Video poker on cruise ships
Video poker is the one machine game where the screen tells you the return. Read two numbers on the pay table, check how your cruise line rates video poker play, and you can work out what an hour costs and whether it earns points cheaper than slots.
On Jacks or Better, look at what a full house and a flush pay for one coin. 9/6 returns 99.54% with perfect play, 8/5 returns 97.30% and 6/5 returns 95.00%. No cruise line we checked publishes its pay tables. The few dated reports from ships describe 7/5, 8/5 and 6/5 games, not 9/6.
Lines also earn video poker more slowly than slots: $15 a point on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity against $5 on slots. By our arithmetic, 8/5 costs about the same per point as an 8% slot on those two lines, and worse tables cost more. On Norwegian, Virgin, Carnival, Holland America and MSC, a decent pay table usually costs less per point than slots.
Check a pay table with the pay-table checker
Terms with a dotted underline are explained when you tap or select them.
How to read a pay table
Every video poker machine shows its pay table on the screen or the glass: how many coins each final hand pays, with one column for each number of coins you bet. Unlike a slot, where the payback is hidden inside the program, the pay table and the rules of poker fix the return. With the best possible holds, a given table always returns the same percentage over the long run.
- Find the game firstJacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus and Deuces Wild each have their own tables and their own strategy. A multi-game machine can carry a good table on one game and a poor one on the next, so check the game you actually pick.
- Then read full house and flushOn the common Jacks or Better tables the other pays are the same (pair of jacks or better 1, two pair 2, three of a kind 3, straight 4, four of a kind 25, straight flush 50). The full house and flush pays, per coin, are what changes. A machine paying 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush is called 9/6.
- Use the 1-coin columnRead the pays for a single coin. The 5-coin column multiplies them by five, except for the royal flush, which gets a bonus (below).
- Other games, other numbersBonus Poker, Double Double Bonus and Deuces Wild have their own tables and returns, so a Jacks or Better figure doesn't carry over. Our pay-table checker covers Jacks or Better only and says so for anything else.
9/6 vs 8/5 vs 6/5: why one coin matters
A full house turns up about once every 87 hands and a flush about once every 91. Paying one coin less on each adds up: 9/6 to 8/5 costs about 2.25 percentage points of return. These are the exact returns for Jacks or Better with perfect strategy and a 5-coin bet.
| Jacks or Better table | Full house / flush (per coin) | Return | House edge (The casino's built-in advantage: the share of each bet it expects to keep over the long run. For video poker it's 100% minus the return.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 ("full pay") | 9 / 6 | 99.54% | 0.46% |
| 8/5 | 8 / 5 | 97.30% | 2.70% |
| 7/5 | 7 / 5 | 96.15% | 3.85% |
| 6/5 | 6 / 5 | 95.00% | 5.00% |
Returns from our own full enumeration of every deal and every hold (vp.json), which match Wizard of Odds to four decimal places. The edge is the long-run average; it doesn't tell you what one cruise will bring. See the glossary for house edge and the game math guide for how volatility works.
Why the 5-coin royal matters
On these tables a royal flush pays 800 per coin when you bet five coins, or 4,000 coins. It pays much less per coin if you bet fewer. Wizard of Odds puts it plainly: "Always play the maximum coins," and if five coins is too much, drop to a lower denomination instead.
- The royal is rareAbout 1 hand in 40,000 with best play, by our enumeration. It's still about 2% of the whole return, so most sessions finish below the long-run return and a few finish far above it.
- All the returns on this page assume five coinsWith fewer coins the return is lower. The pay-table checker shows coin-in and points for 1 to 4 coins but marks the return "not in our table" rather than guess.
- Five coins of a smaller coin beats one coin of a larger oneFive quarters ($1.25) and one dollar coin ($1) cost about the same per hand, but only the first gets the royal bonus.
