Carnival presents interesting opportunities to gamble using credit cards and gain a net advantage. I will share my experience from a February 2025 Carnival Panorama cruise, how I got an edge in the casino, and why I favored Video Poker over table games, notably Blackjack.
While playing, instead of using hundred dollar bills, I initiated a $1000 room charge at the Video Poker terminal. Carnival charged my connected Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card (3x Ultimate Rewards on travel purchases and triggering my yearly $300 travel credit).
In this case, a $1000 load only cost me $700, and I earned 3x Ultimate Rewards. For my second load, after playing through my first $1000, I earned 3x on the $1000 spending, which was still valuable to me.
The lowest cent-per-point Ultimate Rewards redemption I would initiate, Pay Yourself Back, yields 1.25 cents per point, offsetting various spending. 3x, then, would be a 3.75% return using Pay Yourself Back. Travel-oriented redemptions can be worth 1.5 cents per point or more using the Chase travel portal or transferring to airline partners and World of Hyatt. At a low valuation of 1.5 cents per point at 3x, we’re getting a 4.5% return loading to Video Poker.
My Video Poker Run
I played Triple Play Jacks or Better at the $0.25 denomination. With this machine, I wagered five credits per hand on the three hands to trigger a Royal Flush bonus (it didn’t need more than five credits). Each ‘pull,’ then, was $3.75. I opted to play just the $0.25 denomination for $3.75 a pull to lower variance vs. betting bigger, and because I only aimed to play through $5000 in coin-in that wouldn’t take a very long time.
The Triple Play Jacks or Better didn’t have a great paytable: a 7/5 payout for an approximate 96% return to player. Single-line machines and some other Jacks or Better games had low 6/5 paytables. When considering Ultimate Rewards earnings, free drinks while playing since I was an invited casino guest, casino tier points, and potential future cruise offers, I was happy to essentially convert credit to cash rather than using my own cash money, even though I was playing a game with a poor paytable.
I earned $5 in free play upon reaching 500 tier points and another $5 at 1000 tier points, a low return, but it’s something. $1000 in playthrough earned 200 tier points. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive free play past 1000 tier, and a casino host said $10 was the max. Other guests with far more tier reported onboard dining offers, massages, and more, but I wasn’t a heavy player, only playing through the money I loaded with room charges for a max of $5000 a day or 1000 tier.
A Bit of Blackjack
Onboard, I opted to play very little Blackjack, mainly because Carnival charges a 3% fee to buy casino chips with a room charge and because the game rules weren’t great with a continuous shuffler, the dealer hitting all 17s, and no option to surrender. However, multiple resplits were available, adding some player advantage, as I saw one player splitting deuces and then re-splitting after getting two more deuces.
Playing with a 3% fee on loads and more house edge on the base Blackjack game led me to favor Video Poker, at least when there were available machines (the few terminals were rarely available as Keno players sat at the multi-game Video Poker machines). When I played blackjack, I played for about 15-20 minutes, using $25 units because after I had spent my initial money, I would have been straight-up gambling. I don’t think requesting more chips after my first $1k buy-in and playthrough would be plausible.
I’m more than happy to play games with a slight edge, especially with the possibility of return rewards and having something else to do during sea days or evenings. I can also use this cash to make more money through high-yield checking and savings accounts, fund new bank accounts for bonuses, and engage in more advanced plays.
As always, gamble and use credit responsibly & intelligently. Stay tuned to my Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast for a Carnival Panorama trip report, including a section on gambling. Visit my YouTube channel today for various cruise port videos and a balcony room tour.
