What Live Dealer Casino Games Are Available in Pennsylvania?
After the PGCB lifted restrictions on live dealer games in Pennsylvania, several large online casinos have jumped right into the opportunity.
Nowadays, we can find great games such as Unlimited Blackjack, Three Cards Poker, Baccarat, several Roulette variants, Ultimate Texas Hold'Em, and Blackjack. Additionally, Evolution Gaming is constantly working on releasing new live dealer games in the future.
Live Dealer Roulette
The live casinos we have mentioned previously offer several versions of Live Roulette. First, we got American Roulette, working with double zeroes, and bettings startings as low as 20 cents. If American roulette's high variance is not for you, European roulette is likely a better pick so that you can pick smaller and risk-controlled bets. All the tables are powered by Evolution Gaming, ensuring you'll have a fair game approved by PGCB regulations.
Live roulette is played with an actual casino wheel and doesn't use any random number generators to give results, providing an entirely human experience. Players will typically find a digital roulette interface in which to place bets; then, the camera will shift over to the wheel for the actual spin.
Sometimes watching a real ball spin, jump and land into a pocket is just more satisfying, intense, and exciting than watching a digital ball with no emotion go around. What's more, sharing your excitement with other players who also backed that bet is even more enjoyable!
Live dealer roulette often comes with lower min bet and lower max bet than regular casino roulette, although roulette casinos in Pennsylvania will offer higher limits.
One downside to live roulette is that oftentimes single zero roulette is unavailable, and so players will have to settle for double zero roulette, such as an American variant.
If you happen to play in a live dealer casino that offers several roulette variations, RTP is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing the one for your bets. As a rule, European/French roulette has a higher RTP of 97.3% while the American variation will have you settled with 94.74% RTP only.
Live Dealer Blackjack
DraftKings is among the best online blackjack sites in Pennsylvania and offers high-quality Blackjack live dealer games made by Evolution Gaming. They have Infinite Blackjack with bets starting at 20 cents and going up to a maximum of $10,000. The game offers all the options you want, like insurance, double downs, and splits. Every casino we have recommended provides a variant of Blackjack, so check them all and their specific rules to find what better suits your preferences.
Depending on the speed and size of the table, live blackjack can either be fast-paced or slow-paced. Each player, up to a maximum of seven, will take turns. Hand times are generally between 15-30 seconds each, meaning some hands could take a few minutes each if everyone is taking a while to decide what to do.
Betting behind is common on live dealer blackjack tables as, due to the nature of the game, only a select number of seats can be made available for play. Betting behind means copying the bet of a person sitting at the table move for move, meaning you'll get the cards they get and be stuck with the choices they make. Betting behind gives players less control of the game but is sometimes preferred for a relaxed gaming experience.
Blackjack RTP varies from one title to another, but is usually quite high and exceeds 99%, a number that only some video slots can beat. If you play some of the popular live blackjack games from Evolution Gaming, you can expect the following RTP:
- Infinite Blackjack — 99.47%
- Lightning Blackjack 99.59%
- Power Blackjack — 99.54%
- Free Bet Blackjack — 98.45%
But of course, your chances of winning depend not only on a game’s RTP but also on your skills and the bets you make. While blackjack is mostly a simple game of luck, some titles allow side bets, making it a bit more complicated and thrilling. Here are some of them worth trying.
Insurance
If there is the easiest and the most popular live blackjack side bet, it’s the insurance. It allows a player to protect themselves from Blackjack if a dealer happens to have an Ace face up. The insurance bet is half of your original bet, and it will pay you 2:1 if a dealer does have Blackjack.
The 21 + 3
If you’re a poker player, this blackjack side bet will be easy for you to understand. It’s played with the two of a player’s card + a face-up dealer’s card. The bet wins if the cards make one of the following combinations:
- Flush – all cards are suited, will pay 5:1
- Straight – all cards are consecutive, will pay 10:1
- Three of a kind – all cards of the same value, but different suits, will pay 30:1
- Straight flush – three consecutive cards of the same suit, will pay 40:1
- Suited triple – three of the same card, will pay 100:1
Perfect Pairs
This side bet is made on the potential outcome that a player gets one of the following pairs as their first two cards:
- Perfect pair — two of the same card, will pay 25:1
- Colored pair — two cards of the same value and color, but different suits, will pay 12:1
- Mixed pair — two cards of the same value but different color and suit, will pay 5:1
Live Dealer Baccarat
Baccarat is one of the main games in online casinos, present in just about every licensed online casino in Pennsylvania. Evolution Gaming has produced several variations of this player favorite, like Speed Baccarat, Live Baccarat Squeeze, Dual Play Baccarat, etc.
