Gambling ship

Historically, international waters began just 3 miles (4.8 km) from land in many countries, popularly referred to as the "three-mile limit".

[1] The redefinition of territorial waters to 12 nautical miles—approximately 13.8 miles (22.2 km)— in 1982 made maintaining a gambling ship much more uneconomic.

[2] The barge Monfalcone was purchased in 1928 by a group including Los Angeles crime family boss Jack Dragna and started offering gambling off the coast of Long Beach.

[4] On New Year's Day 1937, during the Great Depression, gambling ship SS Monte Carlo, well-known for "drinks, dice, and dolls," was wrecked on a beach about a quarter mile south of the Hotel del Coronado, near San Diego.

In 1948, President Harry Truman signed an act prohibiting the operation of any gambling ship in U.S. territorial waters.

These ships have been criticized for their use of misleading sales techniques and for their risk to public safety due to the difficulty of law enforcement against their operation.

[14] Californian gambling ships appear in several novels and movies of the period, including Sing a Song of Murder (1942) by James R. Langham, The Case of the Dangerous Dowager (1937) by Erle Stanley Gardner, and Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler.