Casino Dealer / Croupier (roulette, black jack, baccarat) – Experience required. Good English Language skills required. Salary range: $1900-2600 US per month, depending on commission and gratuities. Possibilities for promotion to Assistant Casino Manager.
As cruise ships proliferate, the major cruise lines are constantly looking for qualified staff to fill a variety of positions in their shipboard casinos. More than 3,000 dealers and assorted personnel are now employed in these floating casinos, and while a friendly, outgoing personality is a clearly stated job requirement for cruise ship dealers, many seem genuinely happer in their work than a number of dealers we have come across in land-based casinos.
The major fringe benefit of the job is the obvious: the chance to visit a variety of
exotic destinations that cruise passengers pay thousands of dollars to see. And when ships are in port (where the ship’s casino is almost always closed), most of the casino workers generally are free to go ashore and sightsee, snorkle, sunbathe (or even visit the local casinos as a player).
Another major attraction is the ability (for those who choose) to save most of their pay and tips, since room and meals and pretty much everything they need while onboard ship is provided at no charge.
Onboard ship, casino staff generally live two to a small cabin, and dine and relax in crew areas. (Be sure to check: one major cruise line bunks casino four and even five to a cabin on some of its ships — not, from several first-hand accounts, a pleasant experience.)
Unlike many cruise ship employees, casino staff often are allowed to use the ship’s guest recreational facilities in their spare time.
Cruise casino staff generally enter into a four-to-six month “contract” to work on a given ship, after which they take a few weeks off before entering into a new contract to work on the same or another of the cruise line’s ships.
For the most part, the major cruise lines are looking to fill casino positions with men and women with casino experience. Dealers in particular are expected to have experience in dealing several table games.
Among the positions available on cruise ships are:
- Casino managers and assistant casino managers;
- Casino dealers (blackjack, baccarat, roulette, craps, poker);
- Casino technicians (responsible for maintaining slot machines and other casino devices);
- Casino cashiers;
- Casino hosts.
Below are links to several companies that hire casino staff for cruise ships.
try Royal Caribbean as well
A Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship in Costa Maya, Mexico
I live in one the most beautiful places on this earth, Cape Town, but I always had a dream, to work on cruise ships,doing cruise jobs, which I managed to fulfill and see almost all the places I intended to, just missed Machu Picchu. I will still get there, just not on a ship.
I started my life on cruise ships doing cruise jobs (in the casino) through a friend working out of Limassol, Cyprus on Louis Cruise Line doing cruises to Israel, Egypt and the Greek Islands. I did 2 ships with them, 2 stints on both. It was to be the start of a long life on cruise ships, eighteen years in total….yes some people do it for a few years and quit, I kept going. I loved seeing all the new places, well eventually they were not new.
The French cruise ship the Mermoz
I even did a short stint on a ferry boat between Greece and Northern Italy, Anek Lines during the winter, lovely choppy seas of course. The money was good on there I worked for an American man who had the concessionaire on there. My life changed, I then went to work out of New Orleans doing the Caribbean for Commodore Cruise Line, no longer exists. It was fun doing the Caribbean, going to the beach, wonderful experiences.
I returned to Europe and got a job with an English Casino Concessionaire, Southern Games based in Fulham, London. I did quite a lot of different ships with them, the Portuguese ship the Funchal, which I did Brazil for the summer season three times, one of my favourite places is Brazil, the people just have so much energy, the place has a real buzz about it, the music. The Funchal would do seasons out of Sweden, the Norwegian fjords, beautiful, then Mediterranean, she kept moving, was in all different languages as well. I did some ships out of Palma de Majorca, one strangely enough yet again a Louis Cruise Line ship (haunting me) that was owned previously by Croisieres Paquet the owners of the Mermoz. It seem strangely intertwined, I never did figure that out. I also did the wonderful cruise ship Marco Polo joining her in Singapore coming back to the Mediterranean.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m looking into a major career change and I’m seriously considering working aboard a cruise ship. This post might be the last push I need!
Brazil is great, maybe a little too energetic at times for me though 😉
Its a great way to travel, even if you work in travel already. I loved the energy in Brazil….
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