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FPVP in unlikely places

My wife and I took a Caribbean cruise last week on the Celebrity Constellation. (An absolutely fantastic ship!) The casino has the expected selection of video poker, with such gems as 6/5 Jacks. But the ship actually has full pay VP in a most unlikely place: your cabin.

One of the choices on the interactive TV menu in your cabin is "Gaming". Three choices are offered under this menu: Blackjack, Video Poker, and Keno. The video poker is a standard 9/6 Jacks paytable. You may bet a total of $0.25, $0.50, or $0.75 per hand (think of it as $0.05 - $0.15 denoms). Your wagers -- and your winnings, if any -- are deducted from and credited to your ship account directly. The game is slow and the user interface is pretty awful, so you might be able to crank 200 hands/hour (if you were silly enough to play this for that long). But there's something ...different... about being able to play a few hands of video poker for real money while tucked into bed. And you can even get comped room service munchies while playing. :slight_smile:

Only played a few hands of blackjack, but it appeared to have reasonable rules (allowed double on anything, and paid 3:2 on blackjacks). We didn't try the Keno.

The obvious caveat here is that there's no clue as to who produces the software that's running these games, so no telling if they're rigged or not... in our very statistically INsignificant number of hands played, it seemed reasonable, even generous (I think we achieved every hand except for SF and RF in what was surely no more than a couple hundred hands total for the week, and came out a few bucks ahead).

Also in that area of the world: we stopped into the Intercontinental San Juan Hotel, which has one (1) $0.25 9/6 Jacks machine. This hotel is a few minutes ($8 fare) by cab from the San Juan Int'l Airport, so this might be an option if you have a couple hours to spare before your outgoing flight.

Enjoy...

--Joe

My wife and I took a Caribbean cruise last week on the Celebrity
Constellation. (An absolutely fantastic ship!) The casino has

the

expected selection of video poker, with such gems as 6/5 Jacks.

But the

ship actually has full pay VP in a most unlikely place: your cabin.

One of the choices on the interactive TV menu in your cabin is
"Gaming". Three choices are offered under this menu: Blackjack,

Video

Poker, and Keno. The video poker is a standard 9/6 Jacks

paytable. You

may bet a total of $0.25, $0.50, or $0.75 per hand (think of it as

$0.05

- $0.15 denoms). Your wagers -- and your winnings, if any -- are
deducted from and credited to your ship account directly. The

game is

slow and the user interface is pretty awful, so you might be able

to

crank 200 hands/hour (if you were silly enough to play this for

that

long). But there's something ...different... about being able to

play a

few hands of video poker for real money while tucked into bed.

And you

can even get comped room service munchies while playing. :slight_smile:

Only played a few hands of blackjack, but it appeared to have

reasonable

rules (allowed double on anything, and paid 3:2 on blackjacks).

We

didn't try the Keno.

The obvious caveat here is that there's no clue as to who produces

the

software that's running these games, so no telling if they're

rigged.................

                     <snip>

Hi Joe,

Glad to hear you had a fun cruise. The only cruise line I've ever
taken was Royal Caribbean, on an Alaskan cruise a few years ago.
Their casino was the pits for both VP & BJ. They didn't get one
dollar of my bankroll in play. No gambling in the cabin either.

While gambling on the "interactive TV" sounds like relaxing fun
(after a strenuous day of eating 6 meals, and playing shuffleboard
and Bingo) I would have been more than a little suspicious of
finding FPJoB in such an unlikely place. I Think I would have
assumed I was contributing to the cruise lines coffers, by playing
unregulated VP. I'm glad it worked out well for you.

I have never gambled on the net either, and don't think I ever
will. I simply don't have any confidence in the integrity or
randomness of the games. I would also be concerned about being paid
properly, on a timely basis. Most of all, in these days of
identity theft, I cringe at the thought of revealing any personal
financial or credit card information on the Web.

If any members of the board have personal experience with regular
internet vp play, I would be interested in hearing about their
experiences.

Best to all on the day after Turkey Day.

                    Babe

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Joe Schober <afljoeys@a...> wrote: