Good news for New York and New England VIP players. The new Norwegian Gem, which will be sailing from New York all winter to the sunny islands of the Bahamas and the Caribbean, has a casino that provides a great alternative to shivering your way to Foxwoods or Atlantic City.

As we have noted before, NCL casinos are the most player-friendly at sea, providing better rules at blackjack and better odds at craps than those generally found on cruise ships -- and certainly a better casino than most of those found on Caribbean islands.

The Gem casino is a large, brightly colored room, similar in configuration though somewhat different in decor to the casinos on its sister ships, Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Jewel.

The casino has 20 tables arrayed in two banks -- a nine-table main bank, an eight-table bank with a $25 minimum minimum and $1,000 maximum.

The Gem also has a three-table "high-roller" alcove (shown at right). While the high-roller area has two blackjack tables, on this cruise a $100 minimum blackjack table was open on the main casino floor, and the more private alcove was only being used for baccarat. The Gem casino stayed open on this cruise as late as 5 a.m.

As on Pearl and Jewel, the Gem opens three low-limit tables at one end of the pool-deck when the ship is sailing in warmer climes. On this cruise, that area of the deck was covered with snow, and these tables generally will not be open this winter until the Gem reaches the waters off south Florida.

The Gem also has extended gaming out from the casino to other interior parts of the ship, placing a five-position Interblock Megastar automated roulette table in the Spinnaker Lounge (shown above), and installing a bank of slot machines (shown at right) on one side of the Bliss Ultra Lounge and Nightclub -- which by day doubles as a four-lane bowling alley.

An eight-person version of the Megastar roulette table, which uses a real roulette wheel and ball with players placing their bets using a keyboard or a touch screen, also is found in the Gem casino.

Roulette players (particularly younger, more computer savvy players) seemed to like playing the Megastar machine. But for traditionalists, the casino also offers a real roulette table with a dealer.

At one end of the casino, the Gem has a Texas Hold 'em table. This table seemed to be packed much of this cruise, and dealers reported that is generally the case. NCL ships also are unique in offering a table for Pai Gow tiles.

Surrounding the tables are a couple of hundred slots offering wagering opportunities ranging from 1 cent to $100. Slot players only need to insert their NCL Casinos at Sea players club card in the machine of their choice to accumulate points that can be redeemed for rebates on onboard charges on the final night of the cruise.

We found casino supervisors very attentive to VIP players, and dealers were competent -- though as we have noted before, NCL dealers in general are not as extroverted as those we have played with on a couple of other cruise lines.

Bottom line: For higher-stake players from the Northeast seeking a cruise ship casino that provides an equal or better experience than generally found at Foxwoods, the Mohegan Sun or in Atlantic City, NCL remains the standard-bearer at sea.

And a cruise on the Norwegian Gem, NCL's newest -- and in our opinion, best -- ship, is a "can't lose" bet.

--The Savvy Cruiser