Who has a good cruise ship casino slot machine story?

[Mike_DeA]

1 hour ago, clcjdn said:

I don't believe in the looser tighter argument.  We play video poker primarily with a few slots mixed in.  We have hit hand pays (over $1200 in a single hand) on all different days of the cruise and on many different ships.  The best few were $7700 on a single line 10 play video poker on Carnival.  Royal Flush was progressive, and my wife hit it for that amount.  When it reset it was only worth $2000.  Right place right time.  We were playing on the NCL Jewel and had 5 hand pays in 7 days for a total of about $9000.  We ran hot the whole week on that one.  Lastly, hit a Royal Flush on Ultimate X with a 3x multiplier for $3,000 on the Epic.  Only one we didn't do decent on was the Escape earlier this year, but was first time in quite a while that we didn't come home with $3k plus after a week.  We bank any and all hand pays since CAS doesn't give you credit if you play them back.

Congratulations on your good luck.

 

What does this last line mean?  I'm confused if you mean you don't put the cash back into that same machine, or something else.

[clcjdn]

50 minutes ago, Mike_DeA said:

Congratulations on your good luck.

 

What does this last line mean?  I'm confused if you mean you don't put the cash back into that same machine, or something else.

The deal as I understand it from CAS (multiple times as you can see in my signature) is that when you win "their" money, they don't count that as "your" play when it comes to actual losses.  Simple example is I bring $1,000 with me, day 1 I win $1500 on a hand pay with W2G.  The rest of the week I spend my full $1000 and the $1500 I won.  I would expect actual losses (and almost every casino I play at on land and at sea) would count actual losses at $2500, however, CAS only counts it as $1000.  CAS also calculates theoretical loss, which in this example would be about $350 (assuming I flip my $1000 7 times before I lose it all and I only play video poker).  Since the $1000 is more, they would take that number.  Based on my historical play they evaluate VP at about 95% payback game, meaning any theoretical calcs assume a 5% house hold in the equations.  Different argument/different topic likely there.  The example that opened my eyes to how this all worked was the Jewel trip where we had over $9k in hand pays.  Didn't know how they did it, so played in all back over time.  We brought $5k with us, so I was expecting about a $14k loss or Haven suite on my next trip.  Not so much, I got $4900 theo loss which was an ocean view or balcony at that time.  ($14k * 7 * 5%).  From that trip forward we follow this guidance:

 

Any hand pay/W2G gets put away, and does not get gambled further.  We stick to our original budget of $x per session.  This way when we get done with the trip if they only offer us another ocean view or balcony at least we have the cash on hand from the trip if we want to upgrade/etc.

 

Any wins that are less than $1200, we can either continue to play in that session, or if we are done for the day (late like 3-4 am usually) 🙂  get divided up among the remaining sessions, so we have more to play later.  Except for the last night, because there are no more sessions on that trip.  

 

As you can probably gather, we do this quite a bit.  We try for at least 2 cruises a year (one with the kids/one without) but have been on 3 or 4 a couple of times.  With this level of play we usually get an OV or Balcony on any 7-10 day sailing for the CAS comp rate of 300-400 for the first 2 people.  The real secret in my opinion is to get a lot of winners in the 500-1000 range, and keep flipping the money to a multiple higher than 10.  The best I got once was like 22x, and we got a Jewel class suite on the next one.  Hope this helps.  Sorry for being long winded.

[clcjdn]

Also, I should add, this isn't something I have kept to myself over the years, I usually just do the sharing on the Casinos board here. 🙂

 

[memoak]

Not on NCL but on a Princess cruise hit Royal Flushes 3 time in one day on quarter video poker,  $1,000 each time for $3,000 for the day.  Yes I put some of that money on the cruise charge

[samiam0403]

My only hand pay was on the Getaway a few years ago. I was waiting for my turn in the slot tournament (had 2 rounds to wait), and so I sat down at a Quick Hits machine for a few minutes. Got the Quick Hit Fever bonus, and ended up winning $3300. By the time I got my hand pay, my fellow slot tournament folks were getting a little impatient as they waited. I then went on to win my round of the tourney. A lot of people were asking to rub me for good luck after that! 😂

[Mike_DeA]

51 minutes ago, clcjdn said:

The deal as I understand it from CAS (multiple times as you can see in my signature) is that when you win "their" money, they don't count that as "your" play when it comes to actual losses.  Simple example is I bring $1,000 with me, day 1 I win $1500 on a hand pay with W2G.  The rest of the week I spend my full $1000 and the $1500 I won.  I would expect actual losses (and almost every casino I play at on land and at sea) would count actual losses at $2500, however, CAS only counts it as $1000.  CAS also calculates theoretical loss, which in this example would be about $350 (assuming I flip my $1000 7 times before I lose it all and I only play video poker).  Since the $1000 is more, they would take that number.  Based on my historical play they evaluate VP at about 95% payback game, meaning any theoretical calcs assume a 5% house hold in the equations.  Different argument/different topic likely there.  The example that opened my eyes to how this all worked was the Jewel trip where we had over $9k in hand pays.  Didn't know how they did it, so played in all back over time.  We brought $5k with us, so I was expecting about a $14k loss or Haven suite on my next trip.  Not so much, I got $4900 theo loss which was an ocean view or balcony at that time.  ($14k * 7 * 5%).  From that trip forward we follow this guidance:

 

Any hand pay/W2G gets put away, and does not get gambled further.  We stick to our original budget of $x per session.  This way when we get done with the trip if they only offer us another ocean view or balcony at least we have the cash on hand from the trip if we want to upgrade/etc.

