Live roulette games: what you are joining when you sit at a streamed table

How a live table works

A camera feed shows the wheel and the dealer. A betting panel sits over or beside it. A timer opens, you place chips, the timer closes, the dealer spins, the ball drops, a sensor or a camera reads the pocket, and the panel settles every bet automatically. Then it starts again. A full cycle is about 25 to 45 seconds depending on the table; speed tables run closer to 25.

You never touch a physical chip and you never wait for a dealer to count a payout. The human part is the spin and the chat. The maths part is handled by software, which is why payouts are instant and never wrong.

Standard tables and multiplier tables

Most live lobbies now split into two kinds of roulette. Standard tables pay the usual 35:1 on a straight-up with a 2.70% house edge on every bet. Multiplier tables add a round after betting closes where one to five numbers get a random multiplier, often 50x to 500x, and a straight-up on a struck number pays accordingly.

The cost of the multiplier is a cut to the normal straight-up payout, from 35:1 down to 29:1 on the best-known versions. Outside bets are untouched. If you bet numbers, the multiplier table is more expensive per spin on average; if you bet red and black, it is the same price with better lighting. The page on lightning versus immersive tables goes through the numbers.

The studios

A handful of companies run most of the live roulette you will see at UK sites, and the studio name is printed on every table tile. The biggest operate dozens of roulette tables at once from several countries, in several languages, 24 hours a day. The table formats, the camera work and the stream reliability differ enough between studios that it is worth knowing which one you are sitting at. The tables page covers the main formats.

Stakes

Live minimums are higher than RNG minimums because studios cost money per hour. Dealer-less auto tables are cheapest, from 10p a bet. Dealer tables start between 20p and £1 depending on the studio and the site, with the flagship tables usually at £1 or more. Maximums on standard tables run to several thousand pounds on outside bets and a few hundred on a straight-up; VIP tables go higher.

Limits are set per table and per site, so the same studio table can have different stakes at two operators. RouletteFinder's live roulette page lists observed minimums and maximums by table and by operator, with the date each was checked, which saves opening every table to find out.

Mobile

Most live roulette is now played on phones. The streams adapt to the connection, the layouts rotate to portrait, and the betting panel is built for thumbs. The limiting factor is your signal: a live table on patchy mobile data will freeze at the worst moment. The mobile page has a five-spin test to run before you trust a table with real stakes.

Before you sit down

Check which studio runs the table, whether it is a standard or multiplier wheel, the minimum and maximum for the bets you place, and whether the stream is stable on the connection you are using. Then set a deposit limit in the account, because live roulette is designed to be absorbing and a timer that resets every half-minute makes an hour disappear.