Can you use promotional OBC in Casino?

[cheeseheads4ever]

I recently heard that if you take OBC as part of cruise you cant use it in the casino? Is this true?

[cruisestitch]

that is true on some lines, but not on Celebrity.

 

On Celebrity, you can use your on-board credit to purchase specially marked chips, which cannot be cashed although anything you win on them can be cashed. Or you can have your OBC loaded into a slot machine account and again, you can't cash out that out, but anything you win can be cashed out.

[cheeseheads4ever]

I am talking only slots.. so if you put $50 your seapass card spend $40 of that in slots.. no winnings and leave ship you lose that $10? How do they differentiate between winnings and what you loaded on your card.

[stoddaj1]

I am talking only slots.. so if you put $50 your seapass card spend $40 of that in slots.. no winnings and leave ship you lose that $10? How do they differentiate between winnings and what you loaded on your card.

 

 

Great question, I've been trying to figure this out too!

[cheeseheads4ever]

Called Celebrity and asked if we could use promotional OBC in slots... first lady said No. but really wasnt sure and wanted to get me correct info!

Called back about 2 hours later and got out Captains Club contact. She said Yes we can..But she didnt know how?

Wow! You would think someone would know from Celebrity.. Boy Celebrity must make a fortune off not knowing and keeping their customers in the dark..

If their own employees dont know how do the customers?

[ghstudio]

yes, you can get promotional credit for slots...the machines will keep track of your winnings and losings. No big deal...you go to the cashier in the casino and they will ask if you want promotional chips or promotional credit. In either case, you get to keep all winnings and at some point cash them in. If you lose, it's deducted from your promotional credit or they take the promotional chips bet (just be careful to only bet promotional chips if you have them...don't bet cashable chips).

Edited January 9, 2017 by ghstudio

[Pennstatedj]

Just got off silhouette on Sunday. I got 100 promo chips from casino. Played 15 minutes of roulette and cashed in 170 and received all $170 in cash.

A second day I got 100 worth of chips and was charged 105 to my account. These were not promotional chips for some reason. I just cashed in the chips and got 100.

I think what happened was we had both kinds of OBC, with 150 being promo. So the first 100 came from that and the other came from the 300 OBC from the perks we chose.

Very complicated and not well explained.

I did not use on slots and that is totally different.

[Pipo]

You can't use the OBC as credit in the casino, BUT you can cash it out for a fee (5% I believe). You can do it either directly at the cashier, or at any table with the dealer, the supervisor must approve the transaction, then he'll bring you a receipt to sign, and you'll get the cash from the dealer.

 

PD: Slot machines do charge at your account, including OBC. The previous paragraph was referring to table games.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Pipo

[[g]cruiserke]

I'm currently sailing the Millenium and my partner managed to take out money from his onboard account on the casino without problems. They set off the amount on his account against his balance of promotional OBC (the kind listed as OBN). He received actual dollars, which he used to enter the poker tournament. As we are in a suite he was not charged the 5 percent handling fee either.

[cheeseheads4ever]

Wow! I guess with all the variation in the different ship casinos and variations in what everybody does in the casino im guessing the best thing is to wait and get onboard and see what casino says.

Cant beleive celebrity wouldnt know. Problem is we have alot of OBC and was planning to use in casino..

oh well.. thanks everyone for help..

[ChucktownSteve]

You can't use the OBC as credit in the casino, BUT you can cash it out for a fee (5% I believe). You can do it either directly at the cashier, or at any table with the dealer, the supervisor must approve the transaction, then he'll bring you a receipt to sign, and you'll get the cash from the dealer.

 

PD: Slot machines do charge at your account, including OBC. The previous paragraph was referring to table games.

 

That is no longer correct. You can use OBC (non refundable) in the casino without paying any fee and receiving only promotional chips that can be used on the table games. You don't need to be in a suite to pay no fee for OBN used in the casino.

 

You must lose all the promotional chips because they cannot be cashed in. However all of your winnings using the promo chips are able to be cashed in for real money because those are regular chips. If you have both non refundable and refundable OBC on your account, you can direct the cashier from which you wish to withdraw. If you take out of the OBR (refundable), you will be charged the 5% as Pennstatedj discovered. That's why he was given regular chips not promo chips on the second time.

 

Not all OBC is the same. You can tell on your TV account which is what. The OBN is non refundable and is use it or lose it. The OBR is refundable and if you don't use it, will be credited back to the credit card you used for your account when you embarked.

Edited January 10, 2017 by ChucktownSteve

[ChucktownSteve]

As a further note:

 

The OBC you receive from Celebrity is always OBN. The OBC you receiving from your TA can be either depending upon if the OBC is a pass through promotion from Celebrity that the TA didn't disclose their source. You can always try asking your TA the source and hopefully they'll tell you. Or you can wait to view your TV account in cabin and see which it is. The OBC from Celebrity and the OBC via your TA will be listed separately even if both are OBN.

