Sooner or later, a question that crosses the mind of many cruise casino players is: Does anyone regulate casino gaming on cruise ships, and how are the interests of the player protected?

The short answer is that there is no independent governmental regulation of the type provided in Las Vegas by the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board, or in Atlantic City by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

Since the cruise ship casinos, with only minor exceptions, are allowed to operate only when ships are in international waters (and never in U.S. waters), the casinos fall under the authority of no government regulatory agency.

The good news for players is that regulated or not, cruise ship casinos -- heavily influenced by the cruise line's desire to see that shipboard gaming is one more happy experience for cruisers -- tend to be more likely to resolve disputes in the passenger's favor than most land-based casinos.

But in the absence of government regulators, the cruise ship casinos operate under a vague, not exactly confidence-inspiring, set of guidelines published in 1999 by an organization called the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), whose members include most of the cruise lines covered by this site.

The ICCL guidelines address the equipment, conduct of games, internal controls, and customer service for casinos on cruise ships.

In terms of facilities and equipment, the ICCL guidelines call for all equipment purchased and installed on cruise vessels to "meet the regulatory standards of the Nevada Gaming Control Board or other licensed jurisdiction for payback and internal software."

That's fine as far is it goes. But in U.S. land-based casinos, regulators seal slot and video poker machines, and casino operators cannot access the internal software unless a member of the regulatory agency is present. In the cruise casino world, there is no independent regulator to oversee what is done to these electronic gaming devices after they are put into operation.

In terms of rules of play, the ICCL guidelines require that the rules "generally follow those established for casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, or England." But some casinos in Nevada have some pretty bad rules (I don't really know about England), and the policy of some cruise line casinos of offering only single odds at craps (or at best double odds), requiring that the dealer hit soft 17 at blackjack and not permitting "surrender," and paying six-to-five odds on single-deck blackjacks (a practice spreading on land as well) do not exactly favor the player.

The ICCL guidelines also provide that all shipboard gambling operations are to be "inspected by each member line's internal audit department on a regular basis, not to exceed 12 months," with each line to "employ some form of surveillance to assure operations are fair and equitable for all parties." Neither of these provisions comes close to comparing to what one would find in Nevada or New Jersey.

So what does one finally make of the question of whether player interests are adequately protected in cruise ship casinos?

Let me start by saying I absolutely believe the games are "fair." Since some cruise line rules improve the casino's odds at blackjack and craps over what you would find in Vegas, and since you have no way of knowing what most cruise ship slots have been set to pay, regulated or not, I suspect the cruise ship casinos do just fine and I don't think you have to worry about cheating.

And I certainly believe that playing in a cruise ship casino is a better bet than gambling in many of the casinos you find in some of the ports cruise ships visit.

For most gamblers (and certainly for beginners), the slightly poorer odds you encounter on some cruise ship may very well be outweighed by the fun you have in what tend to be extremely passenger-friendly casinos.

As for "high rollers," as long as you are aware of the rules and are willing to accept it if they give a slightly greater advantage to the house, my view would be: Don't overly worry about regulation, bet an amount you are comfortable with, and enjoy the hours you spend in your shipboard casino.