Casinos on Cruise Ships Are a Proven Winner for Operators

by Roy Brindley 20.07.2026

Onboard casinos are cruise ships’ biggest money makers. Strategically placed in the centre of ships, only seasoned players can appreciate the tactics used by the house to maximise their profits.

The world’s biggest cruise ships feature casinos that measure 15,000 square feet. © Getty Images

Cruises Are Big Business and Casinos Give Big Profits

The latest estimates suggest 38 million people will take a cruise in 2026. Over two-and-a-half million of these tourists will be British or Irish, of whom half will depart from a UK port.

No two departure points or vessels are the same. However, cruise ships do have a common denominator, an onboard casino. As the premier revenue generators for cruise operators, outstripping the profits from alcohol, excursions, and retail sales, we should not be surprised.

With food and drink included in prepaid packages, cruise operators know they have a jovial captive audience with money in their pockets and few places to spend it. And so, once vessels are 12 nautical miles offshore – and therefore in international waters – slot machines are turned on, roulette wheels start spinning, and croupiers stand to attention.

Why Are Casinos in the Centre of the Cruise Ships?

Have you noticed that onboard casinos are strategically placed in the centre of the cruise liners? Their positioning means tourists must pass through them several times a day – to reach bars, restaurants, theatres, clubs and lounges.

Comparable to their land-based counterparts, cruise ship casinos are plush and luring. However, unlike most land-based casinos and the best live online casino sites, they are not regulated or licenced by a recognised or respected gaming control board.

Cruise lines that sail from U.S. ports do adhere to rules set out by the Cruise Lines International Association. However, those rules only mean that all equipment purchased and installed on their vessels must meet the regulatory standards of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

In terms of gambling, operating on international waters means anything can go, and it often does. Some see the lure of bright flashing lights, celebratory sounds, and vibrant colours as a façade disguising modern-day piracy on the high seas.

How Do Cruise Ships Play the Odds?

Seasoned casino players approaching a cruise ship’s Blackjack tables will quickly identify unfavourable rules. Layouts feature notices such as ‘no double downs after splits’, ‘double downs on 9’s, 10’s, and 11’s only’, ‘dealers hit on soft 17’ and ‘Blackjack pays 6/5′. All are massively detrimental to players’ chances of winning.

On average, Classic Blackjack players using basic strategy should lose less than one per cent of their action over the long run. In the right environment, Blackjack boasts one of the lowest edges of all casino games. However, for games where Blackjack pays 6/5 instead of 3/2, the house edge increases by almost 400%.

Nevertheless, Blackjack is not heavily promoted on cruise ships because other games give the house a bigger edge. Let It Ride, Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, and other popular cruise ship casino table games offer considerably higher margins for operators.

Double Zero Means Double the Profits

Roulette is another popular game with cruise lines. Predictably, roulette tables on cruise liners feature an American-style ‘double-zero’ wheel. This extra cup increases the house edge from 2.7% (for a standard European wheel) to an eye-watering 5.26%.

Another technique to increase profits is to set a small gap between the minimum and maximum stakes. It is difficult for players to recoup losses when maximum stakes are restricted to a unit ten times or less the size of the minimum bet.

Making Space for the Money Maker

The profits generated by cruise ship casinos, while never published, are estimated to be enormous. Their success is reflected in the floor space dedicated to casino games. In terms of size, the world’s top nine cruise liners have an estimated combined 125,000 square feet of smoking and non-smoking gambling space.

Ships With Biggest Casino Floorspace

• Allure of the Seas – 18,000 sq-feet
• Royal Caribbean’s Icon class – 15,000-20,000 sq-feet*
• Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class – 12,000-15,000 sq-feet**
• Norwegian Epic – 13,000 sq-feet

*Three ships, floorspace is estimated. **Four ships, floorspace is estimated.

To put the figures into perspective, in a 2018 investor relations news release by cruise operator Carnival Corporation, the company stated it “sees a guest spinning the reels on a slot machine 112 times per second, making it by far the most popular form of gaming.”

At the time, Carnival’s Excel-class ships, Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee had not been launched. Each has a 12,000 square-foot casino, and two more sister ships, Carnival Festivale and Carnival Tropicale, will be launched in 2027 and 2028.

It should be noted that on every cruise liner casino, slot machines are the most profitable game. They outnumber traditional table games by a large ratio. For example, the Allure of the Seas has 456 slot machines but only 27 table games.

Slots of Luck for the House

Slot machines on casino cruise ships give operators enormous profit margins. While Las Vegas slots typically offer an RTP (return to player) of 95%, and UK mobile casinos normally average between 94% and 98%, a lack of regulation means their floating counterparts can retain whatever margin they please.

It is generally accepted that cruise liners have their RTP’s dialled down to return miserly payouts – potentially less than 80%. Under these circumstances, theoretically, every £/$100 wagered will return just £/$80 to players.

Over time, when 100 £/$1 spins have returned £/$80 and that £/$80 has been played through again to return £/$64 and so on, slot machine devotees who play for long sessions will need monumental luck not to go broke in double quick time.

The moral of the story? Do not go overboard about playing casino games when you are cruising the high seas.