Online blackjack vs live blackjack. It’s a debate for the ages, and you might already have opinions on it, but today, we are going to compare all the different elements, weigh up the pros and cons, and come to a conclusion about whether online blackjack beats out the live variant in today’s world.
Advantages Of Online Blackjack
Online blackjack offers many advantages over the live game. Here are just a few.
Game Options
We’re going to start strong. Online blackjack has a plethora of pros. If you’ve ever played online blackjack, you might already know this, but you’ve got game options galore. If you go to your local casino, you might have one or two different variants you can play online, there might be dozens or even hundreds of choices. Particularly love one obscure variant that’s rarely on offer? You’ll find it in the digital space.
A quick glance at sites like Ignition Casino shows just how many variations there are. 22 Blackjack, European Blackjack, Dragon Blackjack, Zappit Blackjack, Single Deck Blackjack, Double Deck Blackjack, Perfect Pairs, and plenty more. People need variety in life, and online casinos bend over backward to provide it.
And what’s more, with online blackjack, there’s no waiting for a space at the table. There’s no hanging around while the dealer sets up a new game. There’s just you and the cards, letting you make the most of the time you have to play.
Learning Material
Furthermore, there’s so much content online that you can learn from. If you’re not sure where to begin in a physical casino, that’s a pretty uncomfortable feeling. Who do you ask so you don’t look foolish? Are you breaking any etiquette rules and annoying folks without even knowing it? It’s not fun to be in that place. Online, all embarrassment and uncertainty are eliminated because you can simply open another tab and research your precise question!
There’s so much content out there, it’s almost unbelievable. You can even give yourself little pop quizzes with questions like this one:
You can learn anything you want, tapping into a friendly online community that’s capable of answering pretty much any question in the history of blackjack. And you don’t have to close the resources when you play, just keep them open in another tab and refer back to them as needed.
Convenience
Get dressed up, get in your car, drive to a casino, park, and then do the same in reverse at the end of the night, or pick up your phone and log in? It’s a no-brainer for many players. We don’t even think about the two activities in the same way, and there’s no question that the online world wins, hands down, in this case.
Live blackjack can’t hope to compete. If you want to play at a land-based casino, you have to contend with opening hours, public transport, parking spaces, crowds, and more. At a digital casino, all of that gets eliminated. It’s just you and the game in the ultimate convenient setup. Play at 4 a.m. in your pajamas if you feel like it. There are no boundaries here.
Advantages Of In-Person Blackjack
You may have already guessed from the above which way we’re leaning, but for the sake of completeness, let’s look at the advantages of the live games.
Social Side
Here’s where live blackjack has generally shone. If you want to play face-to-face with a live dealer and enjoy the ambiance of a crowd, you might opt for a physical casino over a digital one. There’s something about that spark that has proved tricky to translate into the virtual space, and this is perhaps the area where the retail casino has the most edge. Socializing is important, and it provides many opportunities.
However, things are changing. Live dealer games are becoming increasingly common, bringing that social element to the digital world. These games are created by having a live dealer in a studio live-streamed to players around the globe. If you miss the reality of the casino building and the friendly chatter with the dealer, this goes a long way to replacing it in the digital world.
And it’s likely to go even further in the coming years. Add VR headsets to this, and it would be feasible to create digital blackjack games where you feel like you’re standing in a physical casino with a crowd all around you. Live dealer games represent the first step in this direction, and it’s a very exciting one.
Luxury Feel
Old-school casinos were known for being highly luxurious. There’s little that can compete with the velvet and velour of these places. While online casinos do have their fair share of glamour, some people long for that real feeling, and for them, in-person blackjack might still “hold the cards,” as it were.
If you’re someone who enjoys sitting in a plush chair at a rich wooden table and watching the glitzy crowds drift around having fun, perhaps the physical casinos will hold sway with you, although that’s not to say folks can’t enjoy the best of both worlds and play both online blackjack and the live game.
