South Carolina casino boats?

My understanding of these things is that they go 3 miles offshore into international waters where anything goes (and thus gambling is legal). My question is, is there any oversight of these casinos? Some sort of gaming commission? Or can they cheat you, back-room you, rough you up, and throw you overboard (ok maybe they won't throw you overboard) with no legal recourse available?

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

My understanding of these things is that they go 3 miles offshore into international waters where anything goes (and thus gambling is legal). My question is, is there any oversight of these casinos? Some sort of gaming commission? Or can they cheat you, back-room you, rough you up, and throw you overboard (ok maybe they won't throw you overboard) with no legal recourse available?

The Victory Cruise Line (which is the one I sail the most) is an American Flag ship. They still have to comply with maritime law in international waters concerning taking care of their customers, their general health and safety, and they answer to the USCG, port, and/or local authorities in the event of customer v. casino issues. They're very careful about compliance, because their berthing rights hang by a thread in our anti-casino local politics. They do back people off and/or trespass them occasionally, they require a photo ID to get on board (passport/DL), and you have to go through security similar to getting on an airplane before 9/11; in fact, you can't even enter their terminal without photo ID. They have paid security officers on board, and they do police f-word profanity, drunkenness, physical altercations. There is a small brig on board as well, and several private areas of the boat where customers do not go. They allow gambling at 18, but restrict drinking to 21 in compliance with US law, are regularly inspected for kitchens, booze with legal tax stamps, seaworthiness and compliance with emergency drills and equipment.

All that said, I'm not tapped into the local network to know for sure, but there's very little buzz about backrooming or ugliness, past or present. OTOH, they don't check you out, they only check you in (they issue a boarding pass, then scan it going up the ramp), so if they are dumping AP's off the stern for shark chum, (joke - not happening), I don't know how anybody could tell. You go down the long ramp in a big cattle cluster as you leave, and that's when a lot of the dips get people; got my mom's wallet about 8 years ago.

I've seen a few working girls get on as well, and never seen them get popped, but if they're actually working ON the boat, I can't imagine where; I'm guessing they're picking up the guys on board and disembarking to further adventures.

Thanks for the info! Do you live in South Carolina?

Do you know if there is any oversight for the gambling itself. For example, in Las Vegas, I know that if I'm playing a video poker game, or a slot machine with a side-game that includes cards, those cards have to be fairly (randomly & uniformly) drawn, like they would be if a real deck was used. I know this because the Nevada Gaming Commission says that they have to. Are there any sort of set of rules that these casinos are obliged to follow?

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

Thanks for the info! Do you live in South Carolina?

Do you know if there is any oversight for the gambling itself. For example, in Las Vegas, I know that if I'm playing a video poker game, or a slot machine with a side-game that includes cards, those cards have to be fairly (randomly & uniformly) drawn, like they would be if a real deck was used. I know this because the Nevada Gaming Commission says that they have to. Are there any sort of set of rules that these casinos are obliged to follow?

I lived in Charleston for several years and miss it very much. (Mount Pleasant, actually). I'm living near Kennedy Space Center now, and the Victory sails from Port Canaveral.

The gambling, to the best of my knowledge, is self-regulated. However, they have many licensed table games as well as legacy games, their slots and video poker machines are all licensed and familiar games, and they advertise heavily that they provide "true Vegas odds". And they do; I think that if they weren't following Vegas paytables and rules, they could be shut down for fraudulent advertising. It's possible that their contract to operate with the port and/or state requires them to offer certain odds ranges, but I don't know that; however, they had to jump through incredible numbers of hoops and regulations, so I wouldn't be surprised. I know they pay significantly better than the Seminoles on most games, at least in my experience and everyone I've spoken with comparing them. All of the paytables are printed on the felts, and are identical to those I've seen in Nevada (though some games offer more than one paytable in Nevada).

The slots are true Class III machines. I have had no complaints about pays. They do not offer progressives on any of their tables, and their table aggregate pays are all capped at 10K that I've seen. (Exclusive of the LIR bonus; they claim they would pay that in addition to the base bet pay if you won the Royal.) All the table games are available at $5 minimums except there is some higher minimum Bj, and the mini-bacc I think is usually $10. There's also a full sports book on board, with a good bar and kitchen in it. They have craps, roulette (3 of each), $3 electronic BJ, and $1 Electronic roulette. There's also live music, a huge bar menu, a buffet, contests and tournaments, extra stuff like that. It's a neat little boat, and great sightseeing coming and going.

