Live Dealer Casino War from Evolution

Casino War is now available in live dealer format, thanks to Evolution.

Since it’s creation in the early 90’s by Bet Technology, the game of Casino War has quickly become a favourite on the floors of many land based casinos, particularly in Vegas.

The game’s straightforward, fast-paced nature makes it a staple for novice-friendly gaming environments. It’s actually quite surprising that it’s taken until 2025 to be released as a live dealer game.

You can play it at any casino carrying Evolution’s live games, including 888, Betway, LeoVegas, bet365 and Stake.

How to play Casino War

Games don’t get too much simpler than this. The main game is a high-card deal, you versus the dealer. There’s also a possibility of a Go-to-War round in the event of a Tie. Here’s the game flow…

• Single card dealt to the Player, single card to the Dealer.
• High card wins (Aces are high, suits don’t matter).
• Player win earns an even money payout
• Dealer win sees bet lost
• In the event of a Tie, you have the choice to:
  – Surrender and forfeit half your bet, or
  – Go to War, and double your bet for another high card deal

You also have an option of taking the Tie side bet, which pays:

• 10:1 for 1st Tie,
• 25:1 for 2nd Tie in a row (ie a Tie dealt on Go to War round),
• 50:1 for 3rd Tie in a row,
• 200:1 for 4th Tie in a row.

Consistent with land-based casino tables, rounds come fast with 10 second betting time to get your bets on. The deal is from an 8 deck, manually shuffled shoe.

Tie: Surrender or Go to War

When a Tie is dealt it’s time for war.

The situation room backdrop goes on war footing and you have a choice to make: Surrender and lose half your bet, or Go to War.

If you don’t make a choice in the allotted time, Surrender is the default.

If you choose Go to War your bet is doubled and another high card round is dealt – this time with 3 cards burnt before each of the player an dealer cards are revealed.

If the player card is higher than the dealer’s card, you win the amount of your original bet. You don’t not get even money on the doubled-up bet. If the dealer’s card is higher, you lose the doubled bet.

Intuitively this seems a little unfair. But despite this, Go to War is still the optimal choice over Surrender from a return to player (RTP) perspective, as shown below.

Comparison to other High Card live games

There are a few high-card live games, all very similar to Casino War – both in format and theoretical return.  Guess it’s hard to be very different when premise of all of these games is a single highest-card-wins deal.

Casino War’s point of difference, is the option to Go to War in the event of a Tie. For the other high-card live dealer games listed below, a Tie results in automatic forfeit of 50% of your main bet amount – which equates with choosing Surrender playing Casino War.

	Casino War	Dragon Tiger	Football Blitz	Football Studio	Card MatchUp
From:	Evolution	various	Pragmatic Play	Evolution	OnAir
Main game premise	High Card wins	High Card wins	High Card wins	High Card wins	High Card wins
Aces are…	High	Low	High	High	High
Bet position choice	No…Player only	Dragon or Tiger	Home or Away	Home or Away	Home or Away
Main game RTP	96.27% (Surrender) 96.56% (Go to War)	96.27%	96.27%	96.27%	96.27%

Payouts & RTP

Here the full game pay-table, and RTP by bet type.

Bet	Payout	RTP
Main Game:	1:1	96.27% (Surrender) 96.56% (Go to War)
Tie side bet	10:1 (1st) 25:1 (2 in row) 50:1 (3 in row) 200:1 (4 in row)	92.5%

Playing strategy of optimal returns is self evident: Play the main game and Go to War when the option arises!