 

Any wins that are less than $1200, we can either continue to play in that session, or if we are done for the day (late like 3-4 am usually) 🙂  get divided up among the remaining sessions, so we have more to play later.  Except for the last night, because there are no more sessions on that trip.  

 

As you can probably gather, we do this quite a bit.  We try for at least 2 cruises a year (one with the kids/one without) but have been on 3 or 4 a couple of times.  With this level of play we usually get an OV or Balcony on any 7-10 day sailing for the CAS comp rate of 300-400 for the first 2 people.  The real secret in my opinion is to get a lot of winners in the 500-1000 range, and keep flipping the money to a multiple higher than 10.  The best I got once was like 22x, and we got a Jewel class suite on the next one.  Hope this helps.  Sorry for being long winded.

Thanks, I understand what you are saying.  I think part of the equation for free trips is how many total points you accumulate as well, but not certain.

 

Your win/loss in any casino will be based on a starting number of zero for whatever period of time is measured.

[clcjdn]

On 11/9/2018 at 1:39 PM, Mike_DeA said:

Thanks, I understand what you are saying.  I think part of the equation for free trips is how many total points you accumulate as well, but not certain.

 

Your win/loss in any casino will be based on a starting number of zero for whatever period of time is measured.

Whenever you ask them about points they quickly remind you that points don't lead to comps or something of that nature.  The truth is that points are an indirect aspect.  The "comp" value earned at video poker is quite different than that of slot machines.  For myself, I usually estimate the amount of time I spend playing slots vs VP, then take 90% of my points for example and rate those dollars at 5% hold for VP and take the remaining 10% and rate those dollars at 20% for slots.  Keep in mind, the VP points are 2x as expensive as slots when calculating.  I have been using this methodology on my past 6 or 7 cruises, and usually end up within a few hundred bucks on my estimate vs reality.  The thing that absolutely kills me is the 5% hold on video poker.  The machines are like 95.8% payback machines with perfect strategy.  Personally, I play at about 99.5% accuracy from testing on my 3rd party apps.  So I am playing right in that 95% range.  However, what percent of population plays at that high of an accuracy?  I cannot imagine more than 5-10% of all players.  The net result is that if you don't play darn near perfect math on those machines, you are actually giving more to the casino than the % they hold.  When I calculate at other casinos, it seems like they use 10-15% hold on video poker and it takes them about a year to realize when a player is in that upper tier of accuracy (to remove marketing promos, etc).  Just my two cents.....sorry....

[Lynndoyle]

Just got off the Breakaway and on night 2 I hit a $2000 jackpot and then on the last night I turned another $100 into $800!!  Was sooo excited.  

[Robb]

Short story................once in my life someone gave me a quarter........gave it a spin, lost...........never spent a penny again.....I am way ahead.

[CardFanDubG]

On NCL Getaway July 6, 2018, I was sitting next to a lady that won $19,269.86 on a minimum 88 cent bet. It was the 88 Fortune slot on the 5th night of a 7 night cruise. 

Edited November 17, 2018 by CardFanDubG

[WVU_Neal]

On 11/8/2018 at 12:33 PM, havanadaydreaming said:

IWe've been to Vegas a few times and I've never played a blackjack or craps table but I'm leaning towards playing the PASS line at craps table instead of slots on our next cruise.  it's more social and hopefully slows the financial losses. 

PASS at the craps table is one of the best bets you can make in a casino. It has a 1.41% house advantage. Even a better bet is the free odds bet that you can bet after a point comes up. Zero house advantage on that bet, meaning you are getting the correct odds. You can do the same with COME bets.

 

Craps is an excellent game, but is quite fast. My problem is that I get too much money out on the table. Go online and get yourself more details about how the game is played, the odds, and the table layout. Enjoy!

[Phaedrus78]

On 11/9/2018 at 11:47 AM, islesdave said:

 Most lower minimum bet blackjack tables are continuous shuffle, if you want to play with a shoe, usually they start at the $50 tables. 

 

Really?  I love me some blackjack, but that’s lame. 

 

I mean, I’ll play anyway. But boo. 

[FLAHAM]

Gamblers' stories of their gambling records are notoriously unreliable.

[gooch47]

So let me see if I'm reading this correctly.  If you consistently win in a cruiseship's casino you will not get any comps?  You only get credit for what you lose?

 

If that is the case, aren't you better off just paying for your cruises and not gambling at all?  You've paid for the "free" cruise with your losses.

[markf]

they don't  care  if  you win or lose--they care about how much you bet and how  many hours a day  you bet.

everyone has  a story that contradicts  , but I am finding it difficult to win on ships-not  to say I don't see some people win .

