Here is news from and about the casinos on cruise ships.

Please submit news (and digital photos) of special casino happenings via email to info@cruise-casinos.com.

--The Savvy Cruiser

A Georgia slots player and a Colorado blackjack player were the big winners, sailing home with half of the $30,000 prize pool in the 2007 Wild Winners Grand Final Events held aboard Carnival's newest cruise ship, Carnival Freedom. (For details, click here.)

A Maryland blackjack player took the $15,000 top prize in the Club Royale 2007 Masters Blackjack Tournament aboard Royal Caribbean's newest ship, Liberty of the Seas, becoming the first woman to win what in past years has been a male dominated event. (For details, click here.)

A Florida woman claimed the top prize of $13,250 in Royal Caribbean's 2007 Club Royale Masters Slot Tournament, which was held in August aboard the line's newest ship, Liberty of the Seas. Two dozen special invitees enjoyed a week of cruising to the Eastern Caribbean, and competed for the top prize. (For details, click here.)

In a remarkable stoke of luck, two women each won a new BMW within five minutes of each other on August 26th playing 2-cent slot games during a cruise to Alaska on the Diamond Princess.

The BMW promotion has produced dozens of winners since it began running on Princess and Carnival cruise ships in mid-2006, but there never before had been two winners on the same cruise -- much less two winners playing adjacent slots on the same day.

The smiling winners, Shannan and Miriam, are shown in the photo above with the clearly stunned casino staff.

An 82-year-old Missouri woman won top prize of $30,000 in NCL Casino at Sea's first Buy-In Slot Tournament, 'Slots of Fun,' held aboard the NCL Sun sailing on February 11, 2007 from New Orleans to the Western Caribbean.

Some 220 slots players from all over the country booked the seven-day cruise and got their $100 entry fee to the four-day slots tournament included as part of their cruise package. (For details, click here.)

While Alaska figures out exactly how to implement its new 33-percent tax on cruise ship casinos, and the major cruiselines try to gauge the impact of this unique tax, fewer high-rollers are being invited on Alaska cruise junkets this summer. (For details, click here.)

A Florida woman cruising on Carnival's Liberty has scored the biggest slot win at sea in a couple of years, collecting a jackpot of almost a million dollars playing the MegaCash slots. Diane Phelps sailed home with $940,704 by hitting the progressive jackpot that is linked to slots aboard all the ships of the cruiselines that are part of the Ocean Players Club.

Continuous shuffling machines (CSMs), which were introduced in cruise ship casinos a few years ago but subsequently pulled from most ships, are now making a comeback with Carnival and Princess cruise lines.

Casino executives for Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines -- which make limited use of CSMs -- say they have no plans to expand deployment of the machines in the near future. (For details, click here.)

Early in the year, two lucky cruise casino players scored big wins -- one on Carnival and one on Princess -- playing the Ocean Players Club's new Caribbean Stud Poker Diamond Edition.

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The first winner of 2006 was Bill McCabe (above), who drew a royal flush while sailing January 3rd on the Star Princess, and walked off the ship $64,607.00 richer.

The second win of the year came just over a month later when Marvin Klintworth (right) celebrated a highly memorable Valentine's Day, winning $38,582 while cruising on the Carnival Elation.

Beate Fink was sailing on the inaugural cruise of the Norwegian Jewel when she became the latest lucky winner of a seven-day cruise for two in the "Spin to Win" promotion conducted in the casinos aboard Norwegian Cruise Line ships.

Frau Fink and her family, who reside in Germany, were enjoying a 13-day cruise in the Mediterranean at the time of her win. The Norwegian Jewel will shortly be heading toward the U.S. for its fall and winter sailings. Cruisers get a chance at Spin to Win on all NCL ships except those sailing Hawaiian Island itineraries.

Ellen Grant and John Kelly, from North Carolina, had a happy surprise on their recent cruise aboard the Norwegian Spirit. Their $5 slot machine bet produced a $20,000 jackpot -- and they have the check to prove it!

The Norwegian Spirit and other NCL ships feature slots -- like the one shown at left in the photo -- that are "Certified Loose" by Strictly Slots Magazine, with the payback percentage posted right above the slot machine.