Carnival Cruise Line shuts down illegal on-board activity

Cruise ships sailing from the U.S. generally operate under U.S. federal laws, but they must also follow the rules of the various ports they stop in, at least while in port. 

The situation can confuse passengers in certain areas. 

Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, MSC Cruises, Disney Cruise Lines, Virgin Voyages and Margaritaville at Sea all use 21 as their onboard drinking age. Passengers under that age may be able to drink in certain ports where the legal age is lower, but they're not allowed to imbibe on board.

Related: Carnival Cruise Line outlines strict boarding rule for passengers

Cruise-ship casinos, however, generally use 18 as the age when passengers can gamble. In most land-based U.S. casinos, you have to be 21 to enter the casino and gamble, but since no federal law sets that as the legal age, most cruise lines use 18 as their onboard gambling age on sailings from the U.S.

The cruise lines use their room keys to designate whether a passenger can drink alcohol or gamble in the casino. Breaking those rules can come with severe consequences.

You can't give an underage child an alcoholic beverage on a cruise ship, even though you legally can in your home. The same rule applies to a gambling situation that Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) recently had to address.      

Carnival stops illicit onboard gambling

When you walk around a cruise ship you often see people playing cards or games like canasta or mahjong. In some cases, people may be playing for small stakes and the cruise line won't notice, but the cruise lines can't allow cash-based games.

That led to an unfortunate situation for Carnival's brand ambassador, John Heald.

"I would like to send a message to a group currently sailing on the incredible trans-Pacific cruise aboard Carnival Luminosa," he wrote. "Yesterday I was informed that the group leader had been arranging a card game played on Lido each day where quite large amounts of money were changing hands. This was reported to me and as brand ambassador, it was my duty to report that to the ship."

Heald explained that he had no choice in his actions.

"This is because gambling outside of the casino is strictly forbidden aboard any of our ships," he posted. "The group lead leader has kindly been asked to stