Pre-purchase casino credits

[Drunken Crab]

55 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

I'll be taking IOS this thurs, and have purchased the $1k table-chip gig.  Have been promised by Casino Royal (by 2 separate reps) that I will be given 1K in 'real' chips, $75 in 'promo' chips, and a $10 lottery ticket.  Also been promised that the 1K can be cashed in at any time.

 

I'll will provide the 'how-it-really-works' process when I return home.

 

Mark

There’s no way that is correct, right?  You’d have everyone on the ship working the system to get the free promo money and scratcher for free. 

[0mzzz]

6 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I would guess you would have to sell them at a discount to entice people to buy them because of the restrictions on how they can be used.

 

And it's against the T&C so the other person really gets the burn when they go to play them, the seacard doesn't show they purchased them, and they all get voided.

[Wolffie89]

1 hour ago, Drunken Crab said:

There’s no way that is correct, right?  You’d have everyone on the ship working the system to get the free promo money and scratcher for free. 

It has been confirmed by someone onboard with the promotion that the chips will be all promo chips ex: your buy the $2000 promo, all 2000 will be promo chips. I don't know why we are still going back and forth about this.

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, Drunken Crab said:

There’s no way that is correct, right?  You’d have everyone on the ship working the system to get the free promo money and scratcher for free. 

 

There have already been reports from ships that it does not work that way.

[tekguy26]

I dont like this one bit, but I also see people thinking that keeping the promo chip while being paid after a win is a bad thing. Once you break even, those promo chips are risk free bets. So once you've won $2000 back in cash, then every bet with a promo chip is free. I wouldn't want to lay down a $500 bet. But if I'm even, I'd place a $500 promo bet. If I win, its cash in my pocket, if I lose it, no loss to me. I just have a hard time forking over $2000 now and try finding my way out of that hole before my vacation even starts.

[ZoeyVictoria]

For the people who are considering purchasing $2,000 in promo chips, how much do you bet on each hand?  How many hands can you play with the $200 bonus?  I play three-card poker and considered purchasing $500 to try out the promotion until I realized that the $25 bonus would be less than one hand. 

[Drunken Crab]

I’m intrigued with the slot bonus and will probably do the $2,000 for me and my wife. I think our “cash in” over a 7 night cruise will be over $2,000, so I’m not worried about not using it. Table games are a little different since I’ll mentally know I need to lose in order eat up the promo chips. Just seems weird in my mind and not worth the $200 bonus.  Plus, there have been times I’ve bought in for a couple of hundred on blackjack and lost it all on bad beats in a few hands and I avoid the tables for days. 

 

I also like like the convenience of being able to charge the chips pre-cruise, get credit card points for them, and again not have to deal with a lot of cash. I figure just squirrel away cash out tickets and cash them in every couple of days. Assuming I win.😃

[DrJAV]

Alright so after having thoroughly researched this topic for a few hours now, I'm a little irritated at the disingenuous definition of "play through" they are using but have just gone ahead and purchased the $500 table credits for a few reasons...

 

What they define as "play through" on the slots makes sense, but for the table games its kinda whack. You need to readjust what you're considering as "play through" but to me it still makes for a deal (albeit a small deal). I play black jack and will play black jack for a least half a dozen hours over the course of our 7 day cruise coming up this weekend. As long as I plan to "lose" well over $500 during my cruise then the deal is worth it. And by "lose" I am including the natural ebb and flow of blackjack, not just what my initial buy in looks like at the end.

 

Normally I'll sit down and buy in at $100 and play $5 a hand for an hour or so. Generally I wind up almost breaking even (given the house edge is about 1% if played correctly, maybe a bit worse on a cruise casino lets say 2%) but in order to break even after an hour of play means a few things. 1: I probably played 50 hands in that hour and therefore 2: I won 25 of those hands and lost 25 of those hands. Thus, even though I have just broken even overall, I have still at some point or another "lost" 25x$5 ($125). Meaning that I'd have to play about 4 hours worth of black jack during the week to effectively "lose" the initial $500 of promo chips. Or perhaps it makes more sense to say that I will have "converted" the promo chips back to real money within roughly 4 hours of playing the table minimum at blackjack. Realistically I'll probably play closer to 10 hours of blackjack during the week so I've got a good margin of safety built into the calculation.