Great, thanks again for the info!

Not to jump the thread, but does anyone remember the great SC VP Debate about 15 years ago? VP shops opened up across the state including "South of the Border" and then were closed almost as quickly.

I have sailed and played on the Victory. I have never been on any of the SC boats, but I think there is no comparison. A friend was recently on one of the boats sailing from north of Myrtle Beach and describes it as a dump and a miserable experience.

I was not very impressed with the FL boat out of John's Pass, but I really liked the Victory.

I have done a little bit of work scouting and analyzing some of the southeast gambling boats, including one that may be moving to South Carolina soon. Overall, I trust most of the slot machines and video poker games. If I had any concerns, it would be the table games.

Axiom,

If you're in South Carolina, you're no more than 4-5 hours from here. They do have reasonable stay and play deals with several local hotels, and prices are cheap now. I would suggest you come down, either with them doing a hotel deal with you, or booked on your own this first trip, and stay overnight; take a night cruise the first day, (departs at 7pm) then a day cruise the 2nd day (departs at 11am). It'll be much better than anything SC is offering right now. They do have a comp club that offers weekly match play, slots money, plus other things. The first time on, it's worth making a reservation ahead of time (have your ID handy) and they'll usually have your card printed up when you pick up your ticket.

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

My understanding of these things is that they go 3 miles offshore into international waters

Well, I think its now a twelve mile limit. You don't have to worry about "muscle" or "backrooming". I was going to tell you that instead of taking you to the backroom they take you to the basement, but in reality these places are so marginal and often in trouble over traffic and parking rules that the boats can't do anything to you even if they wanted to. They don't really have any muscle and are often mainly slot boats.

One of the South Carolina boats is operated by MOSS MARINE they same firm that operates the slightly smaller Big M Casino boat out of Fort Myers Beach in Florida offering slots, several blackjack tables, roulette and craps. A few other games with prior notice too.

The Victory out of Cocoa Beach, FL is the very much larger gambling ship with several tie ins to local hotels and free shuttles and free parking and often free boarding coupons/free buffet coupons. The buffet is "one pass" but if there is something you particularly enjoyed and want a bit more of, just speak to the hostess and a plate of it will magically appear. Whatever your hotel budget, one of area hotels will be having a special that suits you. Even if don't do a hotel tie-in, you can easily get free hotel pickup. With a sports book, a duty free shop, several bars and multiple gambling decks you won't be bored at all. Three live craps tables and one with Electronic Craps for twelve players.

I don't know if Cocoa Beach offers much but there are dozens of bars and nightclubs for the sun all day booze all night set, there are a half dozen topless bars, one nudist hotel, one remote nudist beach, several surfing schools, a gem shop. Local grocery stores sell tons of sun related products and inflatable toys for the kids. RonJons is the really big Beach Shop and one hotel key can get you an 18 percent discount if you present it. I forget which hotel it was but you should check. I did not care too much for the "German" restaurant but there was a good guy at the piano, but limited menu and not very Germanic. Same ownership as adjacent Jazz club. Read special parking signs next door carefully. Don't overpay. Two or three Irish bars and one English bar in town. Two great blues clubs in town but one had a kareoke session that kept belting out decibels at me. Some very upscale restaurants but those are out of my class.

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

Are there any sort of set of rules that these casinos are obliged to follow?

If you check into the used slot machine market you are likely to find that the slots you are playing on these ships came from Nevada and the ships don't really have the money to buy new chip sets.

On most of the offshore boats you are still on an American flagged vessel just on the high seas. Only the old Gambino boat out of Port of Palm Beach was officially registered in Panama and thus all gambling took place in Panama as far as the law was concerned.

Quote: FleaStiff

If you check into the used slot machine market you are likely to find that the slots you are playing on these ships came from Nevada and the ships don't really have the money to buy new chip sets.

On most of the offshore boats you are still on an American flagged vessel just on the high seas. Only the old Gambino boat out of Port of Palm Beach was officially registered in Panama and thus all gambling took place in Panama as far as the law was concerned.

Yeah, FleaStiff is right about airspace/waterways; the 12 mile ADIZ is enforced nationwide surface to infinity (at least); the 3 mile restriction is different from that, but is the legal limit they use to open and close gaming. It's about 25 minutes out, 45 minutes back. (They have to sail all the way in to the turning basin, turn around, and come back out to their berth. They also take 5-10 minutes to slide sideways onto the pier with thrusters; there's a spillway behind it where they can't just pull up, but at the beginning they simply drive out of it. )

Quote: Doc

A friend was recently on one of the boats sailing from north of Myrtle Beach and describes it as a dump and a miserable experience.