Evolution Gaming also ensures players have plenty of features to make playing as exciting as it can be. Features include special side bets like Perfect Pairs and Either Pair, as well as the ability to check other players' moves and choice roads with statistics to help improve your play.
Live baccarat brings the excitement of the casino floor to the online space, with a live chat often available. In addition, lots of desirable information is offered, such as hand statistics, easy access to bets, side bets, and the rules.
The live dealer and social element allows players to get excited together. As baccarat gameplay primarily revolves around either backing the player or the banker, players could either be cheering together or cheering against one another.
Live dealer baccarat also has variations that include zero commission and other interesting differences, just like you might find on a non-live game. To find exciting variations of the live game, check out the best baccarat casinos in PA.
Live Dealer Poker
Whether you play them in a regular online casino or in a live dealer one, most of the games we’ve talked about above are the games of sheer luck, meaning you can hardly influence the outcome of the game (although the basic understanding of the rules and bets can still help quite a bit).
Things are completely different when it comes to live dealer poker. While luck is still important here, your skills and knowledge of the game also matter, and only they can bring you the real big wins.
There are lots of online poker variations in casinos today, but we truly believe that live dealer options are the best, as they can give you the vibe and the thrill of the real poker table, but combine it with the convenience of an online casino.
In PA online casinos, players have a chance to try their luck in some of the best live dealer poker titles from Evolution Gaming, including Three Card Poker, Casino Hold’Em, Caribbean Stud, Side Bet City, and others.
Other Live Dealer Games
If Baccarat, Blackjack, or Roulette are not the kind of experience you're looking for, worry not. Evolution Gaming casinos also have other live dealer games that may suit you better. They have Craps, Lightning Roulette, Monopoly, Deal or No Deal, and many other games. Evolution Gaming has a little something for everyone.
Live dealer platforms have really pushed the boat out with some of the live casino games they have come up with. Popular game shows continue to be developed into exciting games for players, with talented dealers hosting the action.
Craps is also almost identical to its non-live variant. Given the nature of the game of craps, it can make an exciting social game and is often the loudest table in the room in a land-based casino, making the live version preferable to some.
But don’t you worry that an online version will lack the atmosphere. Live dealer craps from Evolution Gaming is live-streamed from an underground studio decorated as a speakeasy casino, so you can get all that dangerous and thrilling vibe while also staying 100% on the legal side.
PA Live Dealer Games Platform Providers
Live dealer games take a lot of work to put together, given their unique nature of having an actual live dealer presenting the games, requiring a whole crew to produce. While some casinos are developing their own in-house studios for live dealer casino games, in Pennsylvania, most online casinos use a solution from either Ezugi or Evolution.
Ezugi
Ezugi was the first live dealer platform in the US market in partnership with Golden Nugget Casino in New Jersey in 2016. Due to the unique nature of live casino play, the games garnered huge amounts of popularity and did well to expand Ezugi's influence in the online casino industry in NJ.
As of now, Ezugi provides live dealer titles for a number of online casinos across the US, including in PA, with a collection of around 20 games, including Blackjack Bet Behind, Baccarat Super 6, and Unlimited 21 Blackjack.
Evolution
Two years after Ezugi entered the US market, Evolution set up their own live dealer studio in New Jersey. Now, Evolution is the most popular live dealer casino platform in the US, with most Pennsylvanian online casinos opting to use games from the platform. Thanks to Evolution, even the newest casino sites now tend to have live dealer games, ever since Evolution announced it had secured its Interactive Gaming Manufacturer license from the PGCB in September 2019.
Not long after it entered the market, Evolution acquired Ezugi, although both companies continue to trade and provide games under their original names.
Evolution is known by fans for such titles as Dual Play Baccarat, Lightning Roulette, Deal or No Deal Live, and of course, roulette, live dealer blackjack, and live baccarat.
