Comparing Payouts of Live Casino and Traditional Casino Games

by James Gibson, 17 September 2025

Live casino games bridge the gap between playing at home and playing at a real-life casino. These thrilling games are hugely popular online. But do they offer better payouts than traditional online casino games? Let’s find out.

Odds of live vs traditional casino games. © Nemanja_us Pixabay

​​Live Casino Games

Many people who play online casino games do so because they want to make money. Even though the odds are against them, they try their luck, hoping to land a big win or two and earn a profit.

Some believe that live dealer games have better odds than traditional online ones and are therefore more rewarding. What many find appealing about live games is that they take place in real life.

They’re not animated. They instead take place in real TV studios or filming locations and involve a dealer along with physical gaming equipment. Their aim is to recreate the experience of gaming in a real-world environment.

The twist, of course, is that you’re playing through an online casino account. You’re not in a real location taking part in the game; you’re instead at home on the computer or on your phone while out and about.

Live games bridge the gap between playing in a real-world setting and playing from the comfort of your own home. They’re very popular for this reason and there are many top live casino sites where you can play them.

The question is: are their odds better than traditional games? The answer is very simple. When it comes to the odds of live casino games versus traditional games, there’s no difference.

Understanding RTP

Every casino game has a figure known as the RTP or return to player. This represents a game’s average payout over long-term play. It’s displayed as a percentage and the higher it is, the better it is for the player.

For example, let’s say you play a slot whose RTP is 96%. If you spend £100 on it over many spins, your total return should in theory be around 96%.

However, the actual amount of money you’ve been paid by the slot could be much lower or higher than 96% of your spending. The point is, the more you play, the closer your payout should get to the slot’s RTP.

In the short term, you can win big from a game with a low RTP and lose a lot of money from a game whose average payout rate is higher than others. It’s all about luck whether you make a profit or lose money.

Do Live Games Have Better Odds?

When it comes to online casino games and their payouts, there are all sorts of rumours and myths. A good example is the idea that slots can be hot or cold.

If a slot is hot, it’s been paying out a lot recently and is supposedly worth playing. On the other hand, a cold slot hasn’t paid out much at all recently and is perhaps best avoided for the time being.

So what about the belief that live casino games have better odds than traditional online games? The truth is that it doesn’t make a difference whether a game is live or not. The payouts are always the same.

Let’s say you have a standard version of European roulette that sticks to the basic rules and doesn’t have any special features. The RTP of European roulette is 97.3% whether it’s a real-life game or a physical one.

It’s the rules, gameplay, set-up and features that determine any casino game’s payout rate. If these are the same across different formats, the RTP will be too. Playing a live game won’t give you better odds.

For pretty much every type of casino game, there are different versions with different RTPs. This is because there’s some sort of change that affects the game’s long-term payout rate.

Using blackjack as an example, in a typical game that has six or eight decks in play, the RTP is 99.54%. However, when just one deck is used, this increases the RTP to as much as 99.8%.

Going back to roulette, the RTP of European roulette is 97.3%. French roulette, however, has an RTP of 98.75%. They both use a 37-pocket wheel, though the layout is slightly different.

What makes the RTP better in French roulette is that it has one of two special rules in play: la partage and en prison. Both of these can help reduce a player’s losses when placing certain bets.

Check the Paytable

Whenever you play a game at an online casino, whether it’s live or not, it’s worth knowing what the RTP is. To find this out, look at the game’s paytable. The payout rate should be listed there.

Sometimes there’ll be a single RTP, sometimes there’ll be several. If there’s more than one, this is because different bets and features can have different payout rates. Blackjack side bets, for example, have lower RTPs than the game’s main bet.

If you can’t find the RTP in the paytable, it might be in the game’s description. If not, a quick online search should tell you what it is. Again, look carefully because there might be more than one.

Playing live casino games can be a whole lot of fun. Live games are a lot more immersive and social than regular animated games because they involve other people, i.e. the dealer and other players.

These games enhance the online casino experience and do a great job of giving you a taste of playing in an actual casino. Just remember they don’t have better odds due to the fact they’re live.