Man Goes On Cruises For 6 Months Thanks To The Casino. He Shares His Gambling Secret: ‘I Didn’t Know This’

Anybody who’s ever rented an apartment knows the pain that comes with paying rent.

With every dollar you hand over to your landlord, your mind is filled with questions about whether this arrangement is actually worth it. Paying $2,000 per month to a stranger just so they can ignore my emails about the sink being broken? There’s got to be a better way!

Thanks to TikTok, we’ve now seen many alternatives to apartment living—some better than others. We’ve seen the ups and downs of van life, and all the people who have tried to make it work as a digital nomad.

Now, there’s a man who’s gone viral after offering his own way to escape the apartment life—sailing on a cruise ship for free thanks to casino comps. But does it really work?

How Does This Man Spend 6 Months Per Year On Cruise Ships?

In a video with over 797,000 views, TikTok user Joe (@joe2go_ta) says he’s spent the past approximately six months taking 37 different Royal Caribbean cruises. The best part? Every stay, he says, was a casino comp.

Doing this, he says, requires one to accumulate points at the casino. The way he claims to do this is by using low-volatility slot machines.

“There’s high volatility and low volatility. High volatility, they have big bonuses. Those bonuses will periodically pay out large amounts, so the in-between spins pay out very little,” he explains. “The low volatility don’t have any bonuses…So, those individual spins pay out more of, let’s say, 80 cents per dollar for low volatility, and high volatility might only pay 30 cents per dollar per spin.”

Doing this enough times allows him to earn points, which he can then use to receive status with the cruise line. From there, he can get his rooms comped. Consequently, he’s able to stay on cruises for six months out of the year.

Explaining The Strategy

Before getting into whether this works, it’s important to clarify exactly what strategy Joe claims to be using to get these “free” cruises.

According to Joe, he’s able to access these cruises due to his status on Royal Caribbean. To achieve this status, he claims he only needs to spend around $2,000 gambling, which he claims to do only once per year.

The Royal Caribbean website claims that, in order to reach Prime status (which he says he has), one has to have 2,500 points. A player earns a single point for every $5 they play on a reel slot machine.

By using low-volatility slots, he claims to maximize his return-to-player, or RTP. This means that, if he puts $2,000 into a machine, he’s more likely to get a substantial amount of that money back, which he can then use on the slot machine to accrue points.

For example, if he plays $100, then gets $90 back, then plays that $90 again, he accrues a total of 38 points. He can continue to do this until he accrues 2,500 points, which he claims generally costs him around $2,000.

Does This Really Work?

This strategy does seem to work. That said, there are some important details to note before one considers pursuing this strategy themselves.

First, as Joe repeatedly notes across his videos, these “free” cruises aren’t exactly free. He still has to pay for things like port fees, taxes, and tips for servers. Overall, he estimates in a comment under one video that these costs amount to around “just over $11k for 6 months.” This equates to over $1,800 per month.

Still, as that number includes accommodation, food, and other benefits like gym access, some may still find the price worth it.

The real issue is the reliance on deals and offers. While Joe says these offers come fairly consistently—enough that he’s able to be on a comped cruise for six months out of the year—there’s always a chance that Royal Caribbean could change the program, or suddenly begin limiting the offers.

In the short-term, this strategy works. Whether this will remain a viable strategy for the foreseeable future is unclear.

Commenters Are Impressed

In the comments section, many users questioned whether this strategy really worked. Others countered that, in their experience, it did.

“I gambled less than 300 on a cruise a few years ago and constantly get offers for free rooms and free drinks. That’s on carnival,” a user wrote.

“I literally went on a cruise in January and already have been sent like 10 free cruises. Just wish I could take them all lol,” another stated.

“Tax and Port fees. I have not paid full price for a cruise in 18yrs. Prime and Diamond,” a third offered.

BroBible reached out to Joe via TikTok direct message and comment, and Royal Caribbean via email.