$1 Million Slot Tournament on Mardi Gras !!!

[evandbob]

Just off the MG Nov 5-12th sailing which had 1600 (free) entrants into a slot tournament.  After 80 rounds of 20 guests doing a 3 minute game, there were just 500 eligibles left.  Those were then whittled down by high score in an additional playoff to the 100 winners, who then played another extra round to establish their final placing.

 

First place $500,000, 2nd place $150,000, 3rd place $50,000. 10th was $8,500 and 20th was $2,250.  For Carnival's 50th BDay, 50th place was $50,000 !!! Would have hated to be #49 or 51, who collected "only" $1,600 and $1,500 each, LOL. Last place collected $500 in casino credit, all the other 99 were all cash payoffs.

 

I got eliminated in round 2, so no prize $, but sure was way more fun than the small win $50 in casino cash slot playoffs on most ships.  We even got a sizable discount on our extended balcony cabin room rate .

 

Now, here's the bad news - Carnival raised the slot machines max bet to $27 on most machines.  But the casino was usually packed with so many dedicated players on board, most playing max bets.  With the higher max bet rate and greater play rate, jackpots were numerous and many players won over $14,000.  There were even staff teams staged throughout the casino to react quickly when JPs were hit. It was not unusual to see staff go to several JP hits in a row of machines.

 

I do hope that Carnival doesn't use this tournament experience to raise betting levels on their normal sailings!

 

 

 

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Holy casino play!! Congrats on qualifying and having fun despite not making it all the way! I can’t imagine a $27 max bet. Happy for all those who hit jackpots!

[Moviela]

Mardi Gras has a few high limit machines with $100 pulls. Combo machines $5-15-50-100, your choice. Single payline. I did not play them. The machines were tighter than before the disaster. Indian casinos are looser, and off'strip in Vegas seem to be the most generous.

[dolphinsfan246]

Ok this makes sense now! I am just a casual casino player and I was on this cruise last week not knowing or caring that it was a massive casino cruise. We usually only spend around $100 in the casino but like to hit max bets on a machine that has like $3 max bets. Couldn’t find that anywhere, I was amazed that the minimum bet on a lot of machines was $8 or more. Because of that (and because it was nearly impossible to ever find a open machine) we totally skipped the casino for the first time. Those bet amounts were totally insane to me and I can’t imagine how much some people probably spent. 

[sunonfire]

Here’s more details 

 

https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-cruise-line-first-one-million-dollar-slot-tournament/

[evandbob]

20 hours ago, Moviela said:

Mardi Gras has a few high limit machines with $100 pulls. Combo machines $5-15-50-100, your choice. Single payline. I did not play them. The machines were tighter than before the disaster. Indian casinos are looser, and off'strip in Vegas seem to be the most generous.

For this sailing, casino staff were staged throughout the casino to respond to the absurd number of Jackpots being hit. Almost every other bank of machines had staff waiting to fill out tax form info for the next lucky gambler.

Carnival still was the biggest winner as the sheer volume of gamblers betting max was overwhelming, and they could easily pay off the JP winners and still make a hefty profit.  The house never loses!