Onboard credit used in the casino?

[Hampton99]

We have a 500 onboard credit, can we withdraw in the slots in the casino?  We are from the United States and will be cruising in the Mediterranean and the casino will be in euro.  I am trying to avoid transaction fees and surcharges but still have cash to gamble with.  The less cash I have to bring with me the better.   Can I withdraw from my credit card to my on board account without a fee.  I know my credit card might have fees but does the casino?

 

[Native Floridian 26]

On 8/24/2022 at 10:32 PM, Hampton99 said:

We have a 500 onboard credit, can we withdraw in the slots in the casino?  We are from the United States and will be cruising in the Mediterranean and the casino will be in euro.  I am trying to avoid transaction fees and surcharges but still have cash to gamble with.  The less cash I have to bring with me the better.   Can I withdraw from my credit card to my on board account without a fee.  I know my credit card might have fees but does the casino?

 

You can charge to your onboard account on the slots, then cash it out in the casino to get Euros. Say you charge $40 to your onboard account, play a couple dollars on the slots, then cash out.

[Diav]

"You can charge to your onboard account on the slots, then cash it out in the casino to get Euros. Say you charge $40 to your onboard account, play a couple dollars on the slots, then cash out."

 

Is this true for Celebrity Apex? Will they charge you a 5% fee?

[Paphillyguy]

On MSC there is no fee to download money and charge to the room.  This is the same at the tables, charge the money to your room and no fee.  Please note, if you use a credit card with a foreign transaction fee you may be charged the fee since they use an international bank.  Also, if  you do several withdrawals in the casino, it is preauthorized as each transaction is made and then they charge your entire balance at the end of the cruise.  This will double the amount preauthorized and depending on your credit card company it could take day for the original charges to fall off. 

[Native Floridian 26]

10 hours ago, Diav said:

"You can charge to your onboard account on the slots, then cash it out in the casino to get Euros. Say you charge $40 to your onboard account, play a couple dollars on the slots, then cash out."

 

Is this true for Celebrity Apex? Will they charge you a 5% fee?

Not sure. We're talking MSC here.

[Diav]

Didn't see MSC as the cruise ship in question but thought this was a general question about casinos. Only one person mentioned MSC.  Thanks anyway.

[Native Floridian 26]

33 minutes ago, Diav said:

Didn't see MSC as the cruise ship in question but thought this was a general question about casinos. Only one person mentioned MSC.  Thanks anyway.

I'm assuming since it's in the MSC forum, that it's a MSC ship.  

[Hampton99]

Seaside!

[xcell]

On my recent trip, I cashed out the OBC from the casino and the slots were no fees (just played a couple of pulls, printed out the receipt and then cashed it in the next day).

 

I also did it at the table but didn't notice a service charge (though I heard it was 3% for some).  The MSC Me app is useless, but on other lines (NCL -- they do inform you before you asked for credit from the casino that there will be a 3% charge).  I hope that helps.

[hegosej438]

I'm a little confused here. I'm new to both (cruises and cassinos), and I will be cruising with MSC soon.

 

Let's say that I have a credit card that doesn't charge any foreign transaction fee, has a 1% cashback on all transactions and 10k credit limit. And I register this card for my onboard expenses.

 

What prevents me from buy 9k in cassino chips and cash out everything just after buying? If there is no fee, I will be earning $90 on cashback for free!

 

Where is the flaw? I'm sure that something must prevent me from getting free credit card cashback in the cassino.

[kelleherdl]

I don’t see there is any flaw. When you add a casino charge to your onboard account on MSC you are making an ‘on board purchase.’ If you ask for a credit card advance at the casino cage you are not making a ‘purchase.’ MSC allows you to do the transaction as a on board ‘purchase’ at a table or at a slot. If you have a no-fee credit card for ‘purchases’ there isn’t a charge for that transaction. There will generally always be a fee for a credit card advance.

[phissy]

Hegosej438.  welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

As confirmed by Kellherdl, this is possible.

The question is should you do it. 
cashing out $9,000 will send up a flag to casino and cashier.

If you are intent on going through with this plan, I would do it in increments,

below $1,000. 
I wouldn’t want to travel with that much cash.

I am more concerned that MSC will close this use of casino, just like NCL did.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by phissy

[hegosej438]

I'm not really planning to do it, I'm just trying to understand how it works. I'm curious and new to this, so I'm trying to understand the logistics.

 

I think that I'm not the only one who thought about this, and probably someone already tried it.

It seems that we can get as much credit card cash back as its limit allows. And also we could earn a lot of MSC loyalty points with so much on board spending.

 

I know that $90 doesn't worth the burden to travel with a lot of money. But it still seems like free money available to take.

I thought that maybe they would have limits, or cash out fees.

 

[kelleherdl]

5 hours ago, hegosej438 said:

 

I know that $90 doesn't worth the burden to travel with a lot of money. But it still seems like free money available to take.

I thought that maybe they would have limits, or cash out fees.

 

As Phissy said. I don’t think it would be wise to test the limits.  Their goal is to put casino credits in your account so that you lose them.  😀

[mickey89]

The easiest way to get cash from your non-refundable credit is to goto the Roulette table.  Give your Cruise Card and ask for say €150 then play €5 on your choice, just for courtesy.  Then goto the cashier and cash out, so simple.  Your account balance, if it was €150 will now be zero and you will have at least €145 in cash.

Edited April 13, 2023 by mickey89