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Bingo Ripoff?

kingfoot

By kingfoot,
in Princess Cruises

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goldenrod

goldenrod

Posted
Posted (edited)
Hate to revive this thread, but... Cruising on Regent recently I asked about the bingo proposition. House takes 10% (pretty modest), and the house take goes entirely to the crew entertainment fund. Now *that's* a bingo game even a grumpy mathematician can enjoy!

 

Our first time on Regent, and I must say it is a complete class act. Totally different product than Princess.

We have cruised on Regent four times and love it but it's cost is 3 times what you pay on Princess so the fact they have reasonable Bingo odds is silly and meaningless when your paying $12,000 for a comparable cruise instead of $3,000 or $4,000 on Princess:)

Edited by goldenrod
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txjim09

txjim09

Posted
Posted (edited)
To the OP,

 

Lets say you are the CEO of a company that has a product that sells for x dollars and makes you a HUGE profit. Your customers are very happy. Laughing, clapping and carrying on as if they don't feel ripped off. They come back for more day after day. Your profits become even better!

 

You would throw those profits away because they were not "fair"?

 

Bless your little socialist heart!! :D

 

If I were a stockholder in this company of yours you would be sacked faster than you can yell "Bingo!" :mad: :mad: :mad:

 

Since when did profit become such a bad word? :confused:

 

I have never seen anyone FORCED to spend one cent for ANY extras on Princess. You can remove tips from your account. You need not do any ships tours, bingo or go to the casino. You wont die of hunger or thirst if you only have what is included. Far from it actually! Photos? When has someone put them under your nose and begged you to buy?

 

Other people losing money? Mind your own....... oh well, hope you enjoyed something.

 

Gary P

 

Interesting. The OP presents his observations and opinions and you seemed threatened in some way. Don't understand the hostility. Also reminds me of the quote " The Lottery is a tax on those who don't understand math." Bingo probably fits there as well.

Edited by txjim09
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S.S.Oceanlover

S.S.Oceanlover

Posted
Posted
Just got off the Star, and noticed something very disturbing about the Bingo games. It appears the payoffs are not based on a percentage of sales, but are instead fixed at an extremely low amount, independent of actual ticket sales revenue. My quick order of magnitude guess (based on attendance observations and estimates) for our 10 day cruise was that Princess sold about $50,000 worth of tickets, and gave away about $5,000 total in prizes. What's worse is that if they managed to sell $100,000 in tickets, they would still only payout $5,000! Every ticket sold after the first 200 or so is 100% profit for the cruiseline! I'm sure most people assume that the bingo offered is the traditional scheme where the more people play, the bigger the jackpot, but it does not appear to be the case. Even if the house kept 50 cents of every dollar I could still enjoy a game, but the fixed payout model is so outrageously unfair it almost seems borderline unethical to me... any other thoughts?

 

If that's the case then most people are just plain ignorant and don't listen to announcements.

 

Almost every cruise i've ever taken they have it in the ships daily program like the Princess Patter when and how much the jackpots are.

 

And when sitting in the lounge they announce it over and over to get your bingo tickets to get a chance to win $250 dollas.(english accent) Or whatever the jackpot amount is for that game.

 

Also don't assume every person in the showroom is playing. Some like let just sit there with my wife while she plays and there are people there that are just waiting for bingo to end so they can get good seats for the show that follows.

 

Bill

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chasinraynbowz Great Review Rare

chasinraynbowz

Posted
Posted (edited)

Last Princess cruise my mom and aunt wanted to play bingo, but I wanted to go to tea. She offered to buy my tickets, but if I won I had to share. There were several games, but the final game was worth $2750. I will say, there were not as many people playing as I thought there would be.

 

I won the final game! Mom and I each walked out of there with $1375 which pretty much paid for our cruise.

 

Bad odds or not.... it was a fun hour whether we won or not (but it was GREAT to win!!!!)

Edited by chasinraynbowz
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wizard-of-roz

wizard-of-roz

Posted
Posted
Last Princess cruise my mom and aunt wanted to play bingo, but I wanted to go to tea. She offered to buy my tickets, but if I won I had to share. There were several games, but the final game was worth $2750. I will say, there were not as many people playing as I thought there would be.

 

I won the final game! Mom and I each walked out of there with $1375 which pretty much paid for our cruise.

 

Bad odds or not.... it was a fun hour whether we won or not (but it was GREAT to win!!!!)

 

Congratulation! That was a wonderful cruise for you and your mom!

