Proposed ban on floating casinos hits opposition

Laurence Arnold

Monday, Aug. 2, 1999 | 11:41 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Shipbuilding and cruise industry supporters are trying to torpedo an effort to ban floating casinos that take gamblers on "cruises to nowhere."

They said the ban proposed by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., would only hurt ships flying under the U.S. flag, giving foreign-flagged vessels a monopoly in the lucrative market of gambling in international waters.

Such cruises have stirred particular controversy in Florida, South Carolina, Massachusetts and New York, where some residents and politicians complain that gambling has arrived on their shores without the public having a say.

In 1992, Congress approved changes to maritime law to allow the transport and possession of gambling devices on ships, so long as they are not used while the vessel is within state boundaries. A judge interpreted the changes to mean gambling cruises could dock and pick up passengers even in states that did not allow casino gambling.

An appeals court last month overturned the decision, restoring authority to states. Wolf said Congress should make clear that such cruises are presumed to be illegal under federal law.

These cruises are "one of the most simple and easiest ways to bring high stakes gambling to any coastal state, regardless of that state's laws," Wolf told a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. "No other gambling operation can simply circumvent state law like 'cruises to nowhere.' "

Under Wolf's bill, such cruises would be illegal unless a state explicitly authorizes it. A national commission that studied gambling recently supported that approach.

But Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., who sponsored the 1992 changes that opened the door for gambling cruises, noted that state legislatures already can vote to outlaw the cruises.

After Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth testified in support of Wolf's bill, Taylor pressed him on why Florida lawmakers cannot simply pass a ban: "Are you asking Big Brother to save you from the Florida Legislature?"

Butterworth replied that the legislature shouldn't have to act because Florida citizens have rejected casino gambling three times over 21 years.

Butterworth is one of 15 attorneys general to endorse Wolf's bill.

Bernard Horn, representing the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, said casino cruises are less regulated, and therefore more susceptible to fraud, than land casinos while creating fewer economic boosts to a region.

Speaking in support of the industry, Robert Williams, chairman of the Port of Palm Beach, said the cruises are an important source of jobs and money in his part of Florida. And Allen Walker, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, said more than 50 gambling ships worth almost $900 million have been built in U.S. shipyards since 1992.

"The industry desperately needs the work generated by the cruises-to-nowhere trade to continue along the road to recovery and modernization," he said.