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How casino offers are worked out
Casinos do not reward you for losing. They reward you for what they expect to win from your play. Once you see that, offers start to make sense.
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Casinos estimate a theoretical loss for each player: total amount bet times the house edge. They return a share of it as perks. A US patent for a rating system gives a typical range of 15% to 45%. No cruise line publishes its own formula, so treat anything more precise as guesswork.
Theoretical loss, in one line
That is what the casino expects to win from your play on average, whether you actually won or lost that night. A 2001 US patent for a casino table-rating system describes exactly this: the casino “multiplies the gross session wager by the house advantage.” For tables, where nobody counts every chip, it estimates your total bet from your average bet, the hours you played and how many decisions an hour that game deals.
The share you get back
The same patent says the casino then applies an internal percentage, the “comp factor,” and that “a typical range is fifteen to forty-five percent of theoretical expected win.” A 2014 Las Vegas Advisor answer says casinos used to give back about 40% and some now give back as little as 20%.
No cruise line publishes its comp factor, or says that it uses this method at all. These are land-casino descriptions. They are the best public explanation there is, not a cruise line's rulebook.
A worked example
Two players each run $5,000 through the machines on a cruise.
- Player one plays a full-pay 9/6 video poker machine, edge 0.46%. Theoretical loss: $23.
- Player two plays penny slots holding 8.78%, Nevada's 12-month penny figure. Theoretical loss: $439.
Same coin-in, nineteen times the theoretical loss. If offers follow theoretical loss, player two gets the much bigger offer, even if player one earned similar points. This is also why my careful craps play never earned an offer: the odds bet has no edge, so its theoretical loss is close to zero.
What this means for you
- Winning does not hurt your offers, and losing does not help them. The estimate is based on your play, not your result.
- Time on the machines and your average bet are what count. That matches my own test, where smaller bets over more hours brought better offers. My record is here.
- Points and offers are two separate systems. Points are published and you can see them. The offers that arrive at home are not explained by any line.
- Do not chase an offer you cannot afford. A bigger theoretical loss means a bigger expected real loss too.
The offers that come home with you
After a cruise with steady play, offers start arriving by email, in the cruise app and by post. In my case, sometimes five or more a week, for close to a year. They are not published anywhere. Holland America does not publish how many points earn an invitation back, for example. Points alone are not the whole story.
The ones you are given before you get off the ship are different: those follow a printed chart. See instant certificates and the host desk.
Gambling should stay fun. If it isn't, free and confidential help is there 24/7: call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738) or visit 1800myreset.org. Playing safe →
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Got an offer in hand? See what it is really worth against booking the same cabin yourself.
Where these facts come from
- US Patent 6,267,671 B1, game table player comp rating system (2001) — checked 20 October 2026
- Las Vegas Advisor, Question of the Day, 14 Oct 2014 — checked 20 October 2026
- Wizard of Odds, House Edge (comp-purpose figures) — checked 20 October 2026
- Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better pay tables — checked 20 October 2026
- Nevada Gaming Control Board, Monthly Revenue Report, July 2026 — checked 20 October 2026
- Holland America, Casino and Players Club — checked 20 October 2026
If stairs, gangways and tenders are a problem, there is a whole section of this site for you. Sails Anyway covers accessible and limited-mobility cruising properly instead of squeezing it into a paragraph: what each pier actually asks of you, which tender ports are a problem and why, the special-needs forms and the deadlines that catch people out, and how to choose a cabin you can move around in.
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