Leisure Casino Cruises out of Georgia has a gambling boat called the Vegas Express which cruises 3 miles off the coast of Massachusetts for gambling.  It is a two hundred foot long ship with three levels and can accomodate up to four hundred people.  It takes thirty minutes to get out into international waters.  The first cruise was July 18, 1998.  The ship is registered with the Federal Dept. of Justice.  Such cruises already operate out of New York and Florida.  Massachusetts State law explicitely says it is illegal to store, display or possess slot machines in Massachusetts but the Federal Johnson Act supercides any state statute and allows them. 

Giant cruise ships with casinos and slot machines already operate out of Boston. 

The cruises are usually sold out on weekends and depart daily 12 to 5 PM and 7:30 PM to 12:30AM.  There has been opposition from the State Attorney General but a petition has been circulated and signed by 400 Gloucester residents approving the cruises.  They were serving liquor in international waters but stopped because they did not have a license.  They have now applied for a state liquor license.

The Casino has: 175 Slot Machines 10 Blackjack Tables 2 Craps Tables 2 Roulette Tables 2 Caribbean Stud Poker Tables

The price of the trip is $39 which includes buffet and live entertainment. The buffet includes bread, salad, fruit, schrod, manicotti, ham and soft drinks.  Pastries were put out at the buffet but went very fast.  The buffet was sufficient if you wanted to take a few minutes away from gambling otherwise the selection was sparse. 

There is enough room to accomodate everyone that wants to gamble.  On some of the early cruises people could not find a slot machine or table to play at because some people were playing two slot machines and two hands of Blackjack. If concerned about sea sickness there is a machine as you enter where you can purchase Dramamine. 

The casino cruises has 3 $5 tables, 4-$10, 2 $25 and one $50 which was not used. The table limits seem to be $1000.

They use two sets of 6 decks and two discard racks.  One 6 deck shoe will be in use while the second deck is either ready to go or is being shuffled by a dealer who goes from table to table using a two pass shuffle with a lot of stripping.  For the two 6 deck shoes there are obviously two discard racks. Depending where seated it may not be easy to glance at the discard rack in use to see how many cards have been played.  The rules are: double down on any first two cards, DAS, split up to 4 hands, dealer stands on soft 17, no surrender.

The deck penetration was between 1.25 to 2 decks mostly between 1.5 to 2 leaning towards 2 decks.  They use a mirror to read the down card to see if the dealer has a Blackjack.  

The dealers and pit personal were very friendly and coperative.  They allow 15 minutes away from the table.

On the 12 PM to 5 PM cruise the casino opened around 12:50 PM and the casino gambling was stopped at 4:15 PM.  The boat docked at 5:20 PM and took about 20 minutes to get off.

There was on going entertainment on the top deck which lasted until docking. The entertainment was excellent which varied from folk music to popular. 

They plan to run the cruises till mid November and will start up again in February or March weather permitting.

All on the cruise had a good time but I would say the Blackjack would be good mainly for recreational players.  If you win big a couple of times they will remember you.

Reservations are suggested and for more information you can call toll free 1-877-872-6287.

Robbie