I can confirm this.

About 5 years ago, my wife and I were in Myrtle Beach, when a time share body-snatcher got us with an offer of cash plus a casino cruise. We should have taken the cash and skipped the cruise. Or skipped the time share pitch....


While waiting to board, people on line were debating whether this cruise was the good ship or not. I never found out if they meant one of two ships from the same company, or that there are two companies. It sails out of Little River, which is about 20 miles north of Myrtle Beach, just south of the NC state line.


When we got on, they ushered us thru the buffet. It made sense since there was time to kill before we got out to international waters. The food selection wasn't too good, and the place looked rather ragged. Whatever. While eating, I noticed some people eating hot dishes that weren't on the buffet line when I went thru. These items were more to my liking, so I went up to get them and was told that you're only allowed one trip thru the buffet. WFT?!? It's a buffet! If you're gonna have a rule like that, you need to tell people and have all your selections available at the same time! And so starts the lousy cruise.

After eating and before the tables opened, I did a little exploring. I only recall there being four decks. The entire length of the first two decks were devoted to the casino. One was all slots, the other was mostly table games. The top inside deck was where the buffet was, along with a small poker room at one end. When I saw that, I put my name on the list. There was already a full list - I'd have to wait. I was told when they call names, you can hear it all over the ship. Word to the wise: If you're interested in poker, put your name on the list before eating! There was also a rather narrow outdoor area of this deck, as well as an outdoor deck above it.

When the casino opened, I headed to the craps table. I don't remember what the odds limits were but the minimum couldn't have been more than $10 or I wouldn't have played. Felt a little weird trying to throw while the boat was rocking. After a bit, we moved to BJ. Working a standard progression of pressing $5 after each win, I was up to $35 and got a pair of 8s. I split, got another 8, etc. When it was done, I had split to five hands, and double-downed on two if them. It was then that I noticed that the dealer had a Jack, and suddenly wished I had asked if they allow surrender. Anyway, I lost half, pushed one, and won the double-down. It could have been a lot worse.

It was at that point that they called my name for an open seat in the poker room. I asked the BJ floorman to call up to lock up my seat. I ran to the stairwell, went up one flight, and discovered that those stairs don't go all the way up. Run thru the slot deck, to the other stairs, up the flight, then run thru the buffet dining room to the poker room where I saw the empty seat, and knocked it over while sitting down. I made a great impression, and then won the first couple hands I played!

While playing, the dealer asked the floorman for some more chips. The floorman merely went to the unopened table, opened the chip rack, grabbed a handful of chips, then brought them to our table, putting them in the rack without ever counting them! I was shocked. I'm used to NJ casinos where everything is documented in triplicate.

Eventually, they come around and tell us that the poker room is closing in X minutes. When the time was almost up, they came back to say "Last hand." I got crappy cards, so I picked up my chips, and ran to the cage. There had been discussion from the regulars that doing that was the smart move. They were right. I got as the cage before the table games started to close. I was fourth on line. By the time I got my cash, the line was thru that entire deck! I was able to go outside and enjoy the breeze as we traveled up Little River, etc.

Given the option to do it again, I'd pass.

Note that I've mentioned this casino boat in the past because of their chips. They're fairly basic, with the logo etc. But they also say "Florida." It had me so confused that every time I look thru my box of chips, I wasn't sure if the name on the chip was actually the name of the boat! Today, I looked for, and found, my player's card from that boat, and can confirm that the name IS correct. It was SunCruz Casino. They have a website listed on the back of the card: www.SunCruzCasino.com Note that on the website, there is a place to make reservations. It has a pop-up menu of locations, and the only location listed in Myrtle Beach. So maybe they used to sail out of Florida. Kinda weird that they would have such an option field with only one valid option....

SunCruz used to run all the really small "boats" that would taxi out some "casino" that existed mainly at low tide ... ridiculous stuff. They originaly ran the Palm Beach Casino Boat until someone from the Gambino Family arrived to say he now ran it.

As a company they called all newly hired dealers to a meeting and explained the toke system to the dealers. One dealer stood up and asked Is there a Toke Committee. The guy at the microphone said You Are Fired and had two goons escort him out. Labor Relations from over a decade ago.

