Compare Cruise Casino Earn Rates: The Same Play on Every Line
Your expected loss does not change when you change cruise line. What you earn for it changes a lot. This prices one sailing's play against every line that publishes a rate.
Last reviewed: August 2026
Every cruise line's casino charges you the same way. You cycle money through a machine, the house edge keeps a slice, and what you are expected to lose is that slice of everything you wagered. None of that arithmetic mentions the ship's name.
What does change by line is how fast that identical play earns points. The gap is not small: the Carnival Corporation lines pay a point per $2 of slot coin-in, and the Royal Caribbean Group lines pay a point per $5. Same money through the machine, same expected loss, two and a half times the points.
Your sailing, on every line
Every line below charges you exactly the same for this play:
Coin-in is bet × pace × hours and expected loss is coin-in × house edge. Neither has a cruise line in it. What the lines change is what they give you back, and that is the table.
| Line | Earn rate | Points | vs slowest | Tier reached | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival | $2 / point | 12,600 | 2.50× | Gold (+37,400 to next) | Published |
| Holland America | $2 / point | 12,600 | 2.50× | no ladder published | Published |
| Princess Cruises | $2 / point | 12,600 | 2.50× | no ladder published | Reported |
| Royal Caribbean | $5 / point | 5,040 | 1.00× | Prime (+19,960 to next) | Published |
| Celebrity Cruises | $5 / point | 5,040 | 1.00× | Amethyst (+9,960 to next) | Published |
| Norwegian (NCL) | $5 / point | 5,040 | 1.00× | Pearl (+9,960 to next) | Published |
| Virgin Voyages | $5 / point | 5,040 | 1.00× | Star (+9,960 to next) | Reported |
The same $5,040 of expected loss buys 12,600 points on 3 lines (Carnival, Holland America, Princess Cruises) and only 5,040 points on 4 lines (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian (NCL), Virgin Voyages) — 2.5× the points for identical play.
Why isn't every cruise line here?
A line only gets a row if it publishes an earn rate we can point at. These don't:
- MSC Cruises (Signature Player Rewards) — publishes no earn rate.
Holland America is in the table but shows no tier: it publishes the rate and no thresholds at all, so its points are real and there is nothing published to earn toward.
How to read this without fooling yourself
A faster earn rate is not the same as a better deal, and the table cannot tell you which line to book. Three things it deliberately does not weigh:
- Points are only worth what they redeem for. Holland America earns at the fastest rate at sea and publishes no thresholds at all, so nobody outside the company can say what those points buy. Celebrity earns at half the speed and prints a full twelve-rung chart every month. Which is worth more depends entirely on the redemption side.
- The house edge is an assumption, not a fact. No cruise line publishes slot RTP. The default here is a conservative 80%, and the meters we have read measured 83% to 91%. Change it and the expected loss moves; the ranking does not, because the ranking is set by earn rates alone.
- Table play does not work like this. Every line rates tables on average bet and time, by a formula none of them publish. The rates above are slots and video poker only.
Why some lines aren't ranked
A line earns a row here only if it publishes an earn rate we can point at. MSC publishes none, so it has no row rather than an estimated one. Princess's rate is graded as reported rather than published, because it comes from players rather than from Princess, and the table says so on the row.
The full evidence grading for all eight programs, including what each line does and does not disclose, is on the data page.