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OBC and the Casino

lbt43

By lbt43,
in Celebrity Cruises

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AlbertaCruisers

AlbertaCruisers

Posted
Posted
Hi All, the obc that comes with the go promos, can one use that to play in the casino?

 

Yep, the new rule is that for obc is they give you promo chips or put it as promo credits on your card. When I had this on the Summit in March, it meant that I put $100 into the machine from my card, then I could only cash out money I had actually won, anything left of the $100 goes back onto your card and has to be played in another machine (i.e. I had won $20 from winning spins and had $50 left of promo, so I couldn't cash out $70, when I cashed out it gave me a $20 ticket and the rest went back on my card as promo play). I think this change is supposed to be going fleet wide, but people still seem to have somewhat different experiences. In our experience, they said they don't differentiate between non-refundable and refundable obc, as long as you have obc on your account they will only give you the promo chips/play in the casino, no cash. Once the obc is gone they will give you cash.

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Cruising Is Bliss

Cruising Is Bliss

Posted
Posted
What a scam. Very disheartening.

 

Not a scam at all.

 

It's an Onboard Credit to be used on the ship. It's never been a Celebrity Pays You the Unspent Balance Credit.

 

People found a loophole to make it a discount on their cruise fare by cashing it out in the casino and Celebrity finally closed the loophole.

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Miaminice "Live from...." Rare

Miaminice

Posted
Posted
Interesting. I have $300 obc given to me as a perk and have added another $400 myself specifically to use in the casino.

How will that work?

 

Simple, you will get the 300 as promo tokens or credit, the 400 as regular tokens or credit.

 

The promo tokens have a different color.

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lbt43

lbt43

Posted
  • Author
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Interesting. I have $300 obc given to me as a perk and have added another $400 myself specifically to use in the casino.

How will that work?

 

From what I understand, the purchased OBC can be used.

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

Posted
Posted

If you bet $5 in promotional chips and you win the hand, they will give you $5 in real chips and leave the promotional chip. The only way to lose a promotional chip is to lose a hand and then they will take your $5 promotional chip. Essentially, if you have $100 in promotional chips, you have to lose the $100 during the course of your play.

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AlbertaCruisers

AlbertaCruisers

Posted
Posted
Simple, you will get the 300 as promo tokens or credit, the 400 as regular tokens or credit.

 

The promo tokens have a different color.

 

Not for sure, on the Summit they told us they can't tell the difference between refundable and non-refundable OBC, so as long as it shows any OBC on your account you only get the promo chips. But, if you want/plan to play it in the casino anyway, I don't really think there is a different, the promo chips have the same value as money, it just stops people from cashing out OBC in the casino.

 

For the lady that put $400 on herself, anything you pay for on the ship or if you get money on your card at the casino, that should come out of the non-refundable part first and then if any of the $400 is left at the end it will be returned to your card (ok if you paid in US, not great for Canadians).

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AlbertaCruisers

AlbertaCruisers

Posted
Posted
I understand how it would work in blackjack, but how does this work with slot machines?

 

Everything I said above applies to slot machines. I put my card in and put into the machine $100 in promo play. I played down to $70, ends up that $20 of that (I am rounding for ease) was wins and I still had $50 of promo in the machine, so the machine cashed me out a ticket for $20 which I could cash in for cash and put the other $50 back on my card, and I had to use that in other machines. So, it was a penny machine and I was paying $2 a spin, so I had spun 25 times (hence $50 of the promotional play gone) and of those spins I won $20 (the cash they would give me back). Actually down $30 of course.

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Durkman

Durkman

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think there was a thread a while back about how to convert your OBC to cash by playing roulette. If you cannot find it, I think it involved betting your OBC chips on both red and black, knowing that (unless green comes up) one will win and double and the other will lose. So if you bet $20 on each of red and black with OBC chips, each hand you will lose $20 in OBC chips and gain $20 in cash. Then take the cash and make the same bet again with only OBC chips. You can keep doing this until all of your OBC chips are lost and you have the same amount of cash.

 

And you can of course hedge with a smaller bet on green in case that comes up. If you don't hedge and green comes up you'd lose everything you bet that hand; if you hedge each hand you'll lose most of those smaller bets. So it is not necessarily a 1:1 conversion of OBC to cash but it would be pretty close. And you'd have fun gambling too!

Edited by Durkman
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lbt43

lbt43

Posted
  • Author
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I think there was a thread a while back about how to convert your OBC to cash by playing roulette. If you cannot find it, I think it involved betting your OBC chips on both red and black, knowing that (unless green comes up) one will win and double and the other will lose. So if you bet $20 on each of red and black with OBC chips, each hand you will lose $20 in OBC chips and gain $20 in cash. Then take the cash and make the same bet again with only OBC chips. You can keep doing this until all of your OBC chips are lost and you have the same amount of cash.

 

And you can of course hedge with a smaller bet on green in case that comes up. If you don't hedge and green comes up you'd lose everything you bet that hand; if you hedge each hand you'll lose most of those smaller bets. So it is not necessarily a 1:1 conversion of OBC to cash but it would be pretty close. And you'd have fun gambling too!

 

I like you.

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Shmty19

Shmty19

Posted
Posted

would you be able to use your promotional OBC chips to buy into the poker tournament or blackjack tournament that they have throughout the cruise? I am thinking of playing in one of the poker tourneys and it would be great if I could use some of my OBC.

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Ma Bell

Ma Bell

Posted
Posted
would you be able to use your promotional OBC chips to buy into the poker tournament or blackjack tournament that they have throughout the cruise? I am thinking of playing in one of the poker tourneys and it would be great if I could use some of my OBC.

 

Yes, you may.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Shmty19

Shmty19

Posted
Posted

Just an update, you are not able to use OBC to buy into the tournaments. Since they have to give you cash for the tournament, they don't allow you to pull from your OBC. If you don't have OBC, they will waive the 5% fee for pulling cash off of your sea pass for the tournaments.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Ma Bell

Ma Bell

Posted
Posted
Just an update, you are not able to use OBC to buy into the tournaments. Since they have to give you cash for the tournament, they don't allow you to pull from your OBC. If you don't have OBC, they will waive the 5% fee for pulling cash off of your sea pass for the tournaments.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

What ever you charge to your sea pass will be paid for first by your non- refundable OBC, then your refundable OBC and finally just charged to your credit card.

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Shmty19

Shmty19

Posted
Posted

Correct, but with Celebrity's new casino policy, they can't give you cash to buy into their tournaments. They don't accept the Promo chips to buy into the tournament, that is where there was an issue. When using your seapass and having onboard credit, they can only give you promo chips or promo credit for slots. The tournaments are cash only.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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gergles

gergles

Posted
Posted

I love how Celebrity IT was so incompetent for so long that you're unable to view your OBC balances on your account until day 2 or 3 of a cruise... but once they decide to start withholding OBC balances they can magically do it the second you board. :rolleyes:

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jagoffee

jagoffee

Posted
Posted
you're unable to view your OBC balances on your account until day 2 or 3 of a cruise... but once they decide to start withholding OBC balances they can magically do it the second you board. :rolleyes:

 

What ship and date did you cruise. This must be a recent change because it was not true in January unless I missed it.

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