Best Live Casinos NZ

There are six brick-and-mortar casinos in the whole of New Zealand, with the most famous and biggest one being Sky City Auckland. However, it seems that these gambling establishments are not enough for local New Zealanders. If you are one of those people who want a live casino atmosphere without having to leave your home, then what you are in need of is an online live casino. There are plenty of live casinos that us Kiwis can open an account with, but they have not all been created equally. In the following guide, we are going to explain all you need to know about live dealer casinos and tell you what some of the best ones are.

TOP 7 Live Casinos for New Zealanders

Casino		Bonus	User Rating	Play
	Rainbow Spins		–		Play Now
	Fruta Casino		–		Play Now
	Grand Ivy		$1500+ 100 Free Spins		Play Now
	Betand​play		$2500+ 300 Free Spins		Play Now
	Zodiac Casino		€480+ 80 Free Spins		Play Now
	Cosmo Casino		$250150 Free Spins		Play Now
	Wildz		–		Play Now

Last Updated

*date[Author: Daniel Chapman , Last Updated on 08/01/2024

What Are Live Casino Games?

If we had to recommend one type of gambling category to you, then it would most like be the live gaming section as we feel that this is where Kiwi players can experience the best gaming experience. Live casinos allow us to enjoy games in real-time, versus a real-life dealer that is hosting the game from within a real studio – sometimes the studio is a room that has been set up to look like a real land-based casino, and sometimes they will be based inside a real brick-and-mortar casino.

When you are playing live casino games, instead of a computer, it is a dealer that is guiding the players through the game and providing the results. This means that you get a more realistic gaming experience without even having to leave the comfort of your living room or wherever you like to make your wagers. Below you can see some of the major characteristics that make live casino gaming a unique way to gamble:

• There is a real-life dealer hosting the games
• The results are provided by a dealer and not a Random Number Generator
• Players are playing against real people
• Players can communicate with the dealer and fellow players using the live chat feature
• The majority of live games have multi-language play

What to Consider When Choosing a Casino with Live Dealers

As more and more casino sites with live dealer lobbies are opening their doors to those of us from New Zealand, we have more and more options to choose from. Since there are now so many to choose from, finding the best one for you can end up being quite the challenge. When you are searching for a live dealer casino to play at, there are a number of things that you should pay attention to before you go ahead and commit yourself by opening an account. We are going to take a look at these right now.

Variety of Live Casino Games

The games library, in our opinion, is what makes or breaks an online casino. At the end of the day, is the selection of games that are available is rubbish, then your gambling experience at that online casino is going to be rubbish as well. In an ideal world, an operator will provide you with not just a lot of games, but a lot of quality games.

A good thing about the majority of live casinos is that they provide a decent selection of games, ensuring that their players have a very good live gaming experience whenever they sign in to play. Nevertheless, live games that have been developed by Evolution Gaming are considered to be the very best in the business, while having a selection of live table games is not enough anymore since live game shows have become very popular too. When you are picking a live casino online for yourself, you need to try and find on that has enough options in both these categories.

Software Developers

We already mentioned above that Evolution Gaming is considered to be the best when it comes to live casino games, but there are some other quality software developers that you should look out for as well. A quality casino site will always work with the best that the industry has on offer as this is how they will provide their punters with the gaming experience that they are after. It is always a plus if a casino with live dealers is being powered by multiple software developers as this way you have the option of switching between game developers and categories.

So, apart from Evolution Gaming, what other software developers should you be keeping a lookout for when you are searching for a live casino NZ for you to register with? Well, we have provided you with a list of quality software developers below:

• NetEnt
• Microgaming
• Pragmatic Play
• Authentic Gaming
• Extreme Live Gaming
• Playtech

Bonuses

An online casino that truly values their live dealer players as much as their regular slot players will do their utmost to ensure that they feel welcome. One of the main ways to achieve this is by offering a variety of bonuses that they can make use of.

Online casinos, due to the extremely competitive nature of the industry, have to offer a variety of bonuses and promos if they want to attract new players to sign up and keep their existing players. Nowadays, you will find more online casinos that have a Welcome Bonus that is at least partially valid for live casinos, but in an ideal world you will want to try and find one that offers bonuses that are dedicated to their live dealer section.

Customer

We really hope that you do not have to get in touch with the customer care team too often, but when you have to, you will obviously want them to be available. A great online casino will offer excellent customer care by having agents that will always go above and beyond to solve any issues their players are having. In addition to this, they will make sure that their customer care agents are available 24/7 and that there is a live chat feature so that players can get in touch quickly.

