The History of Riverboat Gaming

The United States is already known for having some of the world’s biggest and most lavish casinos. But the US also distinguishes its gambling presence from other countries in another way – riverboat gambling. In fact, the US has a deep history of riverboat gambling that spans almost two centuries! If you’re a lover of gambling history, then you’ll definitely enjoy this look back on the history of riverboat gambling.

The earliest days of riverboat gaming date back to the early 19^th century when the Mississippi River was packed with traders. Since water transportation was big in the US trade scene during this period, many wealthy traders navigated up and down the Mississippi River.  And seeing as how it’s a long journey from one end of the Mississippi to the other, casino gambling became a popular way to pass the time.

It wasn’t long before professional casino gamblers (commonly known as cheaters) found their way to the riverboats on the Mississippi. Soon riverboat gambling was thriving as  casino card games and other games of chance were commonplace among traders and pro gamblers. 

However, many of the wealthy traders began to catch onto the card cheats, and it wasn’t long before people started taking matters into their own hands. In 1835, five casino gamblers were hung for cheating in a card game; other professionals took notice of this message and riverboat gambling began dying down. Sure there was still riverboat gambling, but not in the same capacity that it had been at before. 

In 1861, the Civil War broke out in America and riverboats weren’t able to do much traveling on the Mississippi River – or any other rivers for that matter. In the aftermath of the war, riverboat gambling pretty much disappeared except for a few isolated casino card games here and there.

The United States is not a very tolerant country when it comes to gambling. Most of their land-based gambling is done in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, a few select cities, and Indian reservations. So when the small state of Iowa was looking for a way to offer legal gambling as a means of collecting tax revenue, the situation looked hopeless. That is….until they discovered riverboat gambling.

Iowa lawmakers found that if their casinos were housed on riverboats, they could legally operate as long as the boats sailed out into the river every so often (deemed international waters). This loophole enabled Iowa to offer the United States’ first riverboat casino. It wasn’t long before other states such as Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, Mississippi and Missouri had riverboat casinos of their own.

The laws surrounding riverboat gambling have loosened considerably over the last two decades. Now riverboats don’t even have to leave the dock, and they can be put on stilts while retaining legality. The lax laws involving riverboat gambling has given rise to lots of cruise ship gambling too.

Today, many riverboats and cruise ships offer full-service casinos complete with slots, poker, blackjack, roulette and other games. And what’s great about riverboat casinos is that they enable gamblers from all states to enjoy nearby gambling; in the past, people had to travel to Las Vegas or Atlantic City just to gamble.

Of course, with the rise in online casinos, people don’t even have to leave their house to gamble!