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Table games on cruise ships

What each cruise line actually publishes about its blackjack, roulette and craps tables, what players have reported on board, and what the common rule differences cost you, using published house-edge math.

Short answer

No cruise line we checked publishes its blackjack payout, whether the dealer hits soft 17, how many decks it uses or whether tables use continuous shufflers. Norwegian is the only line that publishes a range of minimums ($5 to $5,000). Carnival says table limits vary. Virgin Voyages publishes the most: single-deck blackjack, a Perfect Pairs side bet and 3x, 4x, 5x odds at craps.

Two recent player reports describe 6:5 blackjack at the low-minimum tables and 3:2 at higher minimums, with the dealer hitting soft 17. Paying 6:5 instead of 3:2 adds about 1.39% to the house edge, which is far more than any other common rule. So read the felt before you sit down, and if a 3:2 table is open at a bet you can afford, it's usually the cheaper seat.

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Line by line

This table separates what each line says on its own website from what players have reported. "Not published" means we found nothing on the line's own pages, not that the rule doesn't exist. Tables differ between ships and change over time, and a report from one sailing tells you about that sailing only.

Line	What the line publishes	Limits	Reported on board
Royal Caribbean	Blackjack, roulette, dice (craps) and baccarat; slot, poker and blackjack tournaments. Blackjack payout, soft 17, decks, shufflers and roulette wheel: not published.	Not published	None we could verify from a recent dated report.
Celebrity	Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker, baccarat, roulette and craps. Its table-games page describes a roulette wheel numbered 0 to 36 and doesn't mention a double zero. Blackjack rules: not published.	Not published. You can charge up to $5,000 a day to your SeaPass for table games.	None we could verify from a recent dated report.
Carnival	Classic Blackjack plus Carnival's own Fun 21; roulette, craps, Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud on most ships. Fun 21 rules and blackjack payout: not published.	"Table limits vary and are modified to best suit the guests on board."	None we could verify from a recent dated report.
Norwegian	Blackjack with "very popular side bets," craps, roulette (neighbor or race-track bets on selected ships), Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker and baccarat. Blackjack rules: not published.	Minimums from $5 to $5,000.	Linked progressive jackpots on blackjack and poker games on 18 ships Reported (Jan 2025).
Virgin Voyages	Blackjack with a Perfect Pairs side bet, single-deck blackjack, craps with 3x, 4x, 5x odds, Three Card Poker with a Six Card Bonus side bet, Ultimate Texas Hold'em and roulette. A Virgin blog post lists both single-zero and double-zero roulette, and baccarat. Blackjack payout and soft 17: not published.	Not published	Resilient Lady: 3:2 blackjack at a $15 minimum with the dealer hitting soft 17; single-deck blackjack paying 6:5 at $10; craps at $10 Reported (Jun 2026).
MSC	Blackjack, baccarat and roulette; craps only on selected ships in the US. Lessons in blackjack, poker, roulette and dice. Blackjack rules: not published.	Not published	MSC World America: blackjack minimums $10 to $100 with maximums $500 to $2,000, roulette $2 to $50, craps $10 to $300, "subject to change by sailing" Reported (May 2026). Progressive jackpots added to 30 blackjack tables on seven US ships Reported (Aug 2026).
Princess	Blackjack, craps and roulette; free slot and table lessons on each cruise. Blackjack rules: not published.	Not published	None we could verify from a recent dated report.
Holland America	Blackjack with progressive jackpot side bets, craps, roulette, Heads Up Hold 'Em and Three Card Prime. Blackjack rules: not published.	Not published	None we could verify from a recent dated report.
Margaritaville at Sea	Craps, blackjack, roulette, Texas Hold'em and Ultimate Texas Hold'em. Blackjack rules: not published.	Not published	Islander: one 3:2 blackjack table at a $25 minimum, dealer hits soft 17, no surrender, double after split and resplitting allowed; 6:5 tables at lower minimums; craps at $10 Reported (Dec 2025).

Explora Journeys isn't in the table because we couldn't load a table-games page for it. The games each line lists, and its rewards program, are also on its page in our cruise line directory. A general cruise guide from February 2026 describes 6:5 as normal at low-limit tables, 3:2 at higher limits, and dealers hitting soft 17, which matches the two ship reports above Reported.

Blackjack rules and what they cost

With good rules and basic strategy, blackjack is one of the cheapest games in the casino. Small rule changes move that edge, and the payout on a blackjack moves it the most. The figures below are from Wizard of Odds and show how much each rule changes the house edge, after adjusting your strategy. They're measured against an eight-deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17 and you can double on any two cards and after splitting.

