Gambling Casinos Popular State Las Vegas Riverboat Located

In the U.S., one of the most popular ways to gamble is to go to a "casino," or a public place where gambling games are played. Each state in the U.S. can make its own laws about allowing gambling casinos. For almost 50 years, the state of Nevada, where the city of Las Vegas is located, was the only state where casino gambling was legal. At first, the casinos were owned by "organized crime," or criminal organizations. Later, big hotel companies like Hilton and Ramada were allowed to own casinos, and gambling grew from Las Vegas to other Nevada cities, such as Reno. Today, Las Vegas is still one of the most popular places to gamble in the country.

In the late 1980's and early 1990's, several other states also decided to make gambling casinos legal, including South Dakota and Colorado. During this time, the first "riverboat casinos" were also created. Riverboat casinos are casinos that are located on boats. Some lawmakers thought that by putting casinos on riverboats, they could limit where casinos were located and they could also limit the time that gambling could occur by saying, for example, that gambling could only happen while the ship is "sailing," or moving on the water. Riverboat casinos have become very popular in states located on rivers, such as Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri. Right now, there are about six states that have riverboat gambling on about 65 boats. The games allowed on these riverboats are normally the same as in any other casino.