Based on your description of that boat's layout, DJTB, I would put money on it being the Sun Cruz boat that ran out of Ponce Inlet (Daytona Beach) for about 10 years. It was a fun little boat, but terrible buffet food and cramped quarters. FWIW, you would like the Victory much better. But I will say that the Sun Cruz management (pre-ugliness) ran a very tidy and clean ship with good customer relations and very decent comps. Kind of sad to hear it's down to a dump.

Quote: beachbumbabs

You go down the long ramp in a big cattle cluster as you leave, and that's when a lot of the dips get people; got my mom's wallet about 8 years ago.

You pass smiling people with counting devices in their hands, though I think its mainly to keep drunks or thieves from hiding somewhere on the ship.

Quote: beachbumbabs

I've seen a few working girls get on as well, and never seen them get popped, but if they're actually working ON the boat, I can't imagine where; I'm guessing they're picking up the guys on board and disembarking to further adventures.

While that is quite possible, I think it is more likely that you've spotted the girls on the nights when there was a Topless Bar Promotional Night. All boarding passes were good for free entry that evening at Topless Bars and perhaps the girls wanted to call "dibs" on certain high rollers. I think those once a week events were discontinued, however.

From past experience.....

On the Atlantic, it's three miles. You can open at three miles but must touch the twelve mile line.

On the Gulf of Mexico, you can't open until you reach the twelve mile line.

The conditions can be much different at twelve miles. Sometimes rough.

It doesn't matter much to the gambler unless they are hell bent on making a wager at opening. The slots can fill up with people waiting on the stools, when access to the casino is allowed. Same with the craps table, if only one.

An interesting discussion to have is what the surroundings are like at the various venues. I used to like Cocco Beach, nice inexpensive beachfront hotels. John's Pass was not easy to get to. Fernandina Beach was another place that lacked infra structure to reach and more important, to return from.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3504933.shtml#.U8ggibHKFOI

I've been on The Big M that leaves from Myrtle Beach a few times this year. It's not bad. Kind of cramped, not too nice, but what can you expect? A good variety of games, decent rules (though not great). The Craps table always starts full and ends up thin by the end of the night. I've seen a lot of idiot gamblers playing stupid bets at Craps. Some mid-30's hotshot guy lost $2-3k betting nothing but $100-300 Field bets all night. He was so obnoxious I started smiling when 6 and 8 would come out.

Not a bad way to play if you're local to the area, but I enjoy going to Harrah's Cherokee a little more. Free rooms, often free meals and more gaming selection. The boats suffer from the same problem that cruise ships do. It's hard to walk away from a cold table because there's literally nothing else to do onboard but gamble. At a hotel or in Vegas/AC, you have other options for when you walk away if the tables are taking your money. It's also harder to stop while ahead.

Quote: jsausley

. . . there's literally nothing else to do onboard but gamble.

That is the problem. If luck turns against you at one game in a real casino, you can find some other game nearby. Yet, on a gambling boat if you leave the craps table, all the low limit BJ tables are taken. Sometimes even the high limit BJ is full. You can often wander around and find something somewhere that will occupy the time but its not likely to have been even your third choice.

Quote: FleaStiff

That is the problem. If luck turns against you at one game in a real casino, you can find some other game nearby. Yet, on a gambling boat if you leave the craps table, all the low limit BJ tables are taken. Sometimes even the high limit BJ is full. You can often wander around and find something somewhere that will occupy the time but its not likely to have been even your third choice.

Most of them have a restaurant and a deck or lounge where you can just enjoy being on the water.

Yeah, the one I enjoy (Victory out of Port Canaveral) has several areas like that. The fantail has an outdoor bar/table seating with excellent bar food and satellite TV's. There's a large lounge just inside of that with dancing/live music/karaoke/whatever going the whole time. And there's a sports bar on the bottom deck with more satellite TV's and good food and drink. And there are a couple of other small bars alongside the gaming. So they provide a decent amount of "step away from the Chalupa" opportunities, to their credit.

Well, that is one advantage of being on a gambling ship as opposed to a gambling boat.

I don't quite know where to draw the line between the two but the extra space allows for more opportunities for breaks and diversions. The Victory has several upscale lounges for its VIP card level and a good many small bars near the high limit Slot Area and other prime areas such as the sports book where having some booze is a way to pass time while catching up on the various lines offered.