You're creating memories, you won't forget!!!!

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stephluva

stephluva

Posted
Posted

I've always enjoyed playing bingo on cruises. My bf and I went on the Crown in 2007, and we played bingo almost everyday. He ended up winning twice! Got some extra spending money, and had a blast! The payouts are never really worth it when you think about it, but people go on a cruise to have fun, not get paid ;)

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cpj

cpj

Posted
Posted

I quit playing the blackjack tournaments because they also have a fixed amount no matter how many players. Not sure about the slots tournament but as long as people play there not going to increase the payouts. I do believe they should increase the payouts somewhat but until they do I just will not play. Now for the people who do play and do not mind the payouts have a good time.

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  • 6 years later...
joeyancho

joeyancho

Posted
Posted
To the OP,

 

Lets say you are the CEO of a company that has a product that sells for x dollars and makes you a HUGE profit. Your customers are very happy. Laughing, clapping and carrying on as if they don't feel ripped off. They come back for more day after day. Your profits become even better!

 

You would throw those profits away because they were not "fair"?

 

Bless your little socialist heart!! :D

 

If I were a stockholder in this company of yours you would be sacked faster than you can yell "Bingo!" :mad: :mad: :mad:

 

Since when did profit become such a bad word? :confused:

 

 

 

I have never seen anyone FORCED to spend one cent for ANY extras on Princess. You can remove tips from your account. You need not do any ships tours, bingo or go to the casino. You wont die of hunger or thirst if you only have what is included. Far from it actually! Photos? When has someone put them under your nose and begged you to buy?

 

Other people losing money? Mind your own....... oh well, hope you enjoyed something.

 

Gary P

 

Nice ethics.

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OzKiwiJJ Great Review Rare

OzKiwiJJ

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

<begin rant>

More generally, I would almost rather pay a little more $$ for my cruise on a truly all inclusive cruise line than spend the entire cruise feeling that the cruise line is trying to maximize its revenue from me with bogus bingo games, art auctions, jewelry sales, shore excursions (aka more jewelry sales), internet charges, etc... I fear that cruising will eventually turn into the vacation equivalent of a 10 day "time share" sales pitch.

</ end rant>

 

I don't play bingo, don't buy art, have only bought one piece of jewellry at 50% the usually outrageous price, rarely do excursions, and enjoy being internet-free during my cruise. I'm really happy with lower cruise prices while you folks who buy into all that stuff subsidize my cruises. ;) :rolleyes: ;) :D

Edited by OzKiwiJJ
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PrincessLuver

PrincessLuver

Posted
Posted
Anybody who plays "sucker games" like Bingo, the Lottery, or penny slot machines is just setting himself up to lose. If they are that dumb, they deserve everything they get - or lose.

 

We have a friend who is a math teacher in a high school who won $40 million in the California Lottery and she would have no problems handling your insults....it is a choice at a chance and has nothing to do with intelligence....:rolleyes::rolleyes:

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pablo222

pablo222

Posted
Posted
but the fixed payout model is so outrageously unfair it almost seems borderline unethical to me... any other thoughts?

 

As long as people know the payouts when they buy the cards, no problem.

 

Suprisingly, cruiselines are in business to make a profit.

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windsor26

windsor26

Posted
Posted
Bingo revenue keeps fares down.

 

It must certainly do so on HAL ships

The bingo game there is a slightly different If the Jackpot does not go ion the named number of calls the money GOES TO THE CASINO at the end of the cruise leg it does not continue on or go to the eventual jackpot game winner who calls after the set number of balls

 

That IS disgraceful and as I only play bingo a couple of times and only onthe ships I do not play on HAL

 

However their shorter games are a set prize $100 $200 $300 (or similar) for each game whether there are 10 people playing or 150 people playing so for the slow days that is a good option

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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

Posted
Posted
It's like many other things on a cruise these days. it goes towards keeping down cruise prices. If they dropped this and many other money making activities on the ship the cost of a cruise would double.

 

I am quiet happy for people to book the ship excursions, buy in the shops, purchase photos, play bingo. I don't want to do any of these things and it lowers what I have to pay to be on the ship.

 

I agree with you 100%. All those excursions, photos, bingo, casino, boutique, specialty restaurant and drink profits keep the overall cost of cruising down. Think about what you get for such a low price -- prices really haven't gone up much at all in the past few decades. So, if you are willing to spend more on these activities, it keeps the costs down for everyone and you certainly are welcome to participate or not. Best deal ever!!

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