Stingy casino?

[jxtgreek]

Heading on the Paradise in 2 weeks.  Just curious how the casino is paying out.  I like Black Jack and Craps?  How about other ships?  How much do you allocate each day?  I'm thinking $250 a day? 

[mz-s]

There's a reason the casino only opens in international waters...the odds are much worse than on land.

 

Just speaking of Blackjack - it's all continuous shuffle, pays 6:5 and the dealer hits on soft 17.

Edited December 20, 2023 by mz-s

[shiner6]

worst payouts ever on the Breeze--never again

[Paelos]

Blackjack is pretty bad if you're playing anything less than $25 a hand. As stated it's auto-shuffle with 6-5, hit on 17, and usually several sucker side bets that will drain you fast. I've yet to sit down at a table with $100 and not get busted out in less than 30 minutes.

 

Slots are all over the place and vary. If you go by the video poker payouts, the average RTP is probably 85% compared to a 92-93% on land. You will have to get lucky to come out on top because the odds don't run with you at all.

 

For craps, they run a fair game on usually a $5 minimum. The issue is that you'll have to fight somebody for a space because it's really the only true fair game on the ship, and even though they will often limit your odds to 2x.

[jb58]

I have not seen a $5 minimum craps in a while.  To my understanding it is $10 on all Carnival ships except for the Celebration and Mardi Gras, where it is $15.☹️

[Paelos]

Yeah the $5 Craps was in February, so it's likely gone up to $10 across the board. Then again I play in the mornings and afternoons on sea days so I can avoid the late night crowds. They definitely will shift the minimums higher in the evenings if the tables are getting slammed up.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Paelos

[bafinegan]

Similar odds on Ultimate texas holed em and 3 card poker as on land based casinos.  Ship dependent as to whether it's an auto dealer or live shuffle each hand.  $10 min with optional side bets.  I usually buy in for $300 and break even after a cpl hours.  Guess I'm lucky.....

Edited December 20, 2023 by bafinegan

[TxTeach79]

No such thing, really... Cruise ship casinos adhere to CLIA regulations and the fallacy of a "tight" or "loose" casino is really just that: https://cruising.org/en/about-the-industry/policy-priorities/cruise-industry-policies/Other

 

This video does a good job of explaining the ins and outs. Have fun, win big, and good luck!

 

 

[InitialD]

I don't play table games and I don't spend too much on the slots. I got $125 in funplay/OBC and I also put in another $10 and I played every day in the casino for at least an hour or more a day for the whole week before I spent the last of it on the last day so that's a lot of playing. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by InitialD

[MistyRo76]

I'm not a huge gambler - usually plan for no more than $100/day of gambling funds. And I play blackjack almost exclusively - no slots, but sometimes I'll venture out to other table games for a few hands. On my last cruise, I came out about $400 ahead! Every night I walked away from the table either even or up. I played the Fun 21 - blackjacks pay out right away regardless of what the dealer has. There are also some other differences to regular blackjack plus the side bets. Don't get sucked into those. While it's nice if you manage to hit one, you'll probably spend more than you win on the other hands you lose the side bets! 

[john91498]

Very stingy on the Panorama back in September of this year. Ended up playing poker more than blackjack.

[Colorado Beach Bum]

3 hours ago, bafinegan said:

Similar odds on Ultimate texas holed em and 3 card poker as on land based casinos.  Ship dependent as to whether it's an auto dealer or live shuffle each hand.  $10 min with optional side bets.  I usually buy in for $300 and break even after a cpl hours.  Guess I'm lucky.....

Ultimate only allows 3x on first bet instead of 4x which reduces your odds considerably compared to land based casinos.  I quit playing it when they removed the 4x. 

[bafinegan]

1 hour ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Ultimate only allows 3x on first bet instead of 4x which reduces your odds considerably compared to land based casinos.  I quit playing it when they removed the 4x. 

hmm on the Elation i bet 4x...

[JoeMo]

Just off the BREEZE a couple of weeks ago. Brought home around $1000 from the slots, $700 from roulette. Not normal, but welcome.

[staceyglow]

You are not going to see anything close to "loose"  odds on any cruise ship.

 

They know they have a captive market.  If you don't like their odds, you can't go to the casino next door.

[jiggs]

they do leverage themselves with odds and crappy BJ rules...like the fact craps is 2x odds, you cannot maximize the player odds by betting 5x or 10x behind your bet. 

 

With that said, I see the shitty blackjack rules in my local casinos as well...side bets and 6:5 and so on.  Casino carnival games are what they are, house edge is always up on 3 card, texas sud, hold 'em and so on....there is a reason they replaced blackjack felt. 

 

Roulette odds can't really change, they can just make you bet more per spin. 

 

So, gamblers beware, but I will still sit at a $10 blackjack game even with CSM and 6:5 because the alternative is not playing...I will play craps with low odds because unless the table is smoking hot, I'm not upping my odds enough to care about the bad back odds.

[staceyglow]

36 minutes ago, jiggs said:

. 

 

Roulette odds can't really change, they can just make you bet more per spin. 

