Live roulette is certainly not a new phenomenon. It's been around for a few years now both online and on television the UK. But just recently the game has made the news in Britain because a public free to air TV channel there has made the unprecedented move to broadcast the game.
First, for those uninitiated with the live roulette concept, I'll touch briefly on what exactly it is.
Live roulette combines elements of both remote or online roulette and traditional casino roulette. The remote element is the fact that the game is played on your PC or viewed and played on television rather than sitting at the actual roulette table. The traditional elements are an actual roulette wheel and croupier rather than a random number generated computer graphic that is found at most online casinos.
Video vision of the game is streamed live to a remote bet interface allowing players to view the game and bet accordingly. It's a game format that is starting to become more common online, with a number of casinos starting to offer live streamed roulette. It is also available for play in the UK on television, and has been for some time now. A number of operators have been broadcasting the game on dedicated subscriber channels there for a few years now. But now a free to air channel has taken the bold move of selling air time to one of these operators. And the development, understandably, has caused some controversy.
Now, for the first time in Britain, television viewers without satellite or subscription services are able to watch live roulette from their lounge rooms on TV, albeit on a restricted viewing schedule. It's quite a large step from the internet or subscription services to mainstream public access television and anti-gambling groups have bemoaned the move as one likely to lead to increased rates of problem gambling.
The casino operator and television channel in question have responded to criticisms by simply pointing out that they are acting in accordance with local regulations, which earlier this were amended to reclassify the 'teleshopping' to include gambling. Apparently the regulatory change was made to help broadcasters, who are suffering declining advertising revenues, tap additional revenue sources. But not surprisingly, the 'protecting corporate profits' defense has done little appease those worried about the issue of problem gambling.
Whether there is a place for gambling on mainstream public access television will be hotly contested debate in Britain in coming months. It will only get hotter if and when competing operators and channels add further live roulette programs, turning late night advertorial time into casino time on more than one channel. It will also be interesting to see whether live roulette TV is canned as soon as the economy starts to pick up again.
Milton Shaw write for a number of gambling related portals including Livedealer.org which offers live casino roulette comparisons at its live roulette page.
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