Cruise ships do need to have a premises license if they offer commercial gambling, but if the ship is “on a journey into or from international waters” then no premises license is even required. Hawaii does not allow casino cruise ships to operate from their state. Even though most states without gambling allow cruise ships to operate. Cruises that originate or end in Hawaii may not possess commercial gambling devices, including electronic casino games. Hawaii casino gamblers must go to the mainland to get any kind of gambling action. You’d think, as in some other tightly regulated states for gambling, that there might be some cruise ships one could sail out on into international waters to take part in some gambling. But you would be sadly mistaken.

A gambling ship is a seagoing vessel of any kind on which gambling takes place.

Historically, international waters began just 3 miles (4.8 km) from land in many countries. Gambling ships, like offshore radio stations, would usually be anchored just outside the three-mile limit. When the extent of territorial waters were redefined to 12 nautical miles—approximately 13.8 miles (22.2 km)—maintaining gambling ship became much more uneconomic.

In the United States, some states tried to control the effect of gambling ships through the use of state statutes.^[1] It was generally believed^{[according to whom?]} that organized crime was often involved in the operation of gambling ships.

Gambling ships off the coast of California[edit]

In 1928, the lumber schooner Johanna Smith was converted to a gambling ship and moored off Long Beach, California. She caught fire and sank in 1932.^[2]

On New Year's Day 1937, during the Great Depression, gambling ship SS Monte Carlo, well-known for 'drinks, dice, and dolls,' was wrecked on a beach about a quarter mile south of the Hotel del Coronado, near San Diego.^[3]

The barge Monfalcone was purchased in 1928 by a group including Los Angeles crime family boss Jack Dragna and started offering gambling off the coast of Long Beach. The ship sank in 1930 after a fire.^[4]

Other gambling ships operating off California during the 1930s included Rose Isle (aka Johanna Smith II), Casino (fka James Tuft), SS Texas (aka City of Panama; aka Star of Hollywood; aka La Playa), Showboat (aka Mount Baker; aka Caliente), SS Reno (operating off San Diego), and William H. Harriman (operating off Santa Barbara).^[5]

Anthony Cornero operated the gambling ships SS Rex and SS Tango during the 1930s.^[6] California Attorney General Earl Warren ordered raids on the gambling ships. On August 1, 1939, state authorities raided SS Texas and SS Rex off Santa Monica and Showboat and SS Tango off Long Beach. A court ruling later that year permanently shut them down. However, in 1946 Cornero opened the SS Lux off Long Beach. It was quickly shut down. In 1948, President Harry Truman signed an act prohibiting the operation of any gambling ship in U.S. territorial waters.^[7]

Gambling ships in Hawaii[edit]

Hawaii is one of three states that does not legalize any types of wagering such as gambling. So for a gambling ship to be sent from a Hawaiian island would be a very hard accomplishment. Hawaii has some strict laws on what types and which country flagged ships can dock in its ports. These ships that have gambling on them are cruise ships. Even though Hawaii has strict rules on its ports, a foreign flagged cruise ship can still dock in a Hawaiian port if it travels in international waters.^[8] During these cruises there would be gambling on the ship once it got to international waters. A cruise ship would not be allowed to have any type of gambling aboard its ship if its initial or final destination was not to a port on one of the Hawaiian Islands even when those ships are in international waters.^[8]

Gambling ships in Hong Kong[edit]

The popularity of gambling ships increased in Hong Kong following the anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping which began in 2012, under which high-ranking government officials and executives at state-owned enterprises are barred from gambling in Macau. In 2011, the Immigration Department reported 466 thousand passenger boardings of tourists from mainland China onto gambling ships, a 17.4% increase from 2010. Eight gambling ships were in operation in Hong Kong in 2013, many of them operated by triad syndicates. These ships have been criticized for their use of misleading sales techniques and for their risk to public safety due to the difficulty of law enforcement against their operation.^[9]

Legality[edit]