Payment Options

Consumers want quick and easy transactions nowadays whenever they are purchasing anything, and this applies especially to online casinos since nobody wants to wait two to three days before their deposited money can be used or before the receive the winnings that they withdrew. Before you sign up with an online casino, you should check out their banking options to see if they have a wide variety and offer methods that you are familiar with. Also, you need to check what their deposit and withdrawal times are and whether there are some transaction fees.

Best Live Casinos for Kiwis

As we mentioned earlier, there are many real money casinos with live casino dealers that us Kiwis can open an account with. A novice would probably believe that they are all created equally, while the more experienced gamblers among us know that this is not, and never will be, the case.

Below we are going to take a look at five of what we believe to be are the best live casinos available to New Zealanders at this current moment in time. First we have provided you with a table that quickly shows these five online casinos, and below the table have given you more information about each of the casinos.

Of course, we are not forcing anyone to sign up with any of the online casinos that you are about to come across below, but if you do, then we are pretty sure that you will end up having a quality live dealers casino experience whenever you sign in to play. So, with this disclaimer out of the way, let us crack on.

LeoVegas

LeoVegas, in our view, really is one of the best online casinos that New Zealanders can open an account with to enjoy live casino games. To begin with, if you decide to make LeoVegas as your main place to go for a live casino atmosphere from home, then you will be able to claim a 100% match deposit of up to $1000 and 150 free spins. You will be able to use this bonus money on the live games that they have on offer - always remember to read the T&Cs that apply to any bonus that you want to make use of.

At the time of writing this review, LeoVegas were offering no fewer than 127 live casino games to their players. Trust us when we say that you will be hard pushed to find an online casino offering more live games. Whether you are a fan of baccarat, blackjack, roulette, or poker, you definitely have more than enough on offer to keep you thoroughly entertained. If, at any time, you do not feel like playing the live games that are on offer, you will have more than 2000 standard games for you to choose from. These games have been created by the best software developers such as Microgaming, Evolution Gaming, Yggdrasil Gaming, and Elk Studios.

If you like the sound of LeoVegas and want to find out more about what they have to offer, then please feel free to check out this quality LeoVegas review.

Betiton

Betiton has only been around for about two years, but in this relatively short amount of time, they have already shown us that they are going to be around for many more years to come. Some online casinos arrive on the scene, are around for a year or two, and then disappear off the face of the Earth. However, this will not happen with Betiton as they have already become one of the most popular online casinos in New Zealand.

If you decide to make Betiton your favourite online casino, then you can claim a Welcome Bonus of up to $300 as well as 150 free spins. If you like, you will be able to use the bonus money on the live games that they have on offer. Make sure that you check out what the main terms and conditions are before you dive right in and start making use of this bonus.

At this current moment in time, Betiton are offering their players 123 live games to choose from, which includes a variety of blackjack, baccarat, and roulette. However, at the time of writing, they do not offer their players any live poker, which is a little bit disappointing to tell you the truth. We are pretty sure that they will fix this in the future.

Above we mentioned the importance of banking methods, and Betiton will not disappoint you with the banking options that they have available. You will find all of the top payment methods at Betiton, including the likes of VISA, MasterCard, ecoPayz, MuchBetter, Neteller, and Skrill.

If Betiton sounds like the best live casino for you, then you can find out even more about it by taking the time to read our in-depth Betiton review.

Wildz Casino

Wildz Casino is one that you will find on many top ten lists for the best online casinos that Kiwis can open an account with. Their motto is "get more", and you will definitely get more than enough from your gaming experience if you decide to open an account with Wildz Casino.

To start off with, if you decide to sign up with Wildz Casino, then there is a 100% match deposit of up to $1000 that you can claim. However, this is not all, as they also chuck in no fewer than 200 free spins for you to enjoy. The wagering requirements, for those who are interested, stand at 35x, which is pretty reasonable in our view.

When it comes to their live casino games, they have 48 that you can choose from, which includes a decent variety of poker, baccarat, roulette, and blackjack. The games that are on offer at Wildz Casino have been created by top software developers such as NetEnt, Microgaming, and Evolution Gaming.

The desktop site is 100% mobile compatible and they also have a mobile app available for download. So, if you are the kind of person that likes to play live casino games on the go, then we really do recommend that you take a few minutes to download their mobile app to your mobile device.

If you think that Wildz Casino is the live casino for you, but you would like to find out a bit more before you go ahead and fully commit to them, then you can find out all that you need to know by reading our Wildz Casino review

Casimba Casino

Casimba Casino is one that has become very popular among casino players from New Zealand, and the fact that newcomers can claim a 200% match bonus up to the value of $5000 and 50 free spins probably has something to do with this. The wagering requirements are pretty reasonable too, standing at 35x. To find out more about this huge bonus, check out the T&Cs that apply.

