How live dealer streams work: the studio, the cameras and the delay

What happens between the table and your screen?

A live dealer game is a real table in a studio. A dealer deals the cards or spins the wheel, cameras film it, and the picture reaches your phone over the internet a moment later. Evolution's annual report for 2023 puts it in one line: a game presenter runs the game from a casino gaming table that players follow in real time via a video stream.

The bet buttons, your balance and the chat box sit on top of that video. Evolution's game site says its software lets you place bets, make decisions in the game and chat, all through one interface on your screen. For the wider picture, including the licence and age rules, read how live dealer games work in Kenya.

The dealer cannot see or hear you. Evolution's FAQ states this plainly, and adds that the dealer can read chat messages and reply by speaking. Other players at the table can only answer in the chat.

Where are live casino studios?

A live studio is closer to a television set than to a casino floor. Evolution's game site compares its studios to advanced TV and film studios that broadcast games in real time, often 24 hours a day. The person at the table is a trained presenter, and the meaning of a live dealer has its own short entry.

Evolution says it runs a network of studios across Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Three production hubs carry most of the work: Riga in Latvia, Malta, and Tbilisi in Georgia, which the company calls its largest studio hub. Across the network it reports over 2,000 live tables for licensed operators.

Some studios exist because a country's rules demand a local presence. Evolution's locations page says that in many regulated markets, studios are set up to meet national licensing requirements for a local operational presence. It also runs Dual Play tables inside land-based casinos in the United Kingdom, Malta, Romania and the United States, where online players join a physical table.

Pragmatic Play publishes less detail about its sites. Its Live Casino page says the roulette game is broadcast from its studio in Bucharest and is available 24/7. A Pragmatic Play news page dates its entry into live casino to 2019.

Neither provider names a studio in Kenya on the pages listed in the sources. For these two providers, a player in Kenya watches a stream sent from another country.

What do the cameras and the video software do?

Each table uses more than one camera, so the stream can cut between a wide view and close-ups. Pragmatic Play lists multiple 4K quality cameras among its features and says all its live games run in HTML5 on desktop and mobile. Evolution's baccarat page describes one squeeze table filmed by more than 15 cameras.

The video then has to fit your connection. Evolution's 2023 report says the company built its own video coding solution to keep streaming continuous, in HD or in the format that best fits the player's capacity. In plain terms, picture quality can step down to suit a slower line.

Software also watches the table. The same report says most of Evolution's real-time game protection systems are based on advanced video recognition technology and complex hardware, and that the company uses AI for optical recognition. Neither provider's public pages explain, step by step, how a card on the felt becomes the result shown in your bet panel.

Not every background is a physical set. Pragmatic Play describes a green screen system, called Chroma Solutions, that lets an operator brand the background, the table and the wheel podium digitally.

How long is the delay on a live stream?

Every live stream runs slightly behind the real table. Pragmatic Play uses the term glass-to-glass latency for that gap, from the camera in the studio to the screen in your hand. It states a figure as low as 1.5 to 2 seconds and adds that conditions apply.

Evolution's public pages listed below give no delay figure. Your own delay also depends on your network, your phone and the distance the signal travels, so one published number cannot hold for every player.

Illustrative example: suppose the dealer closes betting at exactly 20:00:00 Nairobi time. With a 2-second delay, your screen shows that moment at about 20:00:02. The table does not wait for your screen, so a slower picture leaves you less of the betting window, not more.

A software-only game has no camera and no stream. Evolution's FAQ says the outcome of an RNG game comes from a random number generator, which it calls mathematical software. The differences between live and RNG table games cover speed, limits and the checks behind each.

What happens if the stream drops?

Two different things can fail: the studio, or your own connection. Each is handled in a different place.

At the studio, Evolution's 2023 report says a Mission Control Room monitors all gaming activity in real time, 24 hours a day, year-round. When a technical fault or human error interrupts a game, the control room and a support team are alerted, and the report gives an average fix time of 62 seconds in 2023. Each incident is logged with details such as screenshots and video of the table.

The same report puts Evolution's system availability for 2023 at 99.93 percent, excluding scheduled maintenance. Pragmatic Play says a team of shufflers keeps its card games running without interruptions, and that shift managers monitor the whole operation permanently.

If your own connection drops, the round carries on at the table without you. What then happens to a bet you already placed is set by that game's rules, which Evolution says sit in the Help screen of every game, and by the operator's terms. Those rules differ between games, so the Help screen is the place to check.

Kenyan rules point the same way. Regulation 45(1) of the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112) requires game rules to be displayed on the platform before a player places any bet. Regulation 43 requires an operator seeking approval of an online platform to show adequate redundancy and a tested business continuity plan to minimise service disruption.

If you dispute how a round was settled, the operator is your first contact. Section 68(8) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 requires an online operator to keep a customer care centre in Kenya. Under L.N. 112 r.9(2)(e), a complaint the operator has not resolved after 72 hours goes to the Gambling Regulatory Authority.

What this guide does not cover

This guide follows the path from table to screen. Whether the cards, shoes and wheels are fair is a separate question, answered in how cards, shoes and cameras are checked.

A live stream runs round after round with no natural pause. Deposit limits, reality checks and self-exclusion are set out in the responsible gambling tools at a live table.