bets, which payout at 11:1. In live baccarat, the dealer manages the game. This means it’s a more relaxed affair without the rush associated with other games. As for variety, there’s no shortage, with Mini Baccarat, Lighting Baccarat, Chemin de Fer, Baccarat Squeeze, Speed, and Baccarat Banque, among others.
Probably the game most synonymous with casinos, live roulette is a casino experience second to none. It’s fast-paced and full of tension as you wait for the wheel to slow and the ball to drop. Wheels range from French to European to American, and even multiple wheels spin simultaneously. With a vast number of betting possibilities, we suggest that you start with simple even bets like Red/Black and Odd/Even. Although payouts on these wagers are just 1:1, these will allow you to build confidence before moving on to more complex wagers like Street, Split, and Corner bets.
Online casino live poker is a stable of all live casinos, with multiple types available. These include Casino Hold’em, Three Card, Caribbean, Texas Hold’em Bonus, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em Poker. Remember that, unlike regular casino poker, most live casino versions are played against the dealer instead of other players. While trying to create a better 3 or 5-card hand, you can banter with the dealer and the other players at the same table, adding a lively social aspect to the game.
It’s not just traditional casino games that take center stage at live dealer casinos. Evolution, Pragmatic Play, and Playtech have developed interesting and exciting games for casinos based on TV shows and board games. Many of these are “Wheel of Fortune” games, with a large wheel segmented into numbers. Others are bingo and dice-style games. RTPs across the board are between 94% – 99.59%.
Titles include:
Below is our curated list of the best live casinos for New Zealand players. Our team of gambling experts has thoroughly reviewed each site. They found them to be trustworthy live casinos with outstanding reputations. Furthermore, all these sites offer plenty of bonuses and incentives for new and returning players.
Thanks to a lobby stocked with high-quality offerings from top providers, including Evolution Gaming, you can be sure of a unique live dealer experience. With its user-friendly racing car theme, fantastic VIP loyalty club, and super-fast withdrawal times, N1 Bet offers fun for a mere $20 minimum deposit.
Sporting an impressive list of more than 5,000 games, including over 4,500 slot titles, King Billy is no slouch when it comes to keeping their players occupied. Lovers of the live dealer casino will find over 100 games, including plenty of TV show-themed games like Deal or No Deal and Dream Catcher. Presently, Ezugi is introducing games that revolve around cryptocurrencies.
You’ll need to sign up before claiming a live casino bonus or hitting up the live roulette tables. We highly recommend any of the three live casinos online listed above. However, we still insist you make the time to read through all the site’s terms and conditions. Once that’s out the way, and you’re happy with all the live dealer casino rules, the whole sign-up process takes minutes. Follow the steps below, and you’ll be seated at a live casino table playing real money casino games in no time.
To register, provide some basic information about yourself, including your full name, address, age, and email address. Then, decide on a user/password combination.
Review the payment options and choose the one that’s most convenient and comfortable. Be sure to check the minimum deposit required to claim any bonuses.
Once the funds land in your new account, it’s time to head over to the games lobby. Here, find the tab for “Live Dealer.”
Make sure you’re sitting comfy with a Speight or Tui at hand, some Perky Nana, Toffee Pops, or Bluebird Chips, and choose a live game from the list.
Our team of experts has scoured the web to find the best online casinos in New Zealand with live casino games. Rather than being seduced by large bonuses or ongoing promotions, we take a more nuanced view of things. After finding a possible candidate, we sign up and claim the casino bonuses. We then make our way to the live casino to play for real money.
Having examined all aspects of the live casino from within, including payment gateways and options for cashing out, we check out other player’s reviews and criticisms. By digging down into the mechanics of these online casino sites, we can see what makes them tick. Below are the main factors we examine and why they matter.
