Gambling at Sea

While it’s fairly easy to determine who sets the laws for on land casinos. It’s a little bit more difficult to know who is setting and/or enforcing the laws for online casinos. Then again who sets the law and enforces them when it comes to a cruise ship casino?

In order to sort out the laws of floating casinos it has to be realized that there are actually two circumstances to deal with. The first is the cruise ships then there are the riverboat casinos.

Cruise Ship Gambling

To begin with gambling is legal on cruise ships whether it be a Caribbean luxury cruise or one of the many Mediterranean luxury cruises. Technically whatever flag is flying on a cruise ship determines what country governs the laws aboard it. This can get somewhat tainted however when sailing in international waters because it then becomes a point of jurisdiction. Laws that are applicable to activities on the water are called Maritime law.

Therefore, it would make sense that the gaming laws being upheld on a ship are those which are enforced by the country of the flag. Things can change though depending on the locale of the waters. For example, if a ship is docked then it is in the internal waters of that specific country and must abide by their rules.

Territorial waters begin twelve miles away from the coastline and this is where it gets interesting in regards to gaming laws. For example, cruise ships that have gaming on board cannot open their casino until they have exceeded the twelve miles in respect to USA waters because of the illegal gambling rules.

Once the cruise ship has traveled 24 miles out it is then in international water and can proceed to offer games.

The Origins of Cruise Ship Gambling

The cruise ship casino industry really began to set its roots when the 1991 Cruise Ship Competiveness Act was enacted. This meant that now USA cruise ships could offer games once hitting international waters.

The laws of gambling when it comes to being at port will change according to the various countries. It is fairly well known that the USA will not allow a cruise ship casino to be open while docked. Bermuda however has allowed the Bermuda Cruise ships to remain open when docked there.

Riverboat Casinos

The legality of riverboat casinos is much simpler as they tend to remain within one nation. As a result, they are basically subjected to the same rulings as the on land casinos based on the jurisdiction from which they are operating.