With regard to the live games that are on offer, they have 45 games available, which means that entertainment is definitely not in short supply. No matter what type of live game you like to play, we are pretty certain that you will find more than enough for your entertainment at Casimba Casino. To make things even better, you can use the bonus money from the Casimba Casino NZ login on their live games.

What type of banking options do they have available at Casimba Casino? Well, you will be able to find all of the most popular ones such as Skrill, MasterCard, VISA, Neteller, Paysafecard, and Bank Transfer. So, no matter what your preferred deposit and withdrawal method is, we believe that you will be able to find a suitable banking option at Casimba.

If you want to find out even more about this great online casino, then feel free to check out our Casimba Casino review.

Casumo Casino

Casumo Casino is a quality site where you will find everything that you could wish for from an online casino. They truly know how to treat their players, and when you are playing with them you will feel like you are some sort of king or queen.

Those of you who go on and open an account with Casumo will be able to make use of a welcome offer that goes up to $1200 and 20 free spins on the slot Book of Dead. There are 30x wagering requirements attached to the bonus, and you can clear these by playing the live games that they have on offer.

At this current moment in time, there are 38 live casino games available at Casumo Casino, which includes 12 blackjack variants, 5 roulette games, and 6 variants of baccarat and poker. Although they do not have as many live gaming options as other top sites such as LeoVegas or Betiton, we still truly believe that they have more than enough on offer to keep their players entertained.

Earlier we told you that it is very important that an online casino has a really good customer care team, and Casumo Casino definitely fits into this category. They are available 24/7, and you can get in touch with them via a live chat feature, meaning that you do not have to wait long before you are speaking to a customer care agent. All of their agents are highly trained and friendly, and will always do their best to solve an issue for you as quickly as possible.

If you want to find out even more about Casumo Casino before you go ahead and open an account with them, then you can easily do so by reading our in-depth Casumo Casino review.

How Do We Choose Our Live Casinos?

So, above we have provided you with five of what we feel are the Best online casino NZ dollars at this current moment in time. We know that you are probably sitting there wondering how we came to such a conclusion, which is what we are now going to take the time to explain the criteria that we look at when analysing an online casino to see if it is worth of being on our list of top live casinos.

We are here to help you, not the casinos. Since we are on your side, you can expect completely impartial and honest recommendations and reviews from us. Our review process is a time consuming one because we make sure that all of the boxes are ticked before we recommend a live casino to our readers. Some of the criteria that are pay closer attention to are:

• Reputation and experience: Who is responsible for the casino? Are there some sister brands that can give us more info about the reputation of the owner? Many of the casinos that we feature on this site have been around for a lengthy period of time and have a really good reputation. If we come across an online casino that has a bad reputation, then we will simply not recommend it to you.
• License: It is important that any online casino that you open up an account with is fully licensed and regulated by a top gambling regulator such as the United Kingdom Gambling Commission or the Malta Gaming Authority. We will only recommend those live casinos that are fully regulated and licensed as these are the safest ones to play at, and your safety is our concern as well.
• User-friendliness: Aside from giving their punters the games that they are looking for, a gambling site needs to work very well on the whole, whether it is for mobile and desktop. The site needs to be pleasing on the eye and run smoothly. If we come across major issues when it comes to the design and the smoothness of a live casino, we will just forget about it and will not recommend it to you.
• Promotions: Yes, we did already mention this one earlier, but we always take a much closer look at the bonuses and promos that are on offer. Many people do not pay any attention to the terms and conditions of a bonus which is the wrong move to make since they can have a negative impact on the validity of the live games that are available.
• Customer Care: In order to make sure that an online casino has the quality customer support that it should have, we send the customer support team a mock issue and see what type of response we get. If we think that the response that we get is too slow or that it is clear that the customer care agents are not too bothered about helping, then we simply will not recommended that casino to our readers.

Are Live Casinos Safe?

Whenever you are gambling online, whether you are playing your favourite casino games or doing a bit of sports betting, it is imperative that you do so at a safe and secure online casino. The majority of live online casinos that you will come across will be perfectly safe for you to sign up with, there are some out there that exist solely to try and scam unsuspecting victims out of their hard-earned money.

Thankfully, there are a few ways that you can find safe online casinos, and one of the main ways is to check who they have been licensed by. There are many gambling regulators out there, but like with everything else in this life of ours, there are some that are much better than their competitors. Two of the most respected and most reputable gambling regulators in the world are the Malta Gaming Authority and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. If a site has a license from either or both of these, then you can be certain that it is a secure and fair place to play since neither is going to risk their reputation by handing out licenses to sites that do not deserve it.

