Funny you should mention a cruise ship and 6/5 JOB. On the first chipper's cruise, the only bank of VP machines they had in the casino were 10 JOB 6/5 machines, but there was a progressive on the royal. Some of my chipper friends refused to play those machines because they were 6/5. I looked at the progressive and figured the machines were still worth playing even with the horrible 6/5 payouts on a full house or flush. The progressive was just a little over $1800 when we left Miami. Later that evening, I decided to take a shot at the royal after playing mostly table games before and after dinner. I had $60 in when I hit the royal for $1838! Talk about a great way to start a vacation!

It was a hand pay. They took my ID and filled out some paperwork, then paid me in cash and walked away. They did not give me a W2G with the hand pay. I figured since the ship was registered in either Panama or the Bahamas (I forget which) and we were in international waters, that meant the jackpot was tax free and the paperwork they filled out was just for internal accounting purposes. I was wrong. On the final day of the cruise, a W2G with my name on it had been slipped under my cabin door before I woke up that morning. I went to the casino manager and asked her why I got the W2G. She told me it was due to an agreement that the cruise lines had with our government and all American citizens received W2G's for big slot wins. I didn't like it, but I wasn't about to argue with her or whine about it. It was still a very nice win.