Wilson Signs Bill to Bar Gambling Aboard Cruise Ships

Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill into law that prohibits gambling on ships operating between California ports.

The measure by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Santa Ana) was a response to a new federal law that permits casino-type gambling on U. S.-flagged vessels for the first time in 40 years. But the new federal statute gives individual states authority to bar shipboard gambling from port to port within a state--even when the ships go beyond a state’s three-mile jurisdiction.

State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren contended that existing California law would prevent the return of floating casinos off the coast--just out of reach of local authorities. But Lungren said passage of the Conroy bill, which was signed Monday, was needed “to remove any possibility that the past problems and criminal dangers associated with casino-style gambling will revisit themselves upon California.”

A number of cruise lines had been planning to begin operating gambling ships between California ports until Conroy’s bill was introduced.

Vincent J. Ceccola Jr., president of Venture Cruise Lines, said Tuesday that his company plans to move its operations to Massachusetts. The company had planned to offer gambling on cruises between Marina del Rey and Catalina, as well as other Southern California ports. Ceccola and other cruise operators argued that allowing gambling would create thousands of jobs and revitalize the domestic cruise ship industry.