Another way to check whether a casino is safe or not is to see how long they have been around for. An online casino that has been around for decades is definitely a safe one for you to play at because nothing can be hidden in the gaming industry, and an online casino that is ripping people off will definitely not be around for many years because reviews would have put an end to their scamming.

There is also another way that you can make sure that a live casino that you are interested in opening an account with is safe to play at, and this is by having a look at the URL bar and seeing if there is a padlock at the start. If there is a padlock before the website address, then it means that the site is making use of encryption technology and that your personal and financial information will be safe when you go to make a deposit or request a withdrawal.

The Pros and Cons of Live Dealer Casinos

Like with everything in life, live casinos are not perfect. In other words, live casinos have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages, and you should know what the main ones are before you go ahead and decide whether live casino games are for you or not. Therefore, we are now going to take the time to look at the main pros and cons of playing at a live casino.

Pros

Below you can see the main pros of live casino gaming:

• Very interactive: When you are playing live casino games you can experience a true land-based casino atmosphere without having to leave your home since you can speak to the dealer at the table as well as to your fellow players. This is something that you cannot do when you are playing RNG versions of the same game. When you are making use of the live chat feature, please always be courteous. Everyone is there to have some fun, so do not ruin the vibe by swearing or being rude on chat.
• Experience Real Casinos: You will find that some of the live casinos that you come across are actually being streamed to you from real casinos somewhere else in the world, such as the Hippodrome Casino in London and the Platinum Casino in Bucharest. This is something that will obviously make your live casino experience feel a lot more authentic.
• Multilingual Dealers: Nowadays, many of the dealers are completely fluent in a number of languages, which means that it will not be too hard to find a croupier that can speak to you in your native tongue, should you wish them to do so.
• Brandable: Many live software developers will give operators the chance to offer live games with their own brands, which means that there will be more of a personal touch to your gambling experience as you will feel like you are entering your favourite land-based casino.
• Not as Easy to Burn Money: RNG games are fast-paced because the computer is doing all of the work, which means that it is quite easy for players to get lost in the moment and burn through all of their money without even realising. This is not the case with live casino games since the real-life dealer is in charge of dealing the cards and sorting out who has won and who has lost. Obviously, a human will never be as quick as a computer.

Cons

Now that you know what the pros are, let us take a look at some of the cons:

• Fewer Options: When compared to the likes of slot games, the variety of live games that are available are a lot smaller. You will not find it difficult to come across an online casino that has more than 1000 slots for their players to enjoy, but you will struggle to come across an online casino that has more than 100 live casino games.
• Fewer Bonuses: Many online casinos will favour their slot players which is the reason why many bonuses that you will come across are valid for the RNG games and not live games. You will obviously be able to find online casinos that allow you to use your bonus money on the live games, but there are not as many.
• No Free Demos Available: Nowadays, you will find that the vast majority of online casinos will allow their players to play their games for free so that you can test them out and see if they are to your liking before you go ahead and spend any real money on them. Additionally, if you come across a new strategy, you can use the demo version of a table game to test it out and learn all about it. However, when you are playing at a live casino, there will be no online free casino games available, and you can only play with real money.

Gamble Responsibly

We would like to finish this article off by gently reminding you that it is very important that you gamble responsibly, whether you are playing RNG casino games or live casino games. It is imperative that you make sure that you do not gamble beyond your means as, more often than not, this will lead to debt that can quickly spiral out of your control.

One of the best ways for you to ensure that you are gambling responsibly whenever you sit down for a session is to set a budget for yourself with a total amount that you can afford to lose. Whenever you are gambling, you need to remember that there is a chance that you will go on one of those annoying losing streaks and will end up losing plenty of money. If you do lose all of the money that you budgeted, then stop gambling right away and occupy your mind with something else that you enjoy doing. Some people will tell themselves that it is okay to gamble a few more dollars to try and recuperate losses, but it is not, and such a strategy will usually end up with you losing more money.

Online casinos know the importance of gambling responsibly, which is the reason why the vast majority of them nowadays have a variety of responsible gambling measures. For instance, you will usually be able to place a daily, weekly, or monthly deposit limit - once you have deposited your limit in the stipulated time frame, you will not be allowed to make another deposit until that time frame has passed. Also, you will have option of barring yourself from your account, so that you cannot do any gambling - this is usually for a time frame of up to six months, but you can increase it if you feel the need to.

If you feel that your gambling is well and truly out of control, then there are many professionals out there who can provide you with all of the help that you need. Below we have given you links to some top gambling help sites for Kiwis who feel that they have lost control of their gambling. Here you can speak to friendly and experienced professionals who will do their best to help you overcome your addiction.

• Gambling Helpline New Zealand
• Problem Gambling Foundation
• Begambleaware

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