When looking over a new live casino, head to the games lobby and check out the live dealer casinos’ total selection of all titles, including both RNG and live games. Though playing live casino games is great fun, you might want a change of pace with a slot or another table classic like traditional roulette or blackjack. As for the providers, most live dealer games come from around 5 iGaming companies, with Evolution being the top dog.Many Kiwi players need to be made aware that it’s not just the live casino that needs a proper license but also the game’s developer. This is because, in many cases, the casino is more or less “renting” the games as they stream from the provider’s studios. With Evolution owning some of the big livestream developers, including Ezugi, while holding licenses from many gaming authorities, you know you’re in safe hands.
Live dealer casinos offer Kiwi players regular bonuses, such as cashback, reload, free spins, welcome bonuses, and special live casino bonuses and promotions. These might be in the form of free chips for the live game of your choosing. Before accepting any offer, be sure to read the bonus T&Cs. This ensures it’s valid for live games and has reasonable playthrough demands.Watch out for low caps on winnings and short time limits. It’s worth noting that most casinos prefer you to use their bonuses to play slots. As a result, live casino games will have much lower contributions toward fulfilling rollover requirements to cash out any winnings.
In truth, customer support is one of the last things on anyone’s mind when considering the live dealer casino. However, good customer support should be taken seriously. You never know when an issue or more severe problem might arise. Finding a solution quickly and efficiently is essential to having an enjoyable time. Every casino site we recommend features 24/7 live chat with professional, courteous, and knowledgeable staff.
With so much online gambling done using mobile devices, you now have a choice of downloading an app from the casino or simply playing within your phone’s browser. Comparing these side by side, there must be more to choose from, especially as most sites are now fully optimized. Of course, an online casino prefers you download their app because, by having their icon on your phone, you’re more likely to use it to play. That’s the reason casinos might give a bonus for an app download.In 2019, players from New Zealand can download apps directly from Google’s Play Store. Because every Apple app must now be written in native iOS, many casinos have balked at the extra development costs. As a result, in many cases, your casino app choice will be dictated by your device’s operating system, with many more casino apps written for Android. It should be fine if there’s no available app, as playing directly within your browser offers the same experience.
All our listed online casinos have reputable gaming licences from the UK Gambling Commission or the Malta Gaming Authority. These licenses ensure that these casinos follow strict rules covering security, financial aspects, and game fairness. For privacy and security, expect cutting-edge SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Security, along with 124-bit encryption at minimum.Look for certificates from independent casino game auditors like eCOGRA. These auditors perform random audits to ensure that live dealer games are fair and have unplanned outcomes, along with maintaining their advertised house edge. 2-Factor Authentication and KYC should be standard practice. As such, a proper license guarantees that the casino and its game providers maintain the high standards of quality service mandated in their licensing conditions.
As the internet evolved and bandwidth became faster and cheaper, live streaming casino games was inevitable. Games featured at live casinos are hosted in real time and broadcast from separate developer studios around the globe. Because it is expensive to set up and maintain, the number of software providers who manage live games is relatively small. Below, we focus on three of the largest.
Without a doubt, the big daddy of live dealer gaming, Evolution pioneered live dealer casinos and set the tone and standard for others to follow. Their first casino games went live in 2006; since then, they have developed plenty of exciting offerings. These include all the regular traditional casino table games you’re used to playing in a brick-and-mortar casino. Each of these, be it roulette, blackjack, baccarat, or poker, is divided into 10s of live casino variations.
There are also games based on TV shows, board games, scratch cards, Keno, lotteries, and many more. You’ll find their attractive, multilingual, and highly trained professional dealers seated in state-of-the-art studios. Thanks to streaming in HD directly to your mobile device, they offer a truly immersive experience. In 2020, Evolution acquired NetEnt’s live dealer network, thus consolidating its position as a live gaming powerhouse. The company also owns Red Tiger, Big Time Gaming, NoLimit City, and Ezugi.
With modern hi-tech live studios dotted around the USA and its main live headquarters in Riga, Latvia, Playtech provides licensing for live dealer casino content to some of the world’s top online casinos. Utilising the latest HD streaming technology, along with their cutting-edge “Omni-Channel Live Game” application, Playtech gives players the highest “up time” across the whole iGaming marketplace.
