As I understand the law, if a ship wants to have a casino open it has to stop at a foreign port. The NCL cruises don't do that. Most of the ones that leave from CA make a quick stop in Mexico to meet that requirement. You don't want to spend a lot of time in most cruise casinos but some of them have a nice live poker table and the pickings are pretty easy. It sure is better than most of the other entertainment on board.