 

If they had properly accounted for my table chip "play through" by replacing the promo chip with a regular chip in addition to giving me a regular chip for a win then I'd buy the $2000 option. But since their definition of "play through" is screwy then the $500 option better approximates my actual "play through". So now I'll do my normal amount of fartin' around at the blackjack table fairly confident that I wont be adversely affected by their stupid rules. As long as you take into account "play through" actually means you have to lose that much at some point, you can still get a small bonus.

 

So at the end of the day I'll get the $25 free play bonus, plus the $5 scratch ticket.

On top of that, my Canadian bank's exchange rate would have cost me $677 monopoly dollars for the $500 USD, which Royal Carribean just sold to me for only $655 monopoly dollars - a savings of $22 monopoly dollars. In addition, I now get 677 points on my American Express credit card worth $6.77 canadian.

 

So all in, the $500 pre-pay option has gotten me $30 USD of free casino play, and saved me $28.77 CAD in credit card points and exchange fees. Not a bad option as long as you're CERTAIN you'll be playing enough table games that the $500 free-play will get "lost" at some point. For somebody who gambles more than the table minimum on blackjack the $1000 option might be worth while or even the $2000 if you really go hard on the gambling.

[Ourusualbeach]

^good luck finding a $5 blackjack table.

[DrJAV]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

^good luck finding a $5 blackjack table. 

 

Or $10 or whatever is fine too. Point being that I just play table minimum all the time because I lose the least money per hour that way. If I sit down and play table min $10 a hand for an hour, x 50 hands in that 1 hour, and play proper blackjack basic strategy giving the house an edge of 2% (accounting for less favorable rules/payouts in their casino) then it cost me on average 0.02*$500 per hour of play... or $10/hour for entertainment. Not bad. Cheaper than a lot of other things.

[clean1owner]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:27 PM, Welly9 said:

TekGuy, we are on same side, 

ok you have your $1k out real cash chips and we are playing roulette, forget about odds and 0/00 for now, lets you put $1K on Red, I put $1K of Promo chips on red, we hit Red...we both high five each other right!? you get $1K paid back, I get $1K paid to me, still high fiving each other right?

next bet, same Red, same $1K each, its black, you lose $1K cash chips, I lose $1K promos chips, whats the balance, we are back to even, $1K each, but I have $200 promo still to play...thats the difference, not much I know, but we both knew we were playing that $1K, I simplified the bet for sake of ease, now i can bet the $200 again or BJ or craps, ...***** you and i can go for a drink and watch me scratch my ticket too lol, its fun, its entertainment, all im trying to say, 

 

 

But after the first spin, TekGuy has $2k CASHABLE and can walk away a winner. You have $1k CASHABLE and $1k invested in  chips that you can't do anything with, except lose them. So after winning $1k, you are even.

Edited December 5, 2018 by clean1owner

[clean1owner]

4 hours ago, tekguy26 said:

I dont like this one bit, but I also see people thinking that keeping the promo chip while being paid after a win is a bad thing. Once you break even, those promo chips are risk free bets. So once you've won $2000 back in cash, then every bet with a promo chip is free. I wouldn't want to lay down a $500 bet. But if I'm even, I'd place a $500 promo bet. If I win, its cash in my pocket, if I lose it, no loss to me. I just have a hard time forking over $2000 now and try finding my way out of that hole before my vacation even starts.

 

 

Just what the house wants you to think. Those promo chips aren't risk free. For every $ in promotional chips you are holding, you have $1 of REAL money invested. Doesn't matter if you have won $2000 or $20,000, you still have real money tied up in promotional chips. If that same money was used to buy real chips at the table, you would have ALL cashable chips. So if you lose your theoretical $500 promo bet after winning enough to break even, you just lost $500 in chips you paid real money for.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Only the biggest suckers will go for this promotion! 🙄

[Robinhill]

12 hours ago, DrJAV said:

Alright so after having thoroughly researched this topic for a few hours now, I'm a little irritated at the disingenuous definition of "play through" they are using but have just gone ahead and purchased the $500 table credits for a few reasons...

 

What they define as "play through" on the slots makes sense, but for the table games its kinda whack. You need to readjust what you're considering as "play through" but to me it still makes for a deal (albeit a small deal). I play black jack and will play black jack for a least half a dozen hours over the course of our 7 day cruise coming up this weekend. As long as I plan to "lose" well over $500 during my cruise then the deal is worth it. And by "lose" I am including the natural ebb and flow of blackjack, not just what my initial buy in looks like at the end.

