Why do mississippi casinos have to be on water

For example, states along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast opted for water-based instead of land-based ones to help sway public opinion in their favor. The history of casinos being on riverboats is based on the laws of the land. Consequently, riverboat gambling became a balanced solution to the battle between social policy and money. Passengers passed the time away playing cards. It was inevitable that money would be put on the table during these riverboats cruises. Gambling became rampant on Mississippi riverboats back in the s.

Iowa was the first state to legalize riverboat gambling in the early s, and several states such as Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Louisiana followed suit shortly after that. At the time, betting on the boats was designed to limit the economic and geographical scope of gambling. The aim was to receive a steady flow of income without increasing crime and encouraging illegal behavior.

Early riverboat casinos were highly restrictive, allowing gambling only to take place during a short cruise — usually lasting a couple of hours. Gambling was only allowed once the boat left the dock and was sailing. Usually, it had to be three miles away from shore before gambling could commence. Laws tried to keep these gambling cruises akin to the touring journeys that were already taking place on the waterways.

As such, in Iowa at the time, a riverboat casino could only sail a maximum of times per year. To circumvent social decomposition, states also set limits on how much could be gambled during each cruise.

They did so by setting modest loss limits for its patrons. The idea was that if you limited the money that could be gambled, it would keep profits small enough that the mob, which ran Las Vegas at the time, would not infiltrate these smaller gambling establishments.

However, as competition increased and the popularity and acceptance of riverboat casinos increased, all these rules stated to relax. There was an explosion of legalized gambling in the early s following a Supreme Court Ruling allowing casinos on Native American tribal lands. As a result, several states wanted to open casinos while minimalizing organized crime and making a profit from legalized gambling. The current gambling infrastructure in the United States owes a lot to the Native Americans and their pursuit of legalized gambling on their land.

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Sign In Subscribe. In most photos of the recent Mississippi floods, what you notice first is the water, the dramatic thick brown sheet. The buildings and other human structures can seem like afterthoughts, in part because they mostly look like what many people expect: small Southern houses, historic brick buildings, and the like. To see some of these striking images, visit Alan Taylor's In Focus gallery.