With cruise ships large and small making calls to more than 200 ports around the world, the odds are that on any given cruise you will be visiting at least one port of call that offers an opportunity to gamble in one or more land-based casino.

Some of these casinos, such as the spectacular Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in the Bahamas (shown at right), are definitely worth a visit, and offer all of the same games and an ambiance similar to that found in the major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. But many land-based casinos found in ports of call are (shall we say) not quite up to this standard.

Casino regulation in some of the countries you will visit can perhaps most charitably be described as a bit of a joke. Nevertheless, your chances of winning at table games probably is more affected by which rules apply at the game you want to play in any given port of call. For just about every table game, there are better or worse rules that can apply. Rules that can make a huge difference in your chances. And do not automatically assume that the same rules apply for all casinos in a port.

Be sure to know the rules that apply in the land-based casino you are visiting before you sit down at the table. And if you find a port of call where the casino you have wandered into has bad rules, give it a pass, hail a taxi and see some of the country. It may even turn out to be interesting, and you can save your gaming money for playing in the casino on your cruise ship.

But having sounded the necessary warnings, casinos in some of the ports of call you visit can be a great deal of fun, and perhaps even rewarding. A part of the fun often comes in gambling alongside the casino dealers that you have been sitting across from on your cruise ship. Many dealers look forward to having a go at it as players in land-based casinos in the ports they visit.

In this section, we plan to attempt to develop a guide to help cruisers identify land-based casinos that they may enjoy visiting in ports of call around the world. We make no representations about the regulation or fairness of games in any of these casinos, and again urge players to do their own due diligence before putting money on the table in any of these land-based casinos.

Among the cruise ship ports of call where land-based casinos are to be found are:

Caribbean:

Casinos can be found not far from cruise ship ports of call in Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Antigua, and St. Croix.

Atlantic:

Casinos can be found not far from cruise ship ports of call in the Bahamas (Grand Bahama Island and Nassau, as well as Paradise Island); Madeira; the Canary Islands; Pontevedra, Spain (not far from port of Vigo); Estoril, Portugal (not far from port of Lisbon).