I was recently on the Carnival Pride. The pay tables were extremely bad,
and not helped by the fact that most (if not all) were 10-coin machines instead
of 5 coins to get the correct royal payout. This meant that a quarter
machine was in effect a 50-cent machine - so you got a lot more volitility than
you expected. Being often bored late at night, I played on a bad DDB $1
machine anyway, and after big losses, hit a royal ($8000) wiping out my losses, and
strangely, hit is again on another day, coming out over $5000 ahead for the
trip, even with some losses on BJ. So you can win - but the bad paytables
mean that you probably will slowly lose more than normal, and only good luck
(and royals) can save you.
BJ is the best game to play, or craps. They have some funky speciality
games like 3-card poker, BJ with bonus bets, and so on, as well as Let It Ride
and Caribbean Stud. BJ is the best table game, and better than the slots/VP.
Slots seemed extremely tight as well. Of course someone recently hit
Carnival's big linked- progressive jackpot - so you can win, but the likihood is
that you won't.
Of course there is one thing worse to play on a ship - that is Bingo - which
is a really big ripoff. If you feel the urge for a plunge bet, take your
bingo money over to the roulette wheel and stick it on a number. Your odds of
winning a large jackpot are better and your payout is better and the house
edge is less.
Hopefully for most people cruises have a lot to offer them - so you won't be
tempted by gambling onboard.
Also the various BJ and slot tournaments on most ships seem to be a very bad
bet (worse than bad VP).
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