Rule	Effect on the house edge
Blackjack pays 6:5 (A blackjack pays $6 for every $5 bet, instead of the traditional 3:2, which pays $7.50 for $5.) instead of 3:2	About 1.39% more
Dealer hits soft 17 (A dealer hand totaling 17 that counts an ace as 11, such as ace-6. Some tables make the dealer take another card; others make the dealer stand.) instead of standing	About 0.22% more
No doubling after a split	About 0.14% more
Late surrender against a 10	About 0.07% less
Six decks instead of eight	About 0.02% less
Two decks instead of eight	About 0.19% less
One deck instead of eight	About 0.48% less
Continuous shuffler (A machine that puts used cards straight back into the deck, so every hand is dealt from a freshly mixed set of cards.) instead of a cut card	About 0.01% to 0.02% less with six or eight decks

Why 6:5 matters most

At 6:5, a $10 blackjack pays $12 instead of $15. That $3 shortfall every time you get a blackjack costs more than every other rule in the table put together. The math behind casino games puts good-rules blackjack under 0.5%, so 6:5 can multiply your expected loss several times over.

Single-deck 6:5 isn't a bargain

One deck is worth about 0.48% to the player, but 6:5 takes away about 1.39%. That leaves a single-deck 6:5 game roughly 0.9% worse than an eight-deck 3:2 game with the same other rules (our arithmetic from Wizard of Odds' figures).

What it costs an hour

Wizard of Odds' comp table assumes 70 blackjack hands an hour. At $15 a hand that's $1,050 wagered. A game that pays 6:5 and hits soft 17 costs about 1.61% more than one that pays 3:2 and stands, or roughly $17 more an hour in expected losses (our arithmetic). Your real results will swing far more than that in either direction.

Shufflers and side games

Wizard of Odds found a continuous shuffler slightly lowers the house edge per hand. If the game runs faster because there are no shuffle breaks, though, you play more hands and the hourly cost goes up. Carnival's Fun 21 is a different game with its own rules, which Carnival doesn't publish, so ask the dealer for the rules before you play.

Roulette: one zero or two

Every roulette bet pays as if the zeros weren't there, and the zeros are where the house edge comes from. A single number pays 35 to 1 on every wheel type. Most lines don't say which wheel they use. Virgin's blog post lists both kinds, and Celebrity's page describes pockets from 0 to 36 without mentioning a double zero, so check the wheel on your ship.

Wheel	Pockets	House edge
Single zero (0)	37	2.70%
Double zero (0 and 00)	38	5.26%, or 7.89% on the five-number 0-00-1-2-3 bet
Triple zero (0, 00 and a third green pocket)	39	7.69%

House edges from Wizard of Odds. The edge is the same on red, black, a dozen or a single number, so on one wheel no bet is better than another, except the five-number bet on a double-zero wheel, which is worse.

Craps: odds and the bets to skip

Craps has some of the cheapest bets in the casino sitting right next to some of the most expensive ones. Virgin Voyages is the only line we found that publishes its odds limit (3x, 4x, 5x). MSC says craps is only on selected US ships, so don't count on a table everywhere.

Bet	House edge
Pass line or come	1.41%
Don't pass or don't come	1.36%
Odds (An extra bet you can add behind your pass or come bet once a point is set. It pays true odds, so the house has no edge on it.) behind a pass or come bet	0%
Place 6 or 8	1.52%
Field (pays 3 to 1 on 12)	2.78%
Field (pays 2 to 1 on 12)	5.56%
Big 6 or Big 8	9.09%
Hard 4 or hard 10	11.11%
Any seven	16.67%

House edges per bet made, from Wizard of Odds. With 3x, 4x, 5x odds you can bet up to three times your pass bet behind a 4 or 10, four times behind a 5 or 9, and five times behind a 6 or 8. Taking odds doesn't change the 1.41% on the pass bet, but it lowers your cost per dollar on the table, at the price of bigger swings. Wizard of Odds also warns that most casinos don't count odds bets toward your rated average bet.

Side bets and poker games

Side bets are where lines advertise the big prizes. Holland America offers progressive jackpot side bets at blackjack, Norwegian and MSC have added progressive jackpots to table games (per press reports), and Virgin names its Perfect Pairs and Six Card Bonus side bets. None of these lines publishes its side-bet pay tables, and the pay table sets the edge. As a guide, Wizard of Odds' figures for common versions are well above the main game.

Perfect Pairs (blackjack)About 4% to 10% with six decks, depending on which of four common pay tables is used.
Three Card PokerAnte and play 3.37%; the Pairplus bet 7.28% on the pay table Wizard of Odds lists.
Ultimate Texas Hold'em2.19%, measured on the ante.
Let It Ride3.51%.
Caribbean Stud5.22%.
BaccaratBanker 1.06%, player 1.24%, tie 14.36%.

