Craps Holland Casino

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To the best of my knowledge the info in this article is up to date. However, you should always check with your cruise lines on their specific games and policies before making any final travel and play plans.

For years the on-board casino on most cruise lines has been a pig-in-a-poke. Unless you’ve cruised on a specific ship in the past you never really knew what you were getting until you boarded the ship. Here’s a listing of what you can expect from most of the major cruise lines you’ll find sailing from U.S. ports:

Holland America and Carnival are mostly all $5.00 Minimums and have double odds, The only time I cruised on Norwegian was on the Epic. It was a $10.00 minimum and 3-4-5 times odds. I have been on many cruises and they never change table minimums on a craps table. Valley Forge casino has 50 tables and 700 slots. Online Craps is a gambling game that involves rolling a pair of dice, and betting on the outcome. Online craps has become an extremely popular casino game, especially here in the United States. While the premise is quite simple, there are some rules that can make the game a little more difficult to understand for new players.

Carnival Cruise Lines is by far the largest cruise line, currently with 22 ships. Its casinos are among the largest on the high seas. In addition to blackjack, they offer roulette, craps, Caribbean stud poker, Caribbean draw poker, three-card poker and slots.

While most tables are $5 and $10 minimums, Carnival also offers blackjack tables with a $25 minimum. They are also is willing to make higher maximums available for players who obtain approval prior to sailing. Carnival’s blackjack rules calls for the dealer to stand on soft 17, which is consistent with casino rules in Las Vegas and more favorable to the player than the policy of requiring the dealer to hit soft 17 as is found on some other cruise lines.

Carnival’s craps tables feature double odds (most cruise lines offer only single odds) with a pass line minimum of $5 and maximum of $200. Again, the casino is willing to make higher maximums available for players who obtain approval prior to sailing.

Their Ocean Players Club offers something for every level of player from awards for playing slots to credit lines and higher betting limits for high rollers. Players can earn points towards complimentary beverages, free gifts, discounts off on-board services, future cruise benefits and even cash back rebates on future cruises.

All Carnival Cruise Lines’ vessels have a dedicated casino host to welcome you and answer your questions. All of the larger Carnival casinos host slot and blackjack tournaments as well as other events. For more information, visit the Ocean Players Club at http://www.oceanplayersclub.com.

Celebrity cruise lines four newest ships – Millennium, Summit, Constellation and Infinity – each boast a Fortunes Casino. These casinos each features 5 blackjack tables, 2 three card poker, 1 Caribbean stud poker and 1 Texas Hold ‘em table, 1 craps table, 2 roulette tables, and about 200 slots.

The Fortunes Casinos on three slightly smaller Celebrity ships — Mercury, Century and Galaxy — are almost the same, with one fewer poker table and a couple dozen fewer slots. The line’s smallest ship — the Zenith — has the same number of table games but only 143 slots.

Celebrity’s casinos have great ambiance, but the action tends to fade fast after midnight. Generally the casinos close by 2AM for lack of players.

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Celebrity claims to offer a variety of comps for players who meet certain requirements. However, details on how their comp program works are somewhat murky at this point.

Crystal Cruises is a high-end luxury line with two ships considerably larger than those of most competitors. The line recently took over operation of its casinos from Caesars Palace of Las Vegas. Most of the casino dealers and managers are former Caesars employees who stayed on after the takeover.

Each of Crystal’s casinos offers blackjack, three-card poker, mini-baccarat, craps, roulette, and slot and video poker machines. Now, as was the case when Caesars ran the casinos, the Crystal Casinos offer all players complimentary cocktails.

Holland America Line’s newest ships — the Noordam, Westerdam, Oosterdam and Zuiderdam — have ultramodern casinos with blackjack tables, Caribbean stud poker, three-card power, Let It Ride, craps, roulette, and slots.

Members of their Ocean Players Club can be rated when playing table games in Holland America cruise ship casinos, and may be eligible for complimentary drinks, free on-board gifts and discounts off on-board services. High rollers may be eligible for discounts on future cruise bookings. However, at last report the Ocean Players Club slot system was not yet available in Holland America cruise ship casinos.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Casinos at Sea offer baccarat, blackjack, craps, roulette, Caribbean stud poker, 3-card poker, Texas Hold ‘em, Pai Gow poker and tiles, Oasis poker, video poker, mystery jackpots, and 24-hour slot machines.