Clearly at the end of  the week we  know who wins!!!

[drvmywifecrzy]

Miss hearing these stories, bet they will be hot once cruises start back up

[Georgie562]

Never thought I’d win on these stinkin little older machines

 

My last NCL cruise on Epic  something in my head told me I was due for a bonus and to pick a random machine. So I did. ☺️

Edited November 20, 2020 by Georgie562

[JIMESOPUS]

Our last slot pull on the Bliss this past January, unfortunately I lost her name.  

[FLAHAM]

Girlfriend and I sailed on the Escape out of New York to Maine and Canada in Sept 2019.  Had three great steamed lobster lunches ashore.  On the afternoon of the sea day returning from Halifax to New York, we were reading while resting in the cabin.  She tells me she wants to play bingo.  I told her it ‘s a sucker’s game and how stupid do you have to be to play bingo?  She said she didn’t care and wanted to play.  I gave her $50 and she left.  She returned an hour or so later with twelve crisp $100 bills.  When we reached New York, she bought me a really nice steak dinner.  

[NCMtnBoys]

Years ago on a cruise I was playing a quarter machine and one cherry was supposed to pay three quarters, but every time I landed a cherry it paid only two quarters. Meh, ok, I didn't think much of it because I wanted to play that machine. I then landed a -12x symbol- -12x symbol- -double bar symbol- combination (144x the amount of three double bars) and the machine registered the win as 15 credits. Now I KNOW my machines and I knew the win was a lot more than that. I called a casino worker over and told them that the pay should be a lot more than that. He proceeds to tell me that I have to hit the cash out button to register the win. No, you don't. Again, I KNOW that's not true and as he's hitting the cash out button I'm cringing because I didn't want to mess up the win. Sure enough, out came a voucher for $3.75. I told him he needed to get someone else because the win was much more than that. Another higher-up casino worker came over, looked at it, pondered, squirmed a little, and said yea, it should have paid more than that, I'll be right back. A few minutes later he came back and said "we're going to go ahead and pay you the win, but then we're shutting the machine down since it's obviously not working right". The win was 5760 quarters, or $1440. Some people may not have realized what they'd won and went with the 15-coin win. But I knew better. I was surprised they paid me because many casinos have stickers on their machines that say "malfunction voids all pays and plays". But I was a member of their casino program and spend a lot onboard, so maybe that made a difference.

[tonit964]

My ex is a gambler, I'm not. On our very first cruise which was our honeymoon, he wanted me to go to the casino with him for a while. I played a nickel machine and dropped in 5 coins, first play, the lights started flashing and dinging. I won $600. Went to cash out and he says" you're not playing anymore"? I said "hell no, they just handed me $599.75, I'm not giving it back"!

[marktwothousand]

On 11/8/2018 at 12:33 PM, havanadaydreaming said:

I usually lose, lose, lose and fairly quickly at the slot machines at sea. 

 

has anyone here had a winning evening?  tell us all about it, please. 

 

 

We've been to Vegas a few times and I've never played a blackjack or craps table but I'm leaning towards playing the PASS line at craps table instead of slots on our next cruise.  it's more social and hopefully slows the financial losses. 

My slot story is a little different but fun.

 

One night I was playing a bunch of machines while awaiting a reservation. I jumped from machine to machine and then went to dinner when I heard my table was ready. I had about $300 on my room card after inserting a ticket I pulled from another machine. 
 

A few hours later, I went back to play. Inserted my room card and BANG. zero.

 

in panic, I went to the casino desk and explained to them, I had money, where did it all go?

 

their response was that, I probably placed and pulled the card and ticket in the wrong order and the money did not transfer to the card.

 

Overnight, they did a FULL audit on video and computer records and tracked down all the machines I played (I couldn’t remember) and determined another player had placed their card in the machine and got the money (whether knowingly or Not)

 

they were able to recover that money from The player and return it to me the next day. I was Gobsmacked, as I as sure it was lost. They took it extremely seriously and I wrote the entire team customer cards. 

[Laszlo]

Cruise on the Gem, 2012? Walking thru the casino I stopped and put a dollar in a progressive slot. 30 seconds later I was walking away with seven hundred and change. Best part is I don't gamble, I just happen to have 4 quarters in my pocket I was trying to get ride of Lol

[CrabbyPatti]

     We were on the Joy.  Hubby was playing at a machine and I went and sat at the next one to let him know I was going to head to the room as I had "played" all I was going to that evening.  He handed me

$ 5.00 and I put it in this old, dull, not flashy at all machine (don't even recall the name)  It was a penny machine and on the second spin I started getting free spins, it wasn't paying much but lots of free spins kept getting added, then it starts adding more free spins.  Ended up with 456 free spins and cashed out $ 300.00!  Always wonder why I didn't play max bet! (Only bet the minimum)

Edited December 1, 2020 by CrabbyPatti
oops

[pe4all]

I never play dollar machines.  The first evening of a cruise on Epic I passed a Wheel of Fortune machine.  Put in $10,  won a spin immediately, and won $1,000!  Nice way to start a cruise.