On the old and much smaller boat out of West Palm Beach there were many passenger who gambled for no more than fifteen minutes and then made a beeline for the deck chairs and sunshine. So it became a free cruise, free meal and two free drinks for those who lived nearby.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Yeah, the one I enjoy (Victory out of Port Canaveral) has several areas like that. The fantail has an outdoor bar/table seating with excellent bar food and satellite TV's. There's a large lounge just inside of that with dancing/live music/karaoke/whatever going the whole time. And there's a sports bar on the bottom deck with more satellite TV's and good food and drink. And there are a couple of other small bars alongside the gaming. So they provide a decent amount of "step away from the Chalupa" opportunities, to their credit.

The layout of the Victory you describe reminds me of the old Palm Beach Princess that used to run out of the Port of Palm Beach back in the 80's & 90's. I wonder if it could be the same boat? I remember gambling on that boat when I was a senior in high school right after I turned 18! It was actually a small cruise ship that would occasionally make day runs to Freeport and back in addition to its "cruises to nowhere." As I recall, it had plenty of deck space, staterooms for rent, and other activities like skeet shooting off the stern.

I have not been on any cruises from SC, but I have been on the Emerald Princess out of Brunswick, GA, and the now defunct La Cruise (or was it Sun Cruise? Both companies had a boat for a short time.) out of Jacksonville/Mayport. Both of these boats seemed more like glorified cabin cruisers with little to do and little space outside the casinos.

It looks like Victory has recently started operating a new boat out of Mayport. I might have to check it out one of these days.

The Victory did, in fact, start a new boat out of Mayport about 6 weeks ago. I think you will enjoy it. I don't know the size or what they have on board.

The Canaveral Victory hull is probably 40 years old. It was the Sterling for about a decade (maybe 12 years?). I don't know where it was before that. It has 4 public decks; boarding is on the 3rd deck, which is a large balcony, open in the center over the gaming floor. The galley is also on the 3rd deck, but the food is served on the 1st and 4th decks, which has to be a pain for the food staff. The fantail is on the 4th deck, but down a few stairs: very large, probably seats 100 and stands another 100; the Sterling used to serve the buffet open air up there. Victory moved the buffet to deck 1 bow; the sports bar is deck 1stern. There are machines along the edges of that deck, but most of the gaming is decks 2 (main pit with 32 tables and rows of older slots and VP) and deck 3 (more expensive slots - newer, anyway). 4th deck has older reel slots along the edges of the nightclub. Sterling had a poker room there; Victory doesn't offer poker, probably because of the proliferation of live poker on the mainland the last few years. Bridge is above the 4th deck. She has twin screws plus side thrusters.

I mention the layout so you can compare it to your memory of the Palm Beach Princess (below). However, Wiki says she was sold for scrap in 2011. Nice boat.



Jacksonville Victory is indicating 13 tables, plus 2 roulettes and 2 craps. The whole thing seems to be 1/2 size the Canaveral Victory with all the same choices, just not as many slots/tables/etc.

Thanks for the description of the Victory and the picture of the PBP, babs! Definitely not the same boat.

Quote: beachbumbabs

I mention the layout so you can compare it to your memory of the Palm Beach Princess (below). However, Wiki says she was sold for scrap in 2011. Nice boat.

Scrap, huh? That's a shame.

It's funny what memories endure. I don't remember much about the gambling, but... In the middle of the very top deck, forward of the stack, there was a giant (10' x 10'?) chessboard ! I remember playing a game against a friend up there one time. Betcha won't find one of those on any other gambling boat (or cruise ship, for that matter)!

Quote: beachbumbabs

The Victory did, in fact, start a new boat out of Mayport about 6 weeks ago. I think you will enjoy it. I don't know the size or what they have on board.
...
Jacksonville Victory is indicating 13 tables, plus 2 roulettes and 2 craps. The whole thing seems to be 1/2 size the Canaveral Victory with all the same choices, just not as many slots/tables/etc.

Well, now I want to know whether they are using different chips from the boat in Port Canaveral. If so, I'll be sorely tempted to take one of their excursions mostly for the purpose of adding a new entry to my chip collection.

My wife and I have tentative plans for another visit to Cocoa Beach next month, likely including another sailing on the Port Canaveral edition of the Victory. Babs, perhaps we can make up for that missed opportunity to check it out together last January? If the Jacksonville boat does indeed have different chips, I might try to modify the schedule for the ride home and spend a night in the Jacksonville area.