NCL was the first cruise line to offer a rewards program similar to those offered by most “land-based” casinos. Known as the Casinos at Sea Players Club, this program — currently operating on the Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Star, Norwegian Sun, Norwegian Spirit and Norwegian Jewel and lets players earn “Sea Bucks” when playing either table games or slots.

For table games, Sea Bucks are earned based on amount of time played, the type of game, and the average bet. Sea Bucks are earned on slot machines based on coin in and type of machine.

Once a member has reached a minimum of $25 in points, the Sea Bucks can be used as payment of on-board items like food and beverages or shore excursion packages. Sea Bucks can also be accumulated and used toward payment for a future cruise, however points expire on a rolling-basis 18 months after they have been earned.

Princess Cruises, a favorite with many upscale travelers, has virtually doubled its fleet in the past three years. Casinos aboard Princess ships offer all of the popular table games with Las Vegas style rules including craps, roulette, blackjack, Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, and Three Card Poker. They also offer a variety of slots including video poker and novelty machines — many of which have progressive jackpots.

Members of the Ocean Players Club can be rated when playing table games in Princess cruise ship casinos, and earn points that can be used for discounts on future cruises or cash back rewards. However, the Ocean Players Club slot system is not yet available in Princess cruise ship casinos.

Royal Caribbean’s newest ships, Liberty of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas, are the world’s largest cruise ships, and their Las Vegas-style casinos are among the largest on the seas as well. The line’s five Voyager class ships — Mariner of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas, and Adventure of the Seas — are only a bit smaller, and their casinos are among the most active afloat.

Freedom and Liberty feature 19 gaming tables, and just over 300 slots. The Voyager class ships feature 16 gaming tables and just under 300 slots. But there is action to be found aboard all ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet, with a minimum of 8 gaming tables and at least 150 slots.

Royal Caribbean now has Players Club, which offers qualifying players complimentary drinks in the casino, and based on play, invites some of its high rollers to expense-paid blackjack and slots tournaments.

According to Royal Caribbean, to qualify for cruise discounts a player is expected to spend a minimum of two hours a day at the table, betting a minimum of $50 per hand at blackjack, $50 per roll at craps, and $25 per hand or spin at Caribbean stud poker, Let It Ride, or roulette. Slot comps are based on play at $5 per spin.

Members of the Player’s Club are also able prior to their trip to arrange personal check-cashing privileges provided they have existing privileges at any U.S. land casino.

One question players often have about cruise ship casinos is “Who regulates them?” The short answer is that there is no independent governmental regulation such as is provided in Las Vegas by the Nevada Gaming Commission or by local gaming commissions in other jurisdictions.

The good news for players is that cruise ship casinos tend to be more likely to resolve disputes in the passenger’s favor than most land-based casinos. After all, they want happy cruisers who return to sail with them again and again. But in the absence of government regulators, the cruise ship casinos operate under a set of guidelines published in 1999 by an organization called the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), whose members include most of the major cruise lines.

The ICCL guidelines address the equipment, conduct of games, internal controls, and customer service for casinos on cruise ships. In terms of facilities and equipment, the ICCL guidelines call for all equipment purchased and installed on cruise vessels to “meet the regulatory standards of the Nevada Gaming Control Board or other licensed jurisdiction for payback and internal software.”

Regarding rules of play, ICCL guidelines require that the rules “generally follow those established for casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, or England.” Admittedly there are some casinos in Nevada and New Jersey with some pretty bad rules for players. Nevertheless, I think the games are fair if you understand the rules in advanced. And in many cases the games will be better than you’ll find in the local casinos in most of the ports cruise ships visit.

Introduction


Amsterdam has many small so-called casinos that feature only machines, with a big emphasis on electronic roulette. In addition, Amsterdam has only one large full-blown casino that offers table games as well as slot machines, titled the Holland Casino. There are actually 14 Holland Casinos, scattered around the Netherlands. The Holland Casino company has a legal monopoly on full-service casinos in the Netherlands.
This blog entry is about my visit to the Amsterdam branch of Holland Casinos on July 19, 2017.

