Craps on Icon of the Seas

[dwc13]

My wife and I recently took a short cruise (1/23 - 1/26) aboard Icon of the Seas. This was the final sailing before the 1/27 maiden voyage. It is a very nice ship. 

 

The casino on Icon of the Seas is large and very nice. On a cruise, I play craps and baccarat unless neither is an option. Fortunately, there were 2 x 12' craps tables and 1 baccarat table in the casino. A few observations from having played multiple craps sessions during the cruise: 

 

Rule #1: Both dice must hit the back wall or it is an automatic 'No roll'. No exceptions. At least this rule was consistently applied (for better or worse) by all of the box personnel.  

 

Rule #2: Dice thrown more than @1' higher than the player's chip rack would receive a 'Too high toss' warning. Not sure if they would have passed the dice or called no roll for continued offenses. Suffice it to say, I and several others had to completely change the way we tossed the dice because of this rule. 

 

There are no bonus bets (i.e., Fire, ATS, Repeater, Hot Shooter, etc.).

 

$10 table minimum, but somehow a $5 Field Bet can be made. Smh. Try that in any other casino...

 

Variable odds:

Under $25 PL/Come/DP/DC gets up to 1x odds.

If the bettor makes (or increases to) a $15 PL/Come/DP/DC bet and the Point is 6 or 8, up to $25 odds bet can be made. If the point is 4, 5, 9 or 10, only up to 1x odds even if the PL/Come/DP/DCbet is $15. 

A $25 PL/Come/DP/DC bet gets up to 2x odds. 

A $50 PL/Come/DP/DC bet gets up to 3x/4x/5x odds.

 

Vig on the Buy 4/10 is upfront.

 

As a group, the craps dealers were decent for a cruise ship craps table. Most knew basic payouts fairly well. Bets were correctly spotted most of the time. However, proper procedures (i.e., first take down losing bets, then travel/pay come/DC bets,...; paying winning bets using the correct hand depending upon which side dealer was on) were inconsistently followed. 

 

Finally, as a group the box personnel didn't properly rate average bet for my play. I'm not going to sugar coat what happened -- they were either not paying attention, incompetent and/or trying to short-change me. It was comical how short they were from what I had actually bet during multiple craps sessions. After my initial 3+-hour gaming session (closed the table), I asked the pit boss how I had been rated (buy in, time at the table, average bet). Since I had charged all buy ins to the room and received receipts, they couldn't dispute the first 2 items. However, for average bet the figure they came up with was about 1/3 to 1/2 of where it objectively should have been. I pressed early and often, so I know I had much more wagered on non-come out rolls to handily offset lower amounts bet on come out rolls. There were enough decent rolls, too. I politely explained how I had bet and expressed my concerns to the pit boss, who told me he would look into the matter. Never heard back from him about it -- shocking, right? Same thing happened the next 2 sessions; by that point I had figured something was amiss. Perhaps it's a sign I should save my gambling $$$ for my local casino, which has a tie in with MSC Cruises, and Holland America / Princess, which have far superior craps game (including ATS bet).   

 

If you're concerned with how you're being rated at table games -- be sure to periodically ask the box person / pit boss how they're rating you. This is more important on a cruise, where you might not see the same casino personnel for months. At your local casino, you'll probably see the same box personnel far more frequently so they'll probably be more inclined to give you a fair shake.