Edited January 10, 2017 by ChucktownSteve

[debshomespun]

Here is how you keep tract of your slot winnings. If you download $20. to your account and put it on a machine, and you play $1.00 each spin. If on spin 1 you win $2.00, that $2.00 can be cashed out. You can either keep tract of your winnings, or you can spin 20 times, and if you have any money left, it could be cashed out.

 

At home, I won $1,000. free play at a local casino. I kept tract of what I put in each slot, so I could cash out any of my winnings. I was able to cash out $880. in winnings.

 

Most people will just play with the free play, and not cash any of the winnings out. I am not a big gambler, and try to cash out as much of my winnings as possible.

 

Hope this helps to understand how to cash out winnings on a slot machine for free play, or downloadable credit.

[mrsgoggins]

Here is how you keep tract of your slot winnings. If you download $20. to your account and put it on a machine, and you play $1.00 each spin. If on spin 1 you win $2.00, that $2.00 can be cashed out. You can either keep tract of your winnings, or you can spin 20 times, and if you have any money left, it could be cashed out.

 

 

The above is what I do also, except I'll typically download $20, play 40 x 50c a time, and then cash out the winnings. I play video poker and would expect to 'win' (and withdraw) $17-$18 from each session. I get DH to count my 40 plays, whilst I concentrate on the play. A big gambler I am not, but it adds to the fun playing with OBC :)

[SteveinPhilly]

Just quickly jumping in here. If you didn't choose Prepaid Gratuities as one of the Non-refunable perks and have Non-refundable OBC, you user those FIRST. We have always done that. On a 7 night cruise that will use up much of a $300/per cabin OBC. Of course, if here's a little left over you can buy some duty free booze. We don't gamble so playing the casino to use isn't for us. And remember that cruise ships take 30% from the slots (and in Vegas it's only 20%!). The odds only work at table games like Black Jack where the "house" can't control the odds.

[ghstudio]

To try to reduce confusion.

 

1) if you buy in to a blackjack or other contest, it will be charged against OBN if there is any, or if not, it will be charged to OBR or your on board account and there are not extra charges...if entry fee is $25, you will be charged $25 no matter where it comes from.

 

2) If you get chips from your OBN (non refundable OBC), you will be given promotional chips. Here's how that works. You sit at blackjack, bet $5 using, of course, a promotional chip....and you win, they pay you with a standard $5 chip and you still have that first $5 promotional chip which you let ride to the next hand. If you double down on the next hand, you add a second promotional chip (never use a real chip if you have promotional chips). If you win, you get two real chips...if you lose, you lose the two promotional chips. As the evening/week progresses, you will always lose some hands and you, therefore, always lose promotional chips because that's all you play...you hold the regular chips. Put another way...if you buy $50 of promotional chips and play at a $5 table, you will, in the course of play, lose at least 10 times and all of the promotional chips will be gone. It sounds far more difficult than it is...just remember, if you have promotional chips, always play them before you play a regular chip.

[WAVTAM]

Just off Equinox with 400 OBC (nonrefundable) doing b2b. First leg walk to table and ask for the 400 dollars , was charge 420(5%) and took the 400 in REAL chips.......went to bathroom and cash out.

Did the same for the next leg. Never saw a promotional chip at all. Will use the 800 for deposit on next cruise.

[ghstudio]

Just off Equinox with 400 OBC (nonrefundable) doing b2b. First leg walk to table and ask for the 400 dollars , was charge 420(5%) and took the 400 in REAL chips.......went to bathroom and cash out.

Did the same for the next leg. Never saw a promotional chip at all. Will use the 800 for deposit on next cruise.

 

One of Celebrity's charms is that it continues to be consistently inconsistent....

[wrk2cruise]

Another thing with loading money onto your seapass card for use in slots it that they sometimes will run specials where you get an extra 10% so $110 loaded for $100. So if you are using your OBC this way don't load it all on your card the first day as they may have the promotion later in the cruise.

[cruiserchuck]

On our recent cruise on the Reflection, we were able to use our nonrefundable OBC to get cash in the casino, with a 5 percent service charge. No chips involved.

[Baron Barracuda]

Currently aboard Equinox. They are running a deal where you can swap your OBN for promo chips (no fee) and receive a bonus of up to 20% payable in promo slot money. The bonus works on increasing sliding scale. We traded $150 OBN for $150 in chips plus $15 in slot money. Slot money is loaded onto your seapass card and can be downloaded into slot machine in $5 increments. Once downloaded you can't withdraw promo slot money from the machine, only your winnings. Winnings can be redeemed at any time but promo money stays in machine until it runs out.