Just like I gamble frequently at casinos on land, I also regularly take cruises as part of my partnership with Carnival Cruise Line, and I gamble there too (and share the results as part of my YouTube channel).
One viewer wondered about the issues that can crop up with a lot of cash and customs:
When leaving a cruise, don’t you have to go through customs, and if so do you not get flagged up all the time from carrying too much cash from all the handpays?
Alan J.
This would certainly be a problem if I won all the jackpots and didn’t also lose money along the way. Like most of us, I see the ups and downs of gambling, particularly playing slots.
One thing that I do differently on cruise ships is, like the rest of the cruisers, I get my cash while playing onboard, as opposed to bringing the cash onboard. That means I’m only taking cash as I need it. When I get ahead, I rely on my cash on hand, and if I need to refresh my bankroll, I make a room charge to my stateroom.
I haven’t had a situation yet where I have had too much cash to clear customs without needing to report it (the limit above which you need to report is $10,000 as of the time this post goes live), but there’s other options when it comes to the cruise ship if I end up above that.
For instance, I could simply go to guest services and pay off what I had previously charged to the room, a process that also reduces my final bill with cash I already have on hand – one less thing to worry about at the end of the month!
That said, if I ever did find myself with more than $10,000, you simply need to declare as such to customs by filling out a form. I’m not aware of any other obstacles otherwise that would create an issue (but if you do, please share in the comments!).
The reality of gambling though is many of my jackpots are well below $10,000, and I invested some level of time and money before each one occurs, so I don’t tend to frequently accumulate that much cash as it’s going in and out of the machines frequently. It’s certainly a good problem to have when it happens, but there’s also ways to handle it if you wanted to do so.
With cruises, I handle my cash needs differently than I do on land, and that’s in part because the cruise lines do too. Cashless systems aim to limit the amount of cash going back and forth, and the jackpot cash often ends up back into the machine as well.
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