About Cruise Ship Casinos

I had worked in a land based casino for about 3 years before deciding to leave home and work on a cruise ship. At the time, I considered myself a pretty good dealer. I dealt all the normal casino games like Blackjack, Roulette, Poker and Caribbean Stud. I had also gone through about 100 hours of Craps training (all on my own time), but I was still having trouble with the game. Experienced dealers say Craps just comes to you one day and all of a sudden you understand. Now I understand.

Working in a land based casino is a pretty easy job. Generally you have a 7 or 8 hour shift. During that shift, you will work for about 40-45 minutes at a gaming table, then take a 15-20 minute break. Usually most casinos keep their dealers on a 1 hour schedule, So if you worked for 40min you get a 20min break. You break is at the same time every hour. Pretty peachy.

Working on a cruise ship is a different story. The length of your shift really depends on where the ship is for the day. If your in port, the casino opens about 30min after sailing, and stays open until 2 or 3am. If you are at sea for the day, your shift will be a long one, and sometimes the breaks don't come around so fast. On board, the casino has a break list, and is run much more like a real business. Tables are opened and closed on based on how full the casino is. If the place is quite you may get a break every 30min, and during peak times I have stayed at a table for more than 2 hours.

My first few weeks on the ship I felt like a total rookie. Some of the equipment was a little different, and I felt a little out of place. I could feel my supervisor looking over my shoulder a little more than I was used to, and the late night parties, and early morning training was getting to be a little bit too much. Lucky for me, I adapted to the changes (even if it took a little longer than it should have) and after my couple of months I had worked out all the kinks.