Jacksonville(Mayport) ventures don't seem to last long. The market is way over saturated with junkets to AC and Tunica, dog tracks, etc.. I've seen several cruises to nowhere end up in nowhere. I think the generation of gamblers there has gone away and hasn't been replaced. But time will tell.

Yes, I know this is about South Carolina, just thought I'd add that tidbit when read about Mayport.

Quote: Doc

Quote: beachbumbabs

The Victory did, in fact, start a new boat out of Mayport about 6 weeks ago. I think you will enjoy it. I don't know the size or what they have on board.
...
Jacksonville Victory is indicating 13 tables, plus 2 roulettes and 2 craps. The whole thing seems to be 1/2 size the Canaveral Victory with all the same choices, just not as many slots/tables/etc.

Well, now I want to know whether they are using different chips from the boat in Port Canaveral. If so, I'll be sorely tempted to take one of their excursions mostly for the purpose of adding a new entry to my chip collection.

My wife and I have tentative plans for another visit to Cocoa Beach next month, likely including another sailing on the Port Canaveral edition of the Victory. Babs, perhaps we can make up for that missed opportunity to check it out together last January? If the Jacksonville boat does indeed have different chips, I might try to modify the schedule for the ride home and spend a night in the Jacksonville area.

Doc,

I would absolutely love to coordinate a meetup with you. I am planning G2E this year, so will be in Vegas from about the 25th or so, otherwise should be in Florida. Do your plans include time to run to Ft. Lauderdale for the Hard Rock? A very nice property, even without dice craps.

Since I have never been to G2E, I hadn't thought about that being on your schedule. Looks as if we might have a conflict. Our travel plans won't be set definite until sometime after we get back from our New England trip (departing this Tuesday), but the penciled-in dates are to arrive in Cocoa Beach on 9/23 and depart on 9/27 or 28.

Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale? No plans to get south of Cocoa Beach on this trip, and I've collected my souvenir from the Hard Rock in Hollywood. Is that the one you mean, or did they open another one? (I keep getting surprised by new casinos -- until I read it in a thread here recently, I didn't know that a Horseshoe will open in Baltimore in just 9 days. I'm hoping to visit that place the day after it opens, since entirely by chance that is when I will be passing through the state on my way home.)

Quote: Doc

Since I have never been to G2E, I hadn't thought about that being on your schedule. Looks as if we might have a conflict. Our travel plans won't be set definite until sometime after we get back from our New England trip (departing this Tuesday), but the penciled-in dates are to arrive in Cocoa Beach on 9/23 and depart on 9/27 or 28.

Hard Rock in Ft. Lauderdale? No plans to get south of Cocoa Beach on this trip, and I've collected my souvenir from the Hard Rock in Hollywood. Is that the one you mean, or did they open another one? (I keep getting surprised by new casinos -- until I read it in a thread here recently, I didn't know that a Horseshoe will open in Baltimore in just 9 days. I'm hoping to visit that place the day after it opens, since entirely by chance that is when I will be passing through the state on my way home.)

We should be able to make something work on the front end of that. Seminoles have 5 casinos in south Florida. Here's where they say they are:

SEMINOLE GAMING
IS HIRING!
Seminole Gaming owns and operates two Seminole Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos and five other Seminole Casinos; in Coconut Creek and Hollywood on the Southeast coast, in Immokalee near Naples, on the Brighton Reservation north of Lake Okeechobee and on the Big Cypress Reservation south of Lake Okeechobee. Seminole Gaming is proud to have the best team of employees in the gaming industry.

Back to me....Hollywood is the biggest (and best, IMO). In addition to these 5, the Hard Rock Tampa is their casino as well. None of them have dice craps.

I was in Myrtle Beach on Thursday and Friday and went out on the Big M casino boat. For the original poster, there is no gaming regulations at all that govern the slot machines and table games. I was speaking to the captain from a different casino boat and he was shocked when I told him about all the regulations land based casinos have.

I would say about 75% of the machines were traditional IGT slots with the majority being mechanical reels. They also had some Bally games, WMS, and Pot o'Gold. The fact the Pot O'Gold started in the grey markets, those are the only ones that I may be skeptical about.

The boat had 10 Blackjack tables with 6 or 8 decks hand shuffled and all BJ's paid 3:2. I did notice that they were giving great penetration and seemed to be cutting off only one deck or so. They had one Let-It-Ride table, one 3 Card Poker, one roulette, and one craps table.

i forgot to mention that they were not issuing tax forms for any wins. There were both an $8000 and $6000 jackpots during the 4 hours the slots were enabled.