Live dealer online casino games today are more popular than ever. They are the next best thing to physically playing land-based casino games in person, except you can only play at live dealer casinos across the internet at participating iGaming sites using a Wi-Fi/internet-connected desktop or mobile device.
Unfortunately, live dealer casino games are generally NEVER accessible in the free-to-play demo mode because they are just too expensive to run this way.
The software providers and the online casinos with live dealer games would quickly go out of business if all their live dealer games were available to play in the practice mode, where players use a fun balance.
Are live dealer games expensive to play?
No. In most ‘regular’ live dealer casino games (i.e., not the VIP or high roller/high-limit games), you can often play one hand, round or spin from as little as $/€/£0.10, $/€/£0.20 or $/€/£0.50.
Before you launch a casino live dealer game, you can generally see the table betting limits in the main lobby. Let’s take a quick look at ten examples of how much you can normally spend when playing certain games:
- Game: Live Crazy Time. Provider: Evolution Gaming. Game Type: Money Wheel/Game Show with Bonus Rounds. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.10 to £2,000.00
- Game: Nexus Roulette. Provider: OnAir Entertainment. Game Type: European Multi-Wheel Roulette. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.50 to £1,500.00
- Game: Crazy Pachinko. Provider: Evolution Gaming. Game Type: Game Show/Pachinko. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.10 to £500.00
- Game: Rainbow Riches Live. Provider: Authentic Gaming. Game Type: European Roulette/Game Show. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.10 to £100.00
- Game: Sweet Bonanza Candyland. Provider: Pragmatic Play. Game Type: Money Wheel/Game Show. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.20 to £2,500.00
- Game: Treasure Island. Provider: Pragmatic Play. Game Type: Money Wheel/Game Show with Bonus Rounds. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.10 to £2,500.00
- Game: Live Extra Chilli Epic Spins Megaways. Provider: Evolution Gaming. Game Type: Live Dealer Slot. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.50 to £200.00
- Game: 32Red Auto Mega Roulette. Provider: Pragmatic Play. Game Type: European Roulette. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.10 to £2,000.00
- Game: 9 Pots of Gold Streamicon. Provider: OnAir Entertainment. Game Type: Live Dealer Slot. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £0.20 to £20.00
- Game: Live Infinite Blackjack. Provider: Evolution Gaming. Game Type: Classic/Standard Blackjack. Min/Max Bet Per Round/Hand/Spin: £1.00 to £2,500.00
As you can see, most games cater to all bet sizes, meaning low rollers, high rollers, and everyone else in between can enjoy playing live dealer games at online casinos.
However, it’s still best to set a budget before you start playing and don’t forget that most online casinos like 32Red also now have a range of safer gambling tools available. Setting things like win/loss, session time, and/or deposit limits is a great way to stay in control of your spending and keep things fun.
Can I practice playing online casino games in the free-to-play mode?
Yes and no. As mentioned, live dealer games are usually NEVER accessible in the fee-to-play mode. Also, certain computer-generated progressive jackpot slots are not usually available to play in the practice mode.
The good news for some of you is that most other online casino games (typically all computer-generated games that use RNGs to determine the outcome) ARE available in the free-play mode.
Final note
Always check the min/max betting limits before launching a game, or if you can’t seem to find this info before launching the game, pay careful attention to the default stake when you launch a game before clicking or tapping the spin/deal/draw/play button because you may find that the default value is slightly higher than you can afford.
For example, you may launch an online slot machine and find that the current stake is set to $/€/£1.00 or $/€/£2.50 per spin. Using the responsive player controls before hitting spin, you can reduce the stake to a value you are more comfortable with to, say, $/€/£0.10 or $/€/£0.20 per spin.