In Riga alone, over 500 highly trained staff work round-the-clock shifts to ensure games are available to players 24/7. Partnering casinos can adjust everything from betting limits and game table attributes to fraud alerts and customization tools.
Now part of Evolution Gaming, the company offers over 30 live casino games streaming flawless HD from 13 studios. Over 1,000 casinos utilize their live dealers for more traditional games like Video Blackjack, Ultimate Roulette, Teen Patti, Dragon Tiger, Speed Cricket Baccarat, Sic Bo, Keno Russian Poker, and Andar Bahar to name a few.
For something different, why not try your hand at Crazy Time, Monopoly Live, or Mega Ball? Apart from studio-based games, Ezugi has taken a slightly different approach to the live casino experience by offering “Over The Table” (OTT) games that stream from overhead cameras in real land-based casinos as part of its Ezugi 360 Platform.
All live dealer online casino games stream seamlessly to today’s mobile devices. Though we’ll be the first to admit that every casino game with live dealers looks better on a tablet thanks to the larger viewing area, they all play perfectly well over the phone screen. One thing to keep in mind is that your average online live casino game will use more bandwidth than, for example, a regular slot.
So, before you begin a live casino gambling session, we suggest you look for a 5G data connection or WiFi. If you notice the playing experience is less than stellar in terms of smoothness and “playability,” it’s probably more to do with your data connection’s stability than the amount of mobile memory or processor power in your phone.
Suppose you’re wondering what happens if you’re disconnected while in the middle of a betting session; there are a couple of possible outcomes. The casino game usually continues if the connection is lost at your end. So, if you win some money while your internet is down, then those winnings will be waiting for you when you reconnect. If there is an issue on the casino’s side, all wagers are refunded.
Although the means of delivering online and live casino games over the internet are the same, almost everything relevant to the gaming experience is different. For a start, regular online casino gaming revolves around random number generator software. This is used to ensure that all the outcomes, be they from pokies, roulette, or craps, are entirely indiscriminate. Whether it’s the small ivory ball falling into a numbered pocket on the roulette wheel or the outcome of a roll in Sic Bo, all outcomes are decided by a string of arbitrary numbers correlating with those specific events and results.
In contrast, a live dealer casino game relies on the same principles of chance found in a regular brick-and-mortar establishment. Watching a real live dealer online, we can see their every move in real time. Every spin of the wheel or turn of a card is streamed directly from the casino provider’s studio in HD. As such, there’s no need for casino software to decide the results. Thanks to instant live chat, we can involve ourselves in the same social manner as if we were together, gambling at the same table in real life. In other words, the different locations separate the gambler from the live casino dealer, though we could be on the same land-based gaming floor.
Another noticeable difference is that thanks to the expense of running a studio and employing live dealers, the betting limits on offer are much higher with live casino games compared to regular online casinos. Yet, on the flip side, you can play for free in demo mode with most RNG casinos.
Playing live dealer games is a different experience than playing regular games online. As such, though there are many advantages, there are also some disadvantages. The largest of these, yet the most often overlooked, is the speed of play. Many live casino games come with a running clock, which pressures gamblers to place a bet even if they’re not entirely comfortable with their choice.
Absolutely! All our recommended online games and casinos carry licenses from reputable gaming authorities like the MGA or UKGC. This guarantees both your personal and financial information and your funds are safe and secure.
These will vary between live casino sites. But expect to find RTPs between 95% – 98%.
The critical point here is to be aware that casino table games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat contribute much less to help clear the required amount when it comes to fulfilling any bonus playthrough demands. In general, slot titles contribute 100% of your betting, while table games only give 5% – 10% at most.
Yes, you can. All live dealer studios offer you the chance to chat with the casino’s dealers and the other gamblers at your table.
Virtually every casino game under the sun, apart from slot games. This also includes games based on TV shows, scratch cards, Keno, lotteries, and games from the Far East.