goldenrod Posted June 14, 2009 #76 Share Posted June 14, 2009 (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 June 14, 2009 by goldenrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txjim09 Posted June 14, 2009 #77 Share Posted June 14, 2009 (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 June 14, 2009 by txjim09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaandJeff Posted June 14, 2009 #78 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Our Regent cruise was the first time we didn't play Bingo even a single time. But we did try the trivia which is our course free and on Regent quite cut-throat and gets very exciting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo222 Posted June 14, 2009 #79 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Fortunately, I have an advanced math degree Then, why were you playing a negative-expectation game to begin with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.S.Oceanlover Posted June 14, 2009 #80 Share Posted June 14, 2009 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted June 14, 2009 #81 Share Posted June 14, 2009 (edited) It doesn't take a lot of fguring to notice that there are a bunch of people playig and very little being paid out. Edited June 14, 2009 by paul929207 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare chasinraynbowz Posted June 14, 2009 #82 Share Posted June 14, 2009 (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 June 14, 2009 by chasinraynbowz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizard-of-roz Posted June 15, 2009 #83 Share Posted June 15, 2009 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!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephluva Posted June 15, 2009 #84 Share Posted June 15, 2009 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 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpj Posted June 15, 2009 #85 Share Posted June 15, 2009 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseChops Posted November 28, 2015 #86 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I was disappointed to see such small payouts as well, but if you don't like it don't play. We figured it's a good was to spend your on board credit. They do really push playing though. Lots of announcements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyancho Posted November 28, 2015 #87 Share Posted November 28, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted November 28, 2015 #88 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (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 November 28, 2015 by OzKiwiJJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessLuver Posted November 28, 2015 #89 Share Posted November 28, 2015 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: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare sonomaphil Posted November 28, 2015 #90 Share Posted November 28, 2015 The same is true for the casino blackjack tournaments. They run qualifiers all day long for the finals at $20 a chance but the pay out is always the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo222 Posted November 28, 2015 #91 Share Posted November 28, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CineGraphic Posted November 28, 2015 #92 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Whenever I pay to play a game that I know has ridiculous odds, I call it, "paying my stupidity tax". :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windsor26 Posted November 28, 2015 #93 Share Posted November 28, 2015 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanFromFL Posted November 28, 2015 #94 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I'd have better luck throwing my money overboard than in the casino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avcruz Posted November 28, 2015 #95 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Wow! Someone resurrected a 6 1/2 year old thread??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseChops Posted November 28, 2015 #96 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I'd have better luck throwing my money overboard than in the casino. Hey Alan. Please let me know your next cruise and I will book the cabin below and down wind of you!!!!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Cruise Raider Posted November 28, 2015 #97 Share Posted November 28, 2015 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!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare TracieABD Posted November 28, 2015 #98 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Wow! Someone resurrected a 6 1/2 year old thread??? You beat me to it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notentirelynormal Posted November 28, 2015 #99 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Wow! Someone resurrected a 6 1/2 year old thread??? Amazing isn't it! People. You are responding to a thread where probably nothing is valid since it is so old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shredie Posted November 29, 2015 #100 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Wow! Someone resurrected a 6 1/2 year old thread??? It's so much fun to be judgmental and tell other people how to spend their own money, I guess they couldn't resist the chance. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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