Getting In


The legal age to enter a casino in the Netherlands is 18. A five Euro fee is required for each visit. However, when I asked about the location of the casino at the front desk clerk at my hotel , the clerk not only showed me on my map but produced a free entry voucher from a rack in the hotel lobby. I've read elsewhere that many hotels have plenty of these 'get in free' vouchers.
The casino is located along the outermost ring of canals. If you don't know what I mean, the canals in the historic center of Amsterdam are arranged like half of a wheel, with five concentric half-rings and four spokes (not counting the Amstel river as one of the spokes). As a bit of trivia, the name Amsterdam comes from the original dam on the Amstel river (the Amstel dam). The entrance is near the eastern-most edge of the Vondelpark and easy walking distance from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam's well-known art museum. That section of Amsterdam seems to attract an older crowd with its theaters, museums, and high-end shopping. The younger crowd is concentrated around the train station, Dam Square, and the Red Light District at the center of half-wheel of canals.
I wanted to go on the last day of my 2017 European vacation, which was a brutally hot and humid day. Not unlike a steamy July day in Baltimore. Normally I would have dressed up a bit for any European casino but it was in the late afternoon and so humid that I could hear thunder in the distance. In my five trips to Europe, I can easily say that Amsterdam is the most easy-going and relaxed place I have been anywhere on the continent. The feel of the country is entirely different from neighboring Belgium and Germany. So I hoped they would not be too strict on the dress code this hot muggy day.
Fortunately, the woman checking ID's to enter didn't seem to care that I was in cargo shorts, t-shirt, and running shoes. After presenting my free entrance voucher she gave me a player card and a voucher for a small soft drink or beer at the bar.
Past the gate keepers, the building is big, open, and modern. There are two floors, the lower one for slots only and the upper one mainly for table games but has more slots along the edges. Both floors were nicely done but the upper floor with the tables seemed much more elegant and fun.

Games


Following is a count of the table games, most of which were open:
  • Roulette: 12
  • Blackjack: 10
  • Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em: 3
  • Baccarat: 3
  • Caribbean Stud Poker: 2
  • Diceball: 1

Next, here are some comments on the rules followed by each game. In some of them I mention the bet amounts in Euros. At the time I was there one Euro equaled $1.18.

Roulette The liberal French rules were followed, meaning a single-zero wheel and the player loses only half on even money bets if the balls lands in zero. This results in a house edge of 1.35% on even money bets and 2.70% on all others.

Blackjack.


The rules were:
  • Six decks.
  • Dealer stands on soft 17.
  • No hole card -- player loses everything if dealer gets a blackjack.
  • Double on 9 to 11 only.
  • Double after split allowed.
  • Re-split anything (including aces) without limit.

As I recall, a continuous shuffler was used. According to my basic strategy calculator , this would result in a house edge of 0.55% with basic strategy, which follows.

Baccarat


The baccarat tables followed a rarely seen commission-free rule (/games/baccarat/appendix/6/) where a Banker win on a total of 5 pays 1 to 2. This is a better value compared to conventional baccarat, lowering the house edge on the Banker bet from 1.06% to 0.93%.

Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em


Standard rules were followed. Visit my Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em page for more information.

Caribbean Stud Poker


What we call Caribbean Stud Poker in the U.S., they call Multi Poker in Amsterdam. Sorry, I forgot to check the details. The Holland Casino does have a page on Multi Poker, but it doesn't address the pay table or side bets.

Diceball


My visit was the first I've ever heard of this cross between craps and baseball. I explain all the rules and odds in my new page on Diceball.

