(pensive music) (ball spinning)
- [Katherine] This may look like a typical casino floor
but there's no gamblers,
no chips changing hands or free drinks.
That's because this is live dealing,
a type of online gambling new to the US
in which games are broadcast to players' phones.
(lion roaring)
- Boom, that's what I'm talking about.
- [Katherine] No matter where you look today,
you've likely encountered these:
ads for online gambling.
- I put a million bucks
in up to five DraftKings sportsbook accounts.
- None of these commercials
would have been possible
without a 2018 Supreme Court decision
that struck down the federal sports gambling ban
and triggered an accelerated adoption
of online gambling across the US.
Today, six states, mostly in the northeast,
allow for online casino games like blackjack,
roulette and baccarat.
One of the new entrants into the market is Playtech.
(card beeping) (door clicking)
So the security in this building seems pretty high.
Why is that?
- Yeah.
Security is the first priority here.
- I sat down with Playtech's managing director
for Live Casino, Edo Haitin.
So we're sitting here in an office building
in Southfield, Michigan
but all around us it looks like a casino.
So where are we right now?
- So we are in Michigan.
We cannot say the actual address.
This is one of our studios.
It looks like a casino but it's not.
There is no gambling activities happening here
within the facility.
Here basically, we operate the games,
we train the dealers
and make the whole full-blown product.
- Playtech is a gambling technology company
that offers live dealing where dealers flip cards
and spin roulette wheels in front of cameras
for gamblers at home on their phones.
So if I'm in Michigan,
I can open an app and bet on one
of the games happening here.
- Correct, correct.
Not far away from us,
there are live games being operated now.
- Why develop a whole live studio?
Why not just have animated games on an app
that someone can gamble on?
- Around 13, 14 years ago already,
we started to establish sort of a side gig
to our regular casino games,
which were live casino games streamed.
People could sit at the table
and also bet with a live dealer.
- You're one step closer to that 1,000 golden pool.
Okay, here we go.
- Then the players started piling up more and more
into those tables
because the experience that you give
is as close as you can get
to a land-based casino experience.
Also, it takes away that sort of loneliness element
when you sit at your home and bet alone.
(ball spinning)
- [Katherine] Although Playtech is a big player
in online gambling,
gamblers themselves might not necessarily be familiar
with the name.
That's because a big part of Playtech's business
is providing various online gaming products
to a variety of licensed companies around the world.
- Welcome to our Sports Bar studio.
Our Sports Bar strategy is basically bringing some
of the sportsbook players,
some of the sports fans and allowing them
to interact with sports events
while they also play our games.
So here you can see cash-back blackjack.
That's a scalable version of a blackjack table
that allows unlimited about of players
to sit at the same table playing blackjack.
This is part of our training module
to eventually get our presenters,
our dealers when they go live
with a certain experience
to really know what is the script
without having a script.
- And gamblers online,
they actually can create a relationship.
- Yeah, that's the community aspect
that is making live unique.
- Online casino betting
is a small but growing industry in the US
that many gambling companies hope
will become increasingly legalized
in much the same way mobile sports betting
already has been in many states.
In the US, the biggest online casino market
is in New Jersey.
This graph charts the steady increase in revenue seen
by the Garden State since 2017.
I see a big red button.
What's going on here?
This is Buffalo Blitz Live.
Buffalo Blitz is a slot concept
that allows multiple players
to sit and play on the same slot
and allows you to interact with the dealer,
allows you to interact with other players on the chat.
- Although the expansion of legal gambling
generates significant tax revenue for states,
problem gambling advocates are concerned
about a potential rise in addiction.
So when you talk about 24/7 availability at home,
how do you address gambling addiction?
- Already the websites that we work with,
they are also complying with regulations
that apply to them
and a player cannot bet more than he can,
and cannot deposit more that he's allowed.
We have functions that's called hosts,
gaming hosts, people that are actually on the floor,
not dealing the tables
and if we see if somebody's betting over his abilities,
we have a way that our system can flag those players.
This is far away from being a hit-and-run operation.
- Casinos in Las Vegas and around the world shut down
when the pandemic began,
leaving gamblers searching for options at home.
In recent months, tourists have flocked back
but casino operators acknowledge
that online betting is here to stay.
So does that mean casinos in real life are going away?
- Absolutely not.
First of all, we are their extension to the online,
so a lot of our licensees, clients basically
are land-based casinos
that want to extent their business
and move to the online.
And no matter how great the experience
that we wanna give here,
it's still an online experience.
I think that the land-based experience
gives a completely different value.
(ball spinning)
- [Katherine] The arrival of live dealing in the US
comes amid transformation for the gambling industry.
In recent years, more and more states
are embracing new forms of betting
as a lucrative source of tax revenue.
But with the recent surge in gambling ads
and the 24/7 availability of wagering at home,
questions remain about the long-term impact on Americans.
(pensive music)