Onboard gambling: what law applies in a cruise ship casino miles out to sea?
Cruise lines boast ‘responsible gaming conduct’ policies but in international waters, away from the laws of the land, some say it’s a case of ‘anything goes’
Cruise ships have long been synonymous with carefree, even rules-free, breaks from life on land. Onboard water parks, endless buffets, world-class performers and late-night bars have become a bare minimum on many major cruise liners.
But as on land, things can go terribly wrong. And when they do, the question of what rules apply onboard a ship is suddenly dragged into the light.
At the beginning of May, cruise passenger Shane Dixon fell to his death from the P&O Pacific Adventure. The 50-year-old father of three’s body was found 10 nautical miles off Sydney Heads.
According to reports in the Daily Mail, Dixon’s brother Scott said Shane had been gambling in the ship’s casino. P&O declined to comment on the circumstances of Dixon’s death, and there is no suggestion P&O or the ship’s crew failed to observe the law or were negligent in relation to it.
But what is the status of gambling at sea?
What kind of gambling do cruises offer?
Casinos – complete with gaming tables and poker machines – are common on large, mainstream cruise ships and some smaller luxury cruises. Norwegian Cruise Lines ships feature a total of 4,800 slot machines, while Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas has a casino of more than 1,600m2.
The popularity of onboard casinos is in part down to their links with travellers’ loyalty accounts, offering points that can be used to pay for food, drinks and future cruises.
On Tuesday it was announced that P&O Cruises would be shut down in early 2025 and two of its three ships integrated into its sister line Carnival.
But while it operates, P&O’s casino users become members of its Players Club, in which the “more points you earn, the more benefits you get”, the company’s website states.
Alex Russell, an associate professor in the experimental gambling research lab at Central Queensland University, says casino membership programs on land are not uncommon, and also offer loyalty points that can then be used to make purchases.
What is the law onboard?
Within 12 nautical miles of land, ships are generally governed by the laws of that country or state. Outside that limit they generally come under the laws of the nation in which they are registered.
“Not only are you covered by the law of the flag, but you’re governed by the law of your nationality, which you carry around to some extent,” says Tim Stephens, professor of international law at Sydney Law School.
Like all P&O Cruises Australia ships, the Pacific Adventure sails under a British flag. However, the UK Gambling Act contains a provision that means the Gambling Commission, the UK’s gambling regulator, does not have any remit over a vessel’s gambling operations if journeying to international waters. Operators need to be licensed by the commission only if the customer, not the operator, is in the UK.
On cruises in international waters, offences in the UK or other jurisdictions – such as venues giving a line of credit to a gambler or offering free alcoholic drinks as a way to induce gambling – are not recognised.
To avoid any potential conflict between the law of the flag and local laws, cruise ships open casinos and duty-free shops only when they are outside territorial waters.
Beyond 12nm, “anything goes, as far as gambling is concerned”, says Stephens.
Has the legal status of cruises contributed to their popularity?
The freedom from local laws has long been a huge selling point for cruises, says David Beirman, adjunct fellow in tourism and management at the University of Technology Sydney.
The liners of the 1920s and 1930s, including the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, all had casinos – and offered a way to get around alcohol prohibition in the US.
“It was part of the glitz and the glamour of what was, at least for the first-class passengers, a very glamorous industry. And because they’re cruising in international waters, they are not bound to any one country’s attitudes to gambling,” Beirman says.
Is gambling regulated onboard?
A spokesperson for P&O Cruises Australia, which is owned by Carnival, said the company “has responsible gaming conduct policies on all P&O ships and [they] take those policies seriously”.
The company’s website says that includes giving guests information and resources “to help them make informed choices about how they gamble” and “initiatives such as responsible gambling education for our teams as well as self-help materials and a self-exclusion program for our guests”.
The spokesperson said it was inappropriate to comment on Dixon’s death while a coronial inquiry was under way, and the company was cooperating fully with the investigation.
P&O is a member of the industry body Cruise Lines International Association, which has its own gambling policy based on rules of play in Nevada, New Jersey and England, its website states.
Those rules include communicating table minimum and maximum betting limits, play by adults only, regular inspections and audits, and obligatory surveillance.
How are those regulations enforced?
Russell says responsible conduct of gambling codes are hard to enforce even on land, while relying on a gambler to self-exclude is mired in problems.
“We know that [intervention] usually doesn’t happen and it’s not necessarily a failing of the staff,” he says. “It’s really hard to tell when someone is getting out of control. You don’t know how much someone has in their bank account, so it’s very hard for staff to step in.”
Carol Bennett, the chief executive of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, says the comorbidities associated with alcohol and gambling may be heightened on cruises because of passengers’ isolation from support and services – making safeguards doubly essential.
“Questions need to be answered about these arrangements. Who’s taking responsibility and what does that look like? Who’s safeguarding the people who go on these cruises?”
How is the law of the flag policed?
John Kavanagh of Pacific Maritime Lawyers says: “Pragmatically, the flag state has responsibility for investigating issues with that ship wherever it is, but the further away that ship is from home, the logistics of that make it very difficult.”
At sea, there is a long and strong tradition of the shipmaster’s absolute authority.