 

 

Roulette odds can certainly change based on how many zeroes are on the wheel.  I don't believe I have seen any on a Carnival cruise yet, but triple zero wheels exist.

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Roulette odds can certainly change based on how many zeroes are on the wheel.  I don't believe I have seen any on a Carnival cruise yet, but triple zero wheels exist.

they had 000 wheels on Sunshine just before Covid. I saw it with my own eyes. 

[staceyglow]

Just now, mz-s said:

they had 000 wheels on Sunshine just before Covid. I saw it with my own eyes. 

I stand corrected.

[mz-s]

5 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

I stand corrected.

they were removed just as quick as they appeared, thankfully! 

[KarmaCruisers]

The odds are definitely worse than on land

Craps - Only 2x odds

BJ - Anything less than $25 won’t be “blackjack” but some other carnival type (“super fun 21”, etc) with CSM and 6:5 blackjacks.

Roulette - Same as anywhere else (00 wheel; but I’ve seen 000 wheels, it’s disguised as the princess or carnival logo)

Carnival Games - things they don’t have on land, due to licensing issues (ie: Carnival has Three Card Prime, and Heads Up Hold ‘Em…instead of Three Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em…both carnival games RTP is less than their land based counterparts)

Slots - Probably around 80-85% RTP (whereas on land they’re closer to 90%)

Video Poker - About the same as The Strip (93-96% RTP)

 

 

[jiggs]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:29 PM, staceyglow said:

Roulette odds can certainly change based on how many zeroes are on the wheel.  I don't believe I have seen any on a Carnival cruise yet, but triple zero wheels exist.

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by jiggs

[jsglow]

On 12/20/2023 at 9:53 AM, TxTeach79 said:

No such thing, really... Cruise ship casinos adhere to CLIA regulations and the fallacy of a "tight" or "loose" casino is really just that: https://cruising.org/en/about-the-industry/policy-priorities/cruise-industry-policies/Other

 

 

Nevada regulations only set statutory minimum floors for casino slot payouts. Any payout percentage above that minimum threshold is at the discretion of the casino itself. Land based casinos can and do compete against each other by adjusting their expected return. How frequently those change and how they differ by machine is unknown. In theory, ships could do the same, but don't need to. That's not to say that ship board casinos set their machines at the regulated minimum. I strongly suspect they don't. That's for the handful of machines at the 7/11 gas station on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Charleston!

 

The ONLY gambling game where players cannot mathematically calculate their expected return are slots. Anyone can do the math at any table game or video poker machine because the 'rules' are published for all to see. You'll note that in ALL cases that I'm aware of, ship board rules reduce the payout to the detriment of the player (6:5 BJ, 000 on the wheel, limits on the Odds bet, etc.) There is no way to determine the actual payout percentage on any slot, anywhere subject to the Nevada Gaming Commission. What you can know is that there is an unknown floor set by regulation. 

[MadManOfBethesda]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:37 AM, jxtgreek said:

Heading on the Paradise in 2 weeks.  Just curious how the casino is paying out....

I'm sure this was an anomaly, but my wife and I were walking through the Venezia casino the other day, and two separate $10,000 jackpots were hit within what seemed like 30 seconds of each other. And the two lucky winners weren't even playing the max amount on the winning spin. One individual was playing $1.60 on an 80-cent minimum machine and the other was playing the 88-cents minimum on that particular machine.

 

I've seen many people hit jackpots on a variety of cruises over the years, but this is the first time I've seen one right after another one has hit, and with both people playing the minimum or close to the minimum. In fact, on many machines, you're not even eligible for the jackpot unless you're playing the max amount or several multiples of the minimum.

[edrussell]

So much misinformation and myth always comes up when anyone mentions how 'tight' the cruise ship casinos are.  Specifically for slot/VP as has been correctly mentioned by @TxTeach79 and @jsglow they are tightly controlled and are nowhere near as 'tight' as people claim.  You will fair no better, nor any worse than playing in a Nevada casino.  Of course it is called GAMBLING for a reason.  Your individual session will vary greatly.  It is 100% absolutely correct to say that the selection of machines does definitely differ compared to land based casinos.  Especially so given the limited floor space.   Then again so many people don't actually understand the volatility of 1 machine versus another or the RTP of differing denominations and prefer to just spot myth and misinformation.  

 

I have extremely detailed records of our gambling on all of our cruises and all of our trips to Vegas (we visit Vegas twice per year and usually take 4 cruises per year) as I use an envelope system and both my wife and are disciplined in our sessions.  Comparing the last 7 years our sessions on cruise ships only slightly are lower than land based casinos in Vegas.  Our coin in is higher in Vegas though.  With that said my own results are of course my own and compared to the percentage returns on machines that are set by millions of spins.  Perception and the reality are vastly different and that is precisely what the casinos count on.

 

On our one and only Carnival sailing on Venezia (we were previously RCCL only) I swear I must have had a horseshoe in my pocket though, we came out WAY ahead on our slot play.  Running the numbers it was our second highest overall trip in terms of bankroll.  My conclusion?  We got lucky, period.  Nothing else.  Just pure random 'luck'.