http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_2012000/2012985.s
tm

An Icelandic airline is going to start regular Boeing 747 flights from
Tel Aviv that will fly out over the Mediterranian, then return.  The
purpose?  To circumvent Israel's tough anti-gambling laws.

You have to admire, in a strange sort of way, anyone who would come up
with an idea this crazy and then try to make a business out of it.  I
wonder, if this is successful, if we'll see it tried in other countries
that have strict gambling restrictions?

25 responses total.

This response has been erased.

Mississippi has been doing it a lot longer.

What I find crazy is the idea they'd be flying out & back into the
middle-east.  Twice the danger, and you get to spend money too.

Maybe, as long as they're doing gambling, they should post odds on making
the trip out and back without incident and take bets.

You mean survivor's benefits, kinda like insurance?

Jim says when he was in the navy, as soon as they got past the six mile limit,
they would open up a casino on the navy ship, going up and down the coast.
I wonder why Israel does not gamble on boats, they have a coast.  (What else
did you do in the navy, Jim?)   They fed him lots of ice cream, too.

Jim is telling you a 'sea story'.  USN ships are US territory
and are in fact far stricter than normal US Territory (for example,
no booze) regardless of where they cruise.  (one wonders what other
'sea stories' he tells you....)

Re #5:  You're right, that'd be superfluous -- you can already place a bet
on whether the plane gets back safely by buying a life insurance policy. ;)

Jim says maybe it was 15 miles, he can't remember.  Gambling is a state law
and there are no federal laws against it (Michigan now allows it) so they were
outside of the relevant state.  Israel may have a federal law against gambling
but the US does not. Michigan has gambling laws but Michigan waters run up
to the waters of adjoining states so you cannot gamble on an offshore boat.
The water boundary runs down the middle of the Great Lakes.

He says as soon as they were approaching international orders someone with
a megaphone would shout 'Attention, the casino is now opening."

International waters, he meant.  (I typed what I heard).

From current Master at Arms manual, USNAVY:

"Card Games and Gambling 

No person will gamble for money with playing cards, dice, or other
apparatus on board naval units or engage in any card games or 
other games during prescribed working hours, during the night 
hours between taps and reveille, or during divine services. "

Not only can you not gamble on board ship, but playing solitare
on your PC during working hours would be prohibited.  As for
International waters, doesn't matter, those onboard ship are
not only subject to US law but the even stricter UCMJ.  The
ship is technically regarded as a mobile US territory.

Like I said, a 'sea story'.

Futher note:  Gambling between officers and enlisted men is
strictly prohibited.  Thus even offbase and offduty an officer
may not play poker for example with enlisted men.  Further,
categories of enlisted men are further segregated and upper
rank enlisted may not gamble with lower ranked.

At least judging by assorted movies and such, this rule is widely, but
surreptitiously ignored.

I recently read a book about Custer.  When he attended West Point
(immediately prior to the late great unpleasantness between the states)
there was an elaborate "points" system for all the things you weren't
supposed to do as a cadet.  Custer seems to have made a fine art of
figuring out exactly how much he could get away with, without actually
being expelled.

Re Custer: I believe he still holds the record for total number
of demerits while sucessfully graduating.  Quite a feat.  He
graduated last in his class (1861) and faced expulsion every
of his four years for excess demerits.  Legend has it that he
actually exeeded the quota one year but the tally was 'mysteriously
erased'. "My career as a cadet had but little to recommend it to 
the study of those who came after me, unless as an example to be
carefully avoided."

Jim says he could have had that distinction if he had stayed at Annapolis,
as he managed to accumulate a lot of demerits.  What did you get them for,
Jim?  God, everything!  Too many stories.  If you did not know the next four
menus in detail when an upperclassman asked, you got a demerit.  (This is hard
on people with dyslexia and poor memories).  Imperfect uniform. Late for
muster.  Late for anything.  You had to memorize prescribed answers if someone
asked you what time it was - you had to answer in a formula 'I painfully
regret that I am unable to ascertain the exact time however according to my
best recollections......'.  One time he rang too many bells.  

re #13: It is widely, and perhaps completely, ignored.  I doubt if 
there's ever been a person on active duty who has not gambled with 
others of different rank.  Perhaps it's not as completely ignored as 
what Jim told Sindi, though.  Heh.

re:  " "Card Games and Gambling

 No person will gamble for money with playing cards, dice, or other
 apparatus on board naval units or engage in any card games or
 other games during prescribed working hours, during the night
 hours between taps and reveille, or during divine services. "
So, what about non-working hours before taps or after reveille?

re#18: Non-working hours before taps and/or after reveille one would
be permitted to play card games, just not for money.  Sure and the
chiefs 'gamble' in the goats locker from time to time, but very
covertly - usually for 'points' where some relationship between
points and money is understood.  Sure and there is other gambling
going on, most often organized by the master-at-arms but it is not
officially tolerated nor widespread enough to be publically announced
over the intercom system.  One of the things the CID guys do to
justify their budget and toe is to conduct periodic sweeps using
undercovers to root out gambling and loansharking aboard ship.  They
also try to find the stills and more modernly the pot farm.  (folk
grow pot in bilges and voids now where they used to just grow booze.)

Perhaps things have changed since the sixties.

ya think?

In the Navy?  Such things probably have not changed since the 1500s.

<bites back a few famously pungent words about naval tradition>

apparently the british merchant navy encourages gambling.

re#20: If anything the Navy is more liberal today than it was in
the 60s and I can assure you that the language I quoted from the
current USNAVY MAA manual is probably identical in that matter
to that of the MAA manual from the 60s and probably similar if not
identical to that of the 30s and earlier.  The term 'master at arms'
is itself archaic to give you an idea of the age of the practice.

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