 

Normally I'll sit down and buy in at $100 and play $5 a hand for an hour or so. Generally I wind up almost breaking even (given the house edge is about 1% if played correctly, maybe a bit worse on a cruise casino lets say 2%) but in order to break even after an hour of play means a few things. 1: I probably played 50 hands in that hour and therefore 2: I won 25 of those hands and lost 25 of those hands. Thus, even though I have just broken even overall, I have still at some point or another "lost" 25x$5 ($125). Meaning that I'd have to play about 4 hours worth of black jack during the week to effectively "lose" the initial $500 of promo chips. Or perhaps it makes more sense to say that I will have "converted" the promo chips back to real money within roughly 4 hours of playing the table minimum at blackjack. Realistically I'll probably play closer to 10 hours of blackjack during the week so I've got a good margin of safety built into the calculation.

 

If they had properly accounted for my table chip "play through" by replacing the promo chip with a regular chip in addition to giving me a regular chip for a win then I'd buy the $2000 option. But since their definition of "play through" is screwy then the $500 option better approximates my actual "play through". So now I'll do my normal amount of fartin' around at the blackjack table fairly confident that I wont be adversely affected by their stupid rules. As long as you take into account "play through" actually means you have to lose that much at some point, you can still get a small bonus.

 

So at the end of the day I'll get the $25 free play bonus, plus the $5 scratch ticket.

On top of that, my Canadian bank's exchange rate would have cost me $677 monopoly dollars for the $500 USD, which Royal Carribean just sold to me for only $655 monopoly dollars - a savings of $22 monopoly dollars. In addition, I now get 677 points on my American Express credit card worth $6.77 canadian.

 

So all in, the $500 pre-pay option has gotten me $30 USD of free casino play, and saved me $28.77 CAD in credit card points and exchange fees. Not a bad option as long as you're CERTAIN you'll be playing enough table games that the $500 free-play will get "lost" at some point. For somebody who gambles more than the table minimum on blackjack the $1000 option might be worth while or even the $2000 if you really go hard on the gambling.

i had some promotional chips given to me in a bucket when i won a raffle and was told they could not be redeemed but i had to.play thru.  When i put $10 of those chips down and won, those chips stayed there and they paid me with $10 of real chips.  Then i put the real chips away and played on the same promo chips again.  Again i won, putting the $10 real chips away and playing off the same promo chips- that time i lost so i pulled out the next $10 worth of promochips and used them.  Its the same as regular play so i.dont know why this concept is so hard to comprehend.  You just cant cash the promochips in but if you gamble heavy or long you are bound to lose a total of those $500 chips over the week and will still have your winnings, no?

Edited December 5, 2018 by Robinhill
Mispelling

[Robinhill]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:58 PM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

That is what every decent casino does!👍

Also that is what the T+C say!

On a win, they do pay in real chips

[tekguy26]

21 minutes ago, Robinhill said:

i had some promotional chips given to me in a bucket when i won a raffle and was told they could not be redeemed but i had to.play thru.  When i put $10 of those chips down and won, those chips stayed there and they paid me with $10 of real chips.  Then i put the real chips away and played on the same promo chips again.  Again i won, putting the $10 real chips away and playing off the same promo chips- that time i lost so i pulled out the next $10 worth of promochips and used them.  Its the same as regular play so i.dont know why this concept is so hard to comprehend.  You just cant cash the promochips in but if you gamble heavy or long you are bound to lose a total of those $500 chips over the week and will still have your winnings, no?

 

I was the OP who raised the questions about this promo. I totally understand it now. But I think the confusion was some of the language in the T&C. When they say you must play through the promo chips, that should mean, once you play your initial investment of $2000+$200, all the money should be redeemable. So even after you play $2200, you still have promo chips left from the wagers you didn't lose.  So to get value from those remaining chips, they need to be wagered AND result in a win.

 

 

[Clarea]

12 minutes ago, Robinhill said:

On a win, they do pay in real chips

 

However, the devil is in the details.  I think they should pay both the amount wagered and the winnings in real chips. 

