A riverboat casino is a type of casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 found in several areas of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which use a riverboat

Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...

 as a casino. Several states authorized this type of casino to limit the areas where casinos could be constructed under a type of legal fiction

Legal fiction

A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way...

.

History

When first approved, these casinos were required to actually be located on ships that could sail away from the dock. In some areas, gambling was only allowed when the ship was sailing. Over time, these regulations allowed gambling when the ship was docked.

In some states, such as Indiana, the boats are no longer required to leave dock or even have a captain and crew on board while the casino is open.

Further changes allowed these casinos to be located in a moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

 or an area with water adjacent to a navigable waterway

Waterway

A waterway is any navigable body of water. Waterways can include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...

, leading them to be referred to as "boats in moats." Over time, these casinos were allowed to be built on stilts but still had to be over water.

Following Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 in 2005 several states are now allowing these casinos to be built on land within certain limits from a navigable waterway. Most of Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

's Gulf Coast riverboat casinos were destroyed or suffered severe damage from the storm, although most have been rebuilt.

External links

• Partial listing of permanently moored casinos