Some cities and city officials do not agree if gamblingships should be allowed to go out to sea and gamble but then come back and dock in ports where gambling is illegal. The gambling ships have to travel for over forty five minutes to reach international waters before they could gamble legally.^[10] In the city of New York, where gambling had been deemed illegal, there are some companies that would send their gambling ships to go out to sea into international waters which is about forty five minutes out so people could gamble on their ships legally. New York State AssemblySpeakerSheldon Silver was completely against the concept, arguing that returning with gambling paraphernalia into the Port of New York and New Jersey was illegal.^[10] Other speakers said that the gambling ships would be great for the city, because they would bring in tax revenues and tourism that would help the city's economy. There were other cities around New York City that allowed gambling, and if New York did not permit the operation of gambling ships, those other cities would earn all of the potential revenue from gamblers. Ultimately, it was up to the mayor to decide if the gambling ships would be allowed or not.^[10]

Enforcement of the Law[edit]

There was once an incident off the shore of California by Santa Monica Bay. A man, Tony Cornero, owned a ship called 'Rex.' Cornero licensed his ship from the state of Nevada, where gambling was legal, and set anchor three miles out from the coast of California.^[11] There were water taxis that would carry boat loads of people out to the 'Rex' and they could gamble on the ship. A State Attorney General, Earl Warren, did not like having this ship off the coast of his state. Warren set out with the sheriff department and drove boats out to the 'Rex' to shut it down.^[11] Cornero would not give in for eight days. But when he did the dispute went to the courts. California’s supreme court decided that 'three mile line' that marked international waters was not actually only three miles out from the nearest shore. The 'Rex' was shut down permanently.^[11]

Gambling ships in popular culture[edit]

Californian gambling ships appear in several novels of the period, including Sing a Song of Murder (1942) by James R Langham, The Case of the Dangerous Dowager (1937) by Erle Stanley Gardner, and Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler. The 1940 film 'Gambling on the High Seas' was set in part aboard a gambling ship, SS Sylvania. Other films that feature gambling ships include Gambling Ship, Dante's Inferno, and Smashing the Money Ring.

Economics of Gambling Ships[edit]

Whilst gambling and gaming are traditionally high-revenue businesses, the economics of gambling ships are quite different from traditional bricks-and-mortar casinos.

One example which illustrates this is Manhattan Cruises. They were based in Manhattan, New York City, they originally operated overnight cruises into international waters, but had difficult attracting passengers in sufficient numbers to cover pier fees.^[12]

With bigger companies come bigger ships which makes it that much harder on the smaller companies who are trying to get in the gambling ship industry. Smaller companies are sometimes faced with the choice of merging with bigger companies or going out of business. There are different factors that make it hard for the smaller companies to compete with the larger companies such as Carnival Corps and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.^[13] One of the factors is that the bigger companies can afford to make newer and bigger ships. Newer ships can hold up to 4,400 passengers and crew.^[13] These smaller ships can not carry those large of numbers. Newer ships acquire more updated safety requirements from the IMO, International Maritime Organization.^[13] The smaller companies have older ships that are not equipped with the new safety standards and will have to get these requirements if it can afford them. An analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., Steven Eisenberg, says this type of industry will be ruled by two to three big companies who will rule the sea in gambling ships.^[13]

See also[edit]

• Mr. Lucky (film) (1943), starring Cary Grant as a gambling ship operator
  • Mr. Lucky (TV series), loosely based on the same premise
• Gambling Ship (1933), also starring Cary Grant

References[edit]

1. ^CAL. PEN. CODE § 11300
2. ^'Johanna Smith'. California Wreck Divers. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
3. ^Graham, David E (Jan 2, 2007). 'Busting the House: Casino Boat Crashed into Coronado 70 Years Ago'. SignOnSanDiego. San Diego: Union Tribune. Archived from the original on August 30, 2012. Retrieved Mar 19, 2011.
4. ^Monfalcone - California Wreck Divers
5. ^More on California's Gambling Ships by Stephen P. Alpert Coin Slot Magazine April 1980 [1]
6. ^The other S.S. Rex – a gambling ship off Santa Monica, California in the 1930s and early 1940s. by Michael L. Grace cruiselinehistory.com August 2, 2009 [2]
7. ^Tony Cornero And The S.S. Rex Los Angeles Magazine June 28, 2013
8. ^ ^abMcDowell, E. (2001, May 6). Hawaii Still Resists Cruise Ship Gambling. New York Times. p. 3.[3]
9. ^'內地打貪　澳門止步 港八賭船爆海戰搶客'. Apple Daily. 15 July 2013.
10. ^ ^abcToy, V. S. (1995, November 20). Debating legality of plan for cruise-ship gambling. New York Times. p. B2.[4]
11. ^ ^abcKalambakal, V. (2002). The BATTLE of Santa Monica Bay. American History, 37(1), 36.
12. ^Onishi, N. (1998, May 5). Gambling ship stops operating overnight cruises. New York Times. p. B10.[5]
13. ^ ^abcdDe Lisser, E. (1995, November 24). Forecast for cruise industry is stormy, andsome of the smaller fleets may sink. Wall Street Journal – Eastern Edition. p. B1.

Gambling On Cruise Ships In Hawaii Island

Hawaii is a kind of paradise in many ways, but not when it comes to gambling laws. In fact, the island state, last to join the US, is pretty late joining the gambling party too, and is in fact one of only two states to offer absolutely no state regulated forms of gambling whatsoever, sharing this dubious privilege only with Utah.

The Aloha State also has pretty strict laws punishing gambling activity, with no legal options under the law at all except social home games. There are no exemptions for charity gambling under the law in Hawaii. There are no race tracks. There is no state lottery. There are no real money games, even social, allowed in bars or other public venues, and no licensed online activity. Even casino ships are not allowed to operate in and out of state ports. Your options are narrower than Amarillo Slim around here.

The Letter of the Law

The law states in no uncertain terms that gambling is not permitted in Hawaii. Gambling is defined as risking something of value in a contest of chance, and a contest of chance is defined as any game in which chance plays a material role, regardless of whether skill is also involved.

The only express exemption which exists under Hawaiian law is a concession allowing social home gaming under certain strict provisions. These include a proviso that players must be competing on a level playing field, and that no wagering is done by non-players, or by any means other than the mechanisms of the game itself (so no side betting). Furthermore, the house or host must receive no rake or other consideration for running the game, for example by virtue of selling drinks to players.

The game in question must not be a form of book-keeping, so sport betting is out. The players must all be of legal age, and the event must be in a truly private space such as a home, and not in a public place such as a beach or a park, nor a venue such as a bar, hotel or restaurant.

A range of bills proposing extension, or more accurately, creation of state regulated gambling have been brought forward, but so far none of these have gained much traction in the state legislature, mostly being listed as “failed upon adjournment”.

Is Online Gambling Legal in Hawaii?

What with the forest fire of political change viz a viz gambling in mainland US spreading slowly but surely across many state lines, ignited by New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, one might wonder if the spark might leap across the water to Hawaii. So far, there have been a few fitful flames but nothing has taken hold and really burned.

The latest bill to doggy paddle in the senate is SB 768, proposing a Hawaii lottery and gaming corporation for the regulation of online gambling. This was introduced in January 2013 but shows no signs of getting anywhere at this time.

The full bill can be viewed here [1], for anyone interested in torturing themselves with a lot of legal language that is sadly unlikely to become enshrined in actual law. The bill proposes that most of the revenue from said gaming be channeled into education, and problem gambling support.

State legislators just don’t see support for such bills in the house, or in the general population. With over 30 bills on this subject currently seeking attention [2], it seems unlikely that any of them will actually reach the Governor’s desk.

As this recent poll from a local newspaper [3] suggests, the majority of residents seem to be opposed to bringing in land-based casinos to Hawaii, while there’s a fairly even split on attitudes towards casino ships and a state lottery.

A recent study into the likely impact of casinos on Hawaii [4] concludes that for every $64 of benefit to the economy, there would be an estimated $289 in social costs. The report also notes, fairly damningly, that a casino’s presence is empirically proven to lead to higher rates of “serious crime including rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft.”

The local press tend to support an active debate on this subject, with proponents given equal space to voice their views in this 2002 edition of the Star Bulletin [5], and a more recent article featuring public comments run in 2011 by Honolulu’s Civil Beat [6].

Forms of Gambling Legalized in the State of Hawaii

Honestly, your best bet is to head down the beach, enjoy life, and then head over to Vegas on vacation. If that’s just not good enough, you have a very few options open to you within the law.