Video Poker

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I saw only one bank of video poker machines, which were totally ignored. Both had a 0.1 € denomination and took bets from 1 to 100 credits. Both were progressive and required a maximum 100 credit bet, or 10 Euros, to win the progressive. At the time I was there, the progressive was at 9,613.21 €. Craps Holland Casino
One game available was 8/5 Double Joker Poker. This game has a base return of 98.10%. With a full bet of 10 Euros, every additional 1000 Euros in the meter above 8000 increases the return by 0.22%. Assuming no changes in strategy, compared to optimal for non-progressive 8-5 Double Joker, the meter would need to reach 16,534.48 Euros to reach breakeven.
The other available game was 8/5 Jacks or Better. This game has a base return of 97.30%. With a full bet of 10 Euros, every additional 1000 Euros in the meter above 8,000 increases the return by 0.25%. Assuming no changes in strategy, compared to optimal for non-progressive 8-5 Jacks or Better, the meter would need to reach 18,852.12 € to reach breakeven.

Video Keno


There were a few video keno games in the smoking section on the first floor only. They were Extra Draw Keno but gave only two extra balls for the extra bet. All things considered, I calculate the return for the posted pay tables from 90.19% for the pick 2 to 97.21% for the pick 6. More information can be found in my page on Extra Draw Keno (two extra balls).

Slot Machines


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According to the Holland Casino web site, the 'slot machine' pay an average of 92% of money bet. It doesn't say how a 'slot machine' is defined, but within the industry a slot machine is pretty much anything with an electrical plug, as opposed to table game with a live dealer.

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My Visit


After a rather unpleasant visit to the casino in Brussels a few days earlier, which I write about in my previous blog entry, I was apprehensive to play again in another casino only about 100 miles away. However, Amsterdam is in another world compared to Brussels. This was evidenced everywhere, including the casino.
Unlike in Brussels, it was not difficult finding a seat at an affordable blackjack table. I quickly found one in the middle spot of a 10 Euro minimum table. I'm not sure whether the other players were locals or tourists but they were a happy group who seemed happy to play and celebrate in a table win. As in Brussels, there was a lot of back betting. Fortunately, there was no side bet to fight over, so the back betting caused no problems.
The caliber of play of the other players was, not surprisingly, poor. Normally to recreational players like these the basic strategy is the work of a lunatic who wants to throw his money away. However, never once was I chastised for how I played. There was nicely no negativity at the table at all.
Language was not a problem either. There was certainly none of the French elitism I encountered in Brussels. I got the impression that while Dutch was the official language they were used to hearing plenty of English, French, and German. Whatever worked seemed to be the order of the day and there was absolutely no stigma to not speaking Dutch. While none of the other players seemed to speak English, I had a good rapport with the dealer and nobody objected to not being in on the conversation.
As mentioned above, there was another table game, which was closed at the time, called Diceball. I didn't want to slow down the game with a lot of questions about it, so I got up to ask a supervisor for a copy of the rules. At first she said she could only provide them in Dutch, which I said I would be fine (thank goodness for Google Translate sometimes). I didn't want to rush the supervisor so I suggested she find me at my blackjack table after she found them.

Craps Holland Casinos


A few minutes later, she did much better than a copy of the rules in Dutch, she introduced me to a dealer who sometimes deals the game. I then excused myself from the table and the dealer walked me over to the table and gave me a personal explanation of the game. This must have taken at least five minutes but the dealer was very patient with me as I endeavored to understand every rule of every bet.
After that, I played a little more blackjack and then headed back to the central part of Amsterdam for my final evening in Europe.

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Drinking and Smoking


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As usual for a casino in Europe, or anywhere outside the U.S., there was not a strong correlation between drinking and gambling that you find in Las Vegas. I'm pretty sure that the policy is that if you want a drink, you have to pay for it. A cocktail waitress may come by once in a while but don't count on it. There are bars around the casino if you don't want to wait.
Smoking was not allowed except for a smoking section on the first floor enclosed on all four sides with glass walls. The appeared to have separate ventilation as the air in the main casino seemed nice and clean. I did have to brave the smoking room to get the details on the Extra Draw Keno game and the air in that room of shame was disgusting.

Conclusion


I'd like to compliment the Holland Casino for the good experience I had there. The building was very open and modern. The employees were all friendly and professional. The other players were pleasant and non-confrontational. All things considered, I left impressed and happy.

Links


    .
  • Wikipedia entry.