What pay tables cruise ships are reported to run
We checked the official casino and players club pages of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian, Virgin Voyages, Carnival, Holland America and MSC. None publishes video poker pay tables or returns. Everything below is a player or writer report, dated, for the ship and year named. Machines and settings change during refits.
| Ship or scope | What was reported | Who and when |
|---|---|---|
| Norwegian Sun | Jacks or Better 7/5 (96.15%) at 25¢ to $2, and 8/5 (97.30%) at $5. Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus and Deuces Wild "all in this miserable range." Reported | Bob Dancer, Las Vegas Advisor, Nov 15, 2011 |
| Norwegian Jade | Six multi-game machines with Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus and Deuces Wild in Triple, Five and Ten Play, plus Ultimate X. He wrote the Ultimate X games "only returned 95% or so" without leftover multipliers. No Jacks or Better tables given. Reported | Bob Dancer, Las Vegas Advisor, Oct 17, 2023 |
| Cruise ships in general | "You'll most likely find the dreaded '6/5' machine"; 9/6 rare. Reported | Cruzely, Mar 9, 2017 |
| Cruise ships in general | Pay tables "usually vary between 6/5 to 7/5"; denominations typically 25¢, some up to $1. Reported | Cruzely, Feb 2, 2026 |
That's thin evidence, and two of the four are general statements rather than a pay table read on a named ship. We haven't found a dated report of 9/6 Jacks or Better on a major line's ship. Our slot library also lists two dated videos of IGT video poker at sea (Double Double Bonus on Norwegian Aqua, Feb 2026; Triple Double Bonus on Zuiderdam, Dec 2024); they show the games, not the pay tables. If you photograph a pay table on board, please report it with the ship and date.
Points: how each line rates video poker against slots
Most lines need more coin-in for a video poker point than for a slot point, because video poker's edge is lower. The rates are from each line's own pages, except MSC. The cost per point is our analysis: the play a point needs × the house edge. Slots use an assumed 8% hold, the same assumption as our other guides, since lines don't publish slot holds.
| Line | Slots: play per point | Video poker: play per point | Slot cost per point (8%) | 9/6 | 8/5 | 6/5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Caribbean | $5 | $15 | $0.40 | $0.07 | $0.41 | $0.75 |
| Celebrity | $5 | $15 | $0.40 | $0.07 | $0.41 | $0.75 |
| Norwegian | $5 | $10 | $0.40 | $0.05 | $0.27 | $0.50 |
| Virgin Voyages | $5 | $10 | $0.40 | $0.05 | $0.27 | $0.50 |
| Carnival | $2 | $5 | $0.16 | $0.02 | $0.14 | $0.25 |
| Holland America | $2 | $5 | $0.16 | $0.02 | $0.14 | $0.25 |
| MSC | $3 Reported | $3 Reported | $0.24 | $0.01 | $0.08 | $0.15 |
| Princess | Not published. | |||||
| Margaritaville at Sea | Tiers published, but not how much play earns a point. | |||||
| Explora Journeys | No casino rewards program. | |||||
Our analysis, not a cruise line figure. Cost per point means expected loss per point, from the returns above (5-coin bet, perfect play). MSC's own comp-match page says only that slots and video poker earn at "the same points-to-earning ratio"; the $3 figure is a community report. Norwegian says "select" machines don't earn points. Rates change: Royal Caribbean moved video poker from $10 to $15 a point in 2026. Details and sources for every program are in opening and keeping casino accounts.
What an hour costs at common bets
Expected loss per hour is coin-in per hour × house edge. The table assumes 600 hands an hour, one of the checker's presets; a fast player does more, a social one less, and the cost scales with it.
| Jacks or Better table | 25¢ × 5 coins ($1.25 a hand, $750 an hour) | $1 × 5 coins ($5 a hand, $3,000 an hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 9/6 | $3.42 | $13.68 |
| 8/5 | $20.26 | $81.05 |
| 7/5 | $28.90 | $115.58 |
| 6/5 | $37.53 | $150.12 |
Our analysis from the returns in vp.json, assuming perfect strategy. Mistakes raise the cost, and any single hour can run far above or below these averages. The same quarter 8/5 hour earns 50 points on Royal Caribbean or 75 on Norwegian; try your own denomination, pace and line in the pay-table checker, or compare with slot theo in the economics of casino cruises.
Strategy pointers
The returns above assume you make the best hold on every hand. You don't need to memorize a full chart to get close, but guessing costs real money.
- Use a strategy for your exact gameCorrect holds differ between Jacks or Better, Double Double Bonus, Deuces Wild and Ultimate X. A Jacks or Better chart used on Deuces Wild will cost you.
- A simple chart is close enoughWizard of Odds publishes a free simple Jacks or Better strategy; it says the simple version returns 99.46% on 9/6 against 99.54% for perfect play. Practice on a free trainer at home rather than learning on a ship.
- Slow downFewer hands an hour lowers the cost per hour, though it also lowers the points per hour.