Poker Games

Your main option is going to be social home poker games. Just be sure not to attend a game in a bar or on a beach, but only in a genuinely private location. If the house isn’t taking any consideration, you should be acting within the law in playing.

Gambling On Cruise Ships In Hawaii Islands

There are a number of resources for tracking these games, including two dedicated home poker websites with links to individual games in Hawaii.

A local version of the same initiative can be found here [7], known as the Waikele Poker Players’ Group. A regular free roll event run online for Hawaii players is called the Hawaii Poker Championship, and the site for this outfit can be found here [8].

Despite the apparently high production values, a Hawaii TV show which aired in 2010 called “Hawaii’s Big Deal”[9] running televised satellites to the WSOP only ran for one series. Perhaps someone should try to revive this show, and bring some more positive poker publicity to the islands.

Your final option which seems to be within the law is to hire a “casino party” company, who will come and fill your private party with Vegas-accurate gambling equipment, which of course you are explicitly only allowed to run play money games on. Any use of such equipment for real gambling is naturally totally against the law.

Casino Ships

You’d think, as in some other tightly regulated states for gambling, that there might be some cruise ships one could sail out on into international waters to take part in some gambling. But you would be sadly mistaken.

According to Hawaii Revised Statute 712-1222.5 (2009) quoted in this document by Gaming Law Masters , “Managing, supervising, controlling, operating, or owning, either alone or in association with others, any craft which embarks from any point within the State, and disembarks at the same or another point within the State, during which the person intentionally causes or knowingly permits gambling activity to be conducted, whether within or without the waters of the State…” is, you guessed it, illegal.

So it’s no-go on casino ships too, unless they’re passing through Hawaii, picking up people from the islands, and then heading out into international waters, and dropping off visitors at some other location out-of-state. This is hardly likely, or convenient! For those still interested in pursuing this remote possibility, a couple of discussions on the subject can be found on cruise liner websites here [10] and here [11].

Busts And Arrests

Of course in a state with such very strict suppression of gambling, there’s a pretty active underground which has seen a peppering of significant busts across recent years.

Let’s start things off with this kid’s Youtube video [12] of a visit to an underground casino in Hawaii, which apart from the amusing advice he exchanges with his friend about changing games because they’ve “already won a couple of times” on a given virtual slot, does illustrate that the underground casino industry is active, although the footage doesn’t really suggest it to be thriving. The machine in question took dollar bills, and the footage was uploaded in June 2013.
Arcade employees are regularly arrested and machines seized in busts such as this series of arrests [13] which took place in Aiea, Kalihi and Keeaumoku in February of 2013.

Depressing stories do exist such as this piece in Civil Beat [14], which interviews teenagers who think they are “learning” to beat slot machines, which obviously generally have a large house edge and are unbeatable and unskilful forms of gaming. The proprietors claim that the games in this article are “skill based”, but no clear evidence is put forward in this document for such claims.

Of most concern to those interested in online wagering, there has been an increasing trend across Hawaii for busting individuals for online gambling, principally focused on sports betting. In some cases such as that of Terrence Ching, the arrest is for book-making and placing online bets on behalf of numerous other individuals, while in other cases, individuals who simply got very lucky online [15] have found the police rapping on their door.

Summary of Hawaii State Gambling Laws

If you’re looking to gamble within the law in Hawaii, you have very few real options open to you.

You can partake in home poker games which stay within the provisions laid out for them under the law, most importantly that no house rake or consideration is taken. To find these games, consult the home poker networks and discussions listed above.

You may be able to play certain skill-based amusement machines run in the state, but it’s far from clear how long these will survive under the law, or whether they truly qualify as skill games.

You can run a “Vegas style” casino party with strictly no real money wagering allowed, and play to your hearts’ content with play money.

That’s about your lot.

So if you’re in Hawaii and want to gamble, aside from home games your best bet is really to head for the mainland, at least for a little while. The beaches will still be here when you get back.

Sources for this article

1. Meetup.com: Waikele Poker Players Group
2. HawaiiPokerChampionship.com: Hawaii Online Poker Championship
3. HonoluluPulse.com: In the Mix: ‘Hawaii’s Big Deal’