Royal Caribbean Slot Pull Questions

[Ronaldo807]

We are looking at organizing a slot pull and had a few questions that hopefully the group can assist with.

 

In terms of working with the casino host, how do you get in contact with them before the cruise? Or can you only get in contact with them onboard? Are they available upon boarding or only once the casino opens? Do they typically proactively offer freebies or do you need to ask for them? What participation do they have in the actual event?

 

I understand that taxes are reported if you hit a payout exceeding $1,199, but does the slot pull stop at that point to get paid out? Or do you continue play until the slot pull is over and then figure out the tax reporting? If it's stopped at that point and paid out immediately, do you then deduct the 24% for taxes and put everything else back into the machine to continue play? Do they figure the 24% strictly on the total win, or do they factor in the profit? Do they withhold for you or just provide the tax reporting form?

 

What's your best game to hopefully win big on with $5 max bets?

[Cuedon]

Play sort of has to stop at that point, at least temporarily, because the house has to run the paperwork. They'll probably expedite it if you're running a pre-scheduled event, but the fastest they got back to me on my last few handpays took over twenty minutes. Land casinos often have special accommodations for the truly high rolling to speed things up, but I doubt that ships will bother.

 

In a US land-based casino, at least in my jurisdiction, the legal winner, and therefore one responsible for the taxes, is the one who pressed the button, regardless of who put the money in, and if the money was pooled beforehand. In practice though, they give it to whoever the players claim are the winner, as long as they're not disputing it. There's also been disputes about passersby hitting the button without permission, but those have always been decided in favor of the last legitimate player to have pressed the button.

 

The win is the win; they don't care about the money that went into it, whether for the individual bet, or session. Which has lead to some downright stupid issues, like getting a W2G on a push in high limit machine BJ...

 

I've been asked if I want them to withhold for me in land casinos, but that's never come up on a ship. I suspect the ship doesn't want to deal with that either, because of jurisdictional things.

[thedarklord]

My experience with this is on NCL, not RCI.
During one slot pull, I hit a $1200 win. Because I'm from the UK, there was no tax to pay on the winnings, but the casino staff made damn sure that I was from the UK, and that it was me who pressed the button - had to retrieve my passport from the cabin, and saw them checking CCTV as well to make sure it was me who pressed it.

[Casino Comp Chick]

On 6/7/2022 at 8:30 AM, thedarklord said:

My experience with this is on NCL, not RCI.
During one slot pull, I hit a $1200 win. Because I'm from the UK, there was no tax to pay on the winnings, but the casino staff made damn sure that I was from the UK, and that it was me who pressed the button - had to retrieve my passport from the cabin, and saw them checking CCTV as well to make sure it was me who pressed it.

That was not my experience on NCL, we had a Canadian who collected the hand pay and they did not do the spin.

As with everything,,,your mileage may vary.

[JessyCruises]

I am Canadian & have run a couple of pulls on RCL this year on Ovation & Oasis.  We have had 60-80 people. $20 buy in.  We did not hit any jackpots so cannot comment on that piece but my card has been in the machine so would not have had to pay taxes.   On both ships the hosts said they were completely out of merch to offer.  Sometimes I bring a couple little trinkets from home to offer the biggest hit as a prize.