How Cruise Casino Points Work
Last reviewed: September 2026
Cruise casino points are earned on coin-in, which is the total amount you put through a machine, not the amount you win or lose. Every major line publishes a slot rate and a separate, slower video poker rate. Table games are rated by estimate, not counted.
That single distinction explains almost everything confusing about cruise casino programs. If you bring $200 to a slot machine and play it through ten times before walking away with $150, your coin-in was roughly $2,000, not $50. Points follow the $2,000.
What is coin-in, exactly?
Coin-in is the sum of every wager you make. A $1.25 spin bet 400 times is $500 of coin-in. Because slot machines return most of your money most of the time, coin-in piles up far faster than your actual budget suggests. That is why a modest bankroll can produce a large point total, and why tracking your gambling spending by session loss is a completely different number from the one the casino uses to rate you.
Published slot and video poker rates
Here are the official earn rates on the three lines we track most closely, expressed as dollars of coin-in per point.
| Program | Slots | Video poker |
|---|---|---|
| Carnival Players Club | $2 per point | $5 per point |
| Club Royale (Royal Caribbean) | $5 per point | $15 per point |
| Blue Chip Club (Celebrity) | $5 per point | $15 per point |
Carnival’s slot rate is the richest at sea. Same $10,000 of coin-in: 5,000 points on Carnival, 2,000 on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. Because those numbers are not interchangeable, any cross-line comparison has to be converted back into dollars of coin-in first. Our cruise line comparison does that conversion for you.
Why video poker earns two to three times slower
Video poker pays back more than slots do when it is played reasonably well. A good video poker paytable can return over 99 percent, versus a typical shipboard slot return well below that. The casino’s expected profit per dollar wagered is therefore much smaller on video poker, so it awards fewer points per dollar. Celebrity moved its video poker rate from $10 to $15 per point in late July 2026, which is a reduction of about a third in earn rate on the same play.
The rate spread is not a trick. It is the program pricing points against theoretical loss, which is the only number the casino actually cares about.
Table games are estimated, not counted
There is no card reader in a blackjack shoe. On every cruise line, table play is rated by a supervisor who records your average bet, the game you played, and roughly how long you sat there. Those three inputs get multiplied by an assumed decisions-per-hour figure and an assumed house edge.
No cruise line publishes the formula. That is worth saying plainly rather than guessing: the multipliers, the hands-per-hour assumption, and the treatment of a table you left for twenty minutes are all internal. What follows from this is practical. If you play tables, hand your card over at the start of every session, not at the end, and expect the rating to be approximate. See table games comps vs slots for how the two rating methods diverge.
What points do not tell you
A point total measures how much action you gave the casino. It does not measure whether you came out ahead, and earning more points always means wagering more money. A free interior cabin earned through 4,000 points of slot play at $5 per point represents $20,000 of coin-in, and the expected cost of putting $20,000 through a shipboard slot machine is far more than a cabin is worth.
Points are a rebate on losses you already expect to take. They are not a discount you can play your way into.
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Play for entertainment, not income. The math favors the house over time. Set limits, never chase losses, and if it stops being fun, take a break. 21+. Need help? Call 1-800-MY-RESET (1800myreset.org).