[MSPGuy]

On Allure now. I purchased the slot credit. Like someone mentioned, you download credit from the card to the machine. Once you do that, you have to play that amount. You can cash out your winnings at any time, but the promo amount stays with the machine until you play through it. Example: downloaded $50 to the machine. First $3 spin won $40. Cashed out the $40 winnings. $47 promo left in the machine I had to play.

 

I was not earning points on any of the pre-purchased credit, since the machine treats it as promo credit. However, after a visit to the casino host, she manually added the points to my account at the 1 point per $5 purchased rate.

[Welly9]

54 minutes ago, Robinhill said:

i had some promotional chips given to me in a bucket when i won a raffle and was told they could not be redeemed but i had to.play thru.  When i put $10 of those chips down and won, those chips stayed there and they paid me with $10 of real chips.  Then i put the real chips away and played on the same promo chips again.  Again i won, putting the $10 real chips away and playing off the same promo chips- that time i lost so i pulled out the next $10 worth of promochips and used them.  Its the same as regular play so i.dont know why this concept is so hard to comprehend.  You just cant cash the promochips in but if you gamble heavy or long you are bound to lose a total of those $500 chips over the week and will still have your winnings, no?

Finally, someone gets it, LOL

[Welly9]

10 hours ago, clean1owner said:

 

 

But after the first spin, TekGuy has $2k CASHABLE and can walk away a winner. You have $1k CASHABLE and $1k invested in  chips that you can't do anything with, except lose them. So after winning $1k, you are even.

Dont confuse things, like everyone is!? 

1st if you bet a $1K you are a gambler, and if you win, you arent done there Mr. you will play more, you will play tomorrow and day after...winning or losing, again!!! its entertainment!

2ndly If you dont want to play, then thats fine, you gonna watch? i bet not! excuse the pun HA, but I will play on...

3rdly - its a simple promo, you dont have to do it if you dont chose, if you know you will go thru whatever amount you wish then do it, you have 5 days, 7 days or whatever to play through it, one pocket is promo credits/chips, the other pocket your winnings, some are poopoo'g it, but probably same people that complain about any promo looking for angles and snags...

Just enjoy your cruise, smile and have fun, thats why you are there!

[Thorben-Hendrik]

1 hour ago, Robinhill said:

On a win, they do pay in real chips

Your are totally missing the point! 🙄

T+C NC you have to play the promo chips - does not say you have to play that ships until you loose them! 😡

 Just another example  example how RCI srews their  customers! 👎

 But the but the cheerleaders will apologise and just love how RCI  see screws them  them over and over again... that is why they continue to do this practice! 🙄

[FireEMT978]

23 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Your are totally missing the point! 🙄

T+C NC you have to play the promo chips - does not say you have to play that ships until you loose them! 😡

 Just another example  example how RCI srews their  customers! 👎

 But the but the cheerleaders will apologise and just love how RCI  see screws them  them over and over again... that is why they continue to do this practice! 🙄

I'm definitely not an RCI cheerleader. 

But, it sure seems that you've got some bad blood towards them. For some reason.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 minutes ago, FireEMT978 said:

I'm definitely not an RCI cheerleader. 

But, it sure seems that you've got some bad blood towards them. For some reason.

Again missing the point!

T+C are very clear you have to play them once.... not over and over again! 😡

Has nothing to do with feelings... but as long as passengers will let them.... they will take advantage and earn more and more by taking advantage of the passengers that will let them screw them over..... 🙄

[Welly9]

6 minutes ago, FireEMT978 said:

I'm definitely not an RCI cheerleader. 

But, it sure seems that you've got some bad blood towards them. For some reason.

Lol

[HBE4]

1 hour ago, MSPGuy said:

On Allure now. I purchased the slot credit. Like someone mentioned, you download credit from the card to the machine. Once you do that, you have to play that amount. You can cash out your winnings at any time, but the promo amount stays with the machine until you play through it. Example: downloaded $50 to the machine. First $3 spin won $40. Cashed out the $40 winnings. $47 promo left in the machine I had to play.

 

I was not earning points on any of the pre-purchased credit, since the machine treats it as promo credit. However, after a visit to the casino host, she manually added the points to my account at the 1 point per $5 purchased rate.

 

That's how it works in every casino I've ever visited in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Connecticut, Florida and Louisiana.

 

I'm still failing to see how this is an RCI scam. Basically, they are making Casino Royale work like land-based casino's.