Until the lawmen showed up at the docks this week with their court orders, there was no better place in America to be a casino kingpin than Florida.

Casino operators in other states must endure all manner of rules, inspections, surveillance, state gaming boards, licensing and criminal and financial background checks.

Not in Florida. This state enjoys virtually no regulatory oversight of gambling activities aboard its two dozen casino boats. At least not until Attorney General Bob Butterworth launched an undercover investigation into these so-called cruises to nowhere.

Lawmen seized gambling equipment and served civil complaints Tuesday against boats docked in Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Port Everglades, Riviera Beach and Key Largo. Butterworth alleged that the boats were violating laws against operating the casinos inside the three-mile coastal limit -- one investigator said he was playing poker aboard the Sun Cruz VI while it was still docked in Hollywood.

And it was claimed that the Monte Carlo, which sails out of Pompano Beach, cheated gamblers, running blackjack games with decks lacking crucial face cards. Bill Thompson was not surprised at the cheating charges. Thompson, who teaches courses in the public regulation of gaming and has written five books on the gambling industry, said it was a given that without regulation "there's going to be cheating at some level.

"And you don't have any regulation in Florida." He said Florida is simply home to the largest unregulated gambling industry in the nation. Only South Carolina, which has 30,000 unregulated slot machines, rivals Florida in paucity of oversight.

Nevada, meanwhile, spends $30 million a year keeping casinos in line. New Jersey spends twice that much. Florida -- zilch.

In Nevada, for example, casino workers must receive a license from the local sheriff -- after a criminal background check. Not in Florida.

Pit bosses and others higher up the casino food chain undergo a state check, looking for criminal histories of theft, embezzlement and other offenses that might lend themselves to the temptations of casino work. Plus a check for bankruptcies. Casino owners -- anyone with a 5 percent or higher stake in the operation -- undergo a tougher background check yet.

Not in Florida. Last year The Herald's Tyler Bridges discovered that one of the state's new casino boat operators had been denied a gambling license in Mississippi. But he came to Florida unchallenged.

Against all odds

Thompson said states with regulatory authority require hidden camera surveillance. Not here.

States like Nevada keep known cheaters and loan sharks out of casinos. Slot machines are routinely checked to ensure that the return is at least 85 percent. Overall, casino gamblers in Nevada lose an average of 3 percent. "I doubt that the odds are very good for the players in unregulated boats," Thompson said.

Florida voters have twice rejected legalized casinos. But no one told us that to atone for that sin against the all-powerful gambling industry, we must suffer unregulated, unlicensed, untaxed casino boats. And operators so arrogant that they hardly bother with the proscribed three-mile limit.

Thompson said federal law requires that state legislatures specifically ban the boats before a state can rid itself of the floating casinos. Of course, he added, that means legislators must rise above the money and lobbying power of the gaming industry.

No chance. Not in Florida.