- Insert your cardUnrated play earns nothing. On most lines your cruise card is your player card (see casino accounts); check the machine reads it before the first hand.
- Ultimate X and multi-hand multiply the betUltimate X costs 10 coins a hand and Triple Play three hands at once. Coin-in, points and swings all rise with it.
When video poker is (and isn't) the cheaper way to earn status
Expected loss to reach the first paid tier on the four lines that publish both tiers and earn rates. Our analysis: points needed × play per point × edge, with slots at an assumed 8% hold.
| Tier | Slots (8%) | 9/6 | 8/5 | 6/5 | Video poker hours at quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Caribbean Prime (2,500) | $1,000 on $12,500 | $171 | $1,013 | $1,876 | 50 hours ($37,500) |
| Celebrity Onyx (500) | $200 on $2,500 | $34 | $203 | $375 | 10 hours ($7,500) |
| Norwegian Pearl (4,000) | $1,600 on $20,000 | $182 | $1,081 | $2,002 | 53 hours ($40,000) |
| Virgin Voyages Star (5,000) | $2,000 on $25,000 | $228 | $1,351 | $2,502 | 67 hours ($50,000) |
Hours at 600 hands an hour, 25¢ × 5 coins. Video poker needs two to three times the coin-in of slots for the same points, so it takes longer even when it costs less.
- CheaperOn Norwegian, Virgin, Carnival, Holland America and MSC, 8/5 Jacks or Better costs less per point than an 8% slot. On Norwegian and Virgin 7/5 is narrowly cheaper too ($0.39 against $0.40), and on MSC, at the reported equal rate, every table is. A 9/6 table, if you find one, is cheaper on every line.
- About evenOn Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, 8/5 at $15 a point costs almost exactly what an 8% slot does at $5.
- More expensive7/5 and 6/5 on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival and Holland America, and 6/5 on Norwegian and Virgin, cost more per point than an 8% slot. If those are the only tables on board, video poker is the dearer way to earn.
- It depends on the slot tooWe assume 8%; ships don't publish slot holds. A tighter slot makes video poker look better, a looser one worse.
- Time and swings countHitting Prime on quarter video poker takes about 50 hours of play. Bigger bets cut the hours but not the expected loss, and a tier is only worth chasing if the perks are worth more than that loss to you.
Run your own line, table and bet in the pay-table checker; it shows every tier, the expected loss and the hours at your pace.
Play with a plan
Even 9/6 with perfect play returns less than you put in over time, and no strategy changes that. Set a budget before you board, treat it as the cost of the entertainment, and stop when it's gone. If gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER in the US or the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 in the UK.
Sources
Earn rates come from each cruise line's own pages, opened October 21, 2026, except MSC's $3 rate, which is a community report. Pay-table returns come from our enumeration in vp.json, checked against Wizard of Odds. Ship pay tables are dated reports. Anything marked as our analysis is our own arithmetic.
- Royal Caribbean: How do I earn Club Royale tier points? (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Celebrity Cruises: Blue Chip Club (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Norwegian Cruise Line: Casinos At Sea Rewards (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Virgin Voyages: Casino and Sea Rollers Rewards terms (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Carnival: Carnival Players Club (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Holland America: Onboard casino (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- MSC Cruises: Comp Match (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- MSC Cruise Fan: Dream Points explained (undated, accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Wizard of Odds: Jacks or Better pay tables (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Wizard of Odds: Video poker basics (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Wizard of Odds: Simple Jacks or Better strategy (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Bob Dancer, Las Vegas Advisor: Two advantage plays on Norwegian Cruise Lines (Nov 15, 2011)
- Bob Dancer, Las Vegas Advisor: Gambling aboard the Norwegian Jade, part I (Oct 17, 2023)
- Cruzely: How cruise ship casinos offer poor payouts (Mar 9, 2017)
- Cruzely: Cruise ship casino games guide (Feb 2, 2026)
- Slots at Sea: Jacks or Better enumeration (vp.json) (our data)
More on the math
Video poker pay-table checker
Enter the full house and flush pays, your bet and your line to see the return, the cost per hour and the cost per point.
Open → ExplainerThe math behind casino games
PAR sheets, payback and hold, volatility, virtual reels, near misses and why video poker earns slower. With calculators.
Read → ExplainerThe economics of casino cruises
Why lines give casino players free cabins, how theo works and what a free cruise really costs.
Read → AccountsOpening and keeping casino accounts
How each line's program works, how you earn points and how to keep your tier.
Read →