Ports Fight Ban on Cruise Ship Gambling : Legislation: Officials in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco fear a $100-million blow to tourism from law taking effect Jan. 1.

A state law that would ban gambling on cruise ships sailing between California ports beginning next year could deliver a $100-million blow to California tourism, say port officials in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, who are banding together to fight the legislation.

The impending ban has already prompted one cruise line to reduce some of its California destinations, and it and another line are considering dropping the state from their destinations.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has dropped San Diego on its four-night cruises and Catalina Island from its three-night cruises. Royal Caribbean’s 1,500-passenger Viking Serenade makes the trips weekly, originating in Los Angeles and bound for Ensenada.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, which operates the 750-passenger Southward, may also abandon San Diego, and possibly all California ports, from its cruises. Norwegian runs three- and four-day cruises from Los Angeles to Ensenada, with stops in Catalina and San Diego.

The law passed last summer was sponsored by state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to prevent what his office described as “gambling ships” and “cruises to nowhere.” The law, effective Jan. 1, will ban gambling on ships traveling between California ports of call but not those leaving a California port bound for another state or country.

In a last-minute bid to stave off what they fear may become an exodus of cruise lines from the California coast, the port officials are lobbying state legislators to introduce emergency legislation after the New Year that would amend the law to allow gambling on cruises of more than one day. Those officials say the law unfairly penalizes legitimate cruise liners that offer casino gambling.

Introduced by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange), the anti-gambling bill was a response to a new federal law last March that allows unregulated casino-style gambling on vessels departing from and returning to states where existing laws prohibit such gambling. Lungren has said he opposes any law that would undermine the state’s longstanding prohibition on floating casinos.

Officials from Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line have told port officials they may ultimately drop calls in California altogether because of the anti-gambling law, according to Karen Tozer, manager of general cargo and cruise services for the Port of Los Angeles.

“The consensus in the cruise ship industry right now is, ‘Why bother with California?’ ” said Rita Vandergaw, cruise ship liaison officer for the San Diego Unified Port District.

Tozer and cruise services managers from San Diego and San Franciso estimate that the state’s tourism industry could lose up to $100 million a year if both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines pull out of California.

San Diego stands to lose about $5 million in tourism-related business generated by the weekly Royal Caribbean calls, Vandergaw said. If Norwegian also abandons San Diego, the city’s total loss would be closer to $10 million, she said.

In the greater Los Angeles area, Tozer said, the exit of both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian could result in a loss of $60 million or more for tourism-related business. She said the Port of Los Angeles collects about $10 million in dockage and provision charges for the two ships, and that longshoremen labor amounts to another $2.5 million.

Another fear among port operators is that “repositioning ships”--cruise lines moving from the Caribbean to Alaska, or vice versa in the winter--will also drop California because they too will be forbidden to offer gambling if they want to continue their practice of calling on more than one California port. As many as 25 cruise lines a year call on one or more California ports en route to other destinations.

Lungren is worried that gambling on cruises off California would invite criminal activity such as loan sharking, money laundering and prostitution. Federal law delegates to states the authority to prohibit offshore gambling. Without state legislation, ships are allowed to conduct gambling on cruises between two points in a state or on “voyages to nowhere,” where the ship leaves from and returns to the same port.

The cruise ship companies assert that their vessels will not become “gambling ships” because gambling is just one feature--along with meals and entertainment--to attract customers. They point out that foreign vessels operating between California and other states and countries offer gambling to their passengers.