Progressive side bets pay their top prize from a growing jackpot, and we found no published pay tables for them from any line. Treat them as a small, separate entertainment budget.

Minimums and maximums

Norwegian publishes a range of $5 to $5,000. Carnival says limits vary to suit the guests on board, and the other lines publish nothing. The reports we could verify put recent minimums at $10 to $25 for blackjack and $10 for craps, with the 3:2 blackjack tables at the higher end. On MSC World America, one site listed limits by game in May 2026 and noted they can change by sailing.

Read the signEach table shows its minimum on a sign. Carnival says it adjusts limits to suit the guests on board, so the same table can have a different minimum another night.
The low-minimum trapTwo recent reports found 6:5 at the cheapest blackjack tables and 3:2 only at a higher minimum. The cheapest seat by minimum can be the most expensive by edge: at $10 a hand, 6:5 alone adds about 14 cents a hand in expected losses (our arithmetic). Only move up to a 3:2 table if the higher minimum fits your budget.
Getting ratedCarnival and Celebrity say table points depend on the game, your average bet and how long you play, so hand your card over when you sit down. Getting rated on day one explains how.
Charging to your cabinCelebrity caps table-game charges to your SeaPass at $5,000 a day, and Carnival caps all casino charges at $5,000 a day on a standard cruise. Fees and caps by line are in our first-timer's guide.

Check before you sit down

Because lines don't publish their rules, the table itself is your source. Most of what matters is printed on the felt or the table sign.

Read the blackjack payout printed on the felt: "Blackjack pays 3 to 2" or "6 to 5." If it doesn't say, ask the dealer.
Look for "Dealer must stand on all 17s" or "Dealer must hit soft 17" on the felt.
Check the minimum and maximum on the table sign, and whether there's a shoe, a hand-shuffled deck or a shuffling machine.
At roulette, look for a double zero (00) on the wheel and layout. At craps, ask what odds the table allows.
Ask for the pay table before making any side bet or playing a variant such as Fun 21.

For how long a budget might last at your bet, use the calculators in The math behind casino games. For first-timer basics such as lessons, etiquette and tipping, see Your first time in a cruise ship casino.

Play responsibly

Better rules lower the cost of playing, but they don't make any table a way to make money. Every bet above, except the craps odds bet, has a house edge, and the odds bet only comes with a bet that does. Set a budget for the cruise before you board, stop when the night's share is gone, and don't raise your bets to win back losses.

If gambling stops being fun

Call 1-800-GAMBLER, or the National Council on Problem Gambling's National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET (call or text), for free, confidential help in the US. You can also ask the casino host about the line's casino exclusion list.

Sources

Rules, games and limits come from each line's own pages first. Player and press reports are marked "Reported" with their dates. House edges are from Wizard of Odds, the same source as The math behind casino games. Anything marked as our arithmetic is our own calculation from those figures.

Royal Caribbean — Casino Royale guide (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Royal Caribbean — Casino Royale (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Celebrity Cruises — Table games (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Celebrity Cruises — The Casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Carnival — Casino and Carnival Players Club FAQ (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Carnival — Blackjack (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Carnival — Table games (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
NCL — Casinos At Sea (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
NCL — Table games (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Casino.org — Norwegian Cruise Line taps Light & Wonder for table games Reported (Jan 1, 2025; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Virgin Voyages — Casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Virgin Voyages blog — Our cruise ship casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
TravelZork — Gambling onboard Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady Reported (Jun 3, 2026; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
MSC Cruises USA — Casino (Live Table Games) (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
URComped — MSC World America casino Reported (limits as of May 2026; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Cruise Industry News — MSC brings progressive jackpot technology to US ships Reported (Aug 26, 2026; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Princess — Casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Holland America — Casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Holland America blog — The casino's best games at sea (Nov 25, 2025; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Margaritaville at Sea — Casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
TravelZork — Gambling onboard Margaritaville at Sea Islander Reported (Dec 18, 2025; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Cruzely — Cruise ship casino games guide Reported (Feb 2, 2026; accessed Oct 21, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — Blackjack rule variations (updated Aug 3, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — Cut card effect (continuous shuffling machines) (updated Aug 3, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — House edge of casino games (updated Aug 3, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — Roulette basics (updated Aug 3, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — Craps (updated Aug 3, 2026)
Wizard of Odds — Perfect Pairs (updated Aug 3, 2026)
National Council on Problem Gambling — National Problem Gambling Helpline (accessed Oct 21, 2026)

Last checked October 21, 2026

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