Iowa Riverboats: Are They Really Riverboats?

It appears that today most of Iowa's riverboat casinos can really be used as riverboat casinos, but some of the newest casinos are nearly permanent fixtures almost glued to the riverbed.

While both the Diamond Jo Worth Casino and the Wild Rose Casino conform to the stat's laws concerning riverboat gambling boats they were both built on bodies of water that will likely never exceed 22 feet, causing an impossibility in the state laws that the boats must be able to navigate the waters.

Before new legislation was passed and the old legislation thrown to the dogs, all riverboat casino had been required to make over 100 cruises on the river a year and now the new establishments are not confined to the old law.

The new Diamond Jo Worth Casino has been built inside a manmade basin filled with water that roughly averages 6 to 12 inches in depth and because of the boats immense size, it is difficult to tell at all the boat is sitting on water and this is an important stipulation in the law.

Most customers will have no idea that the boats are located on the water except maybe for a water oriented theme, but that also depends up the facility said an administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission announced the other day.

By law Iowa casinos must be situated on water and it is no longer important for the boats to be able to successfully navigate the waters if they are built in an enclosure.