Riverboat casino

Common card · No. 291906

A riverboat casino is a casino which operates on board a riverboat. Such casinos are found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. In the 19th century, gambling on riverboats was a common but illegal practice. Several states legalized this type of casino in the early 1990s, in order to enable gambling while limiting the areas where casinos could be constructed. In some cases, the operation of the riverboat is a legal fiction, and the casino is permanently moored. The legalization of riverboat casinos was in part a response to the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which allowed casinos to open on Native American reservations in much of the United States. States with few or no reservations sought to keep the tax revenues associated with gambling from going to states where Native American casinos were opening up. The use of riverboat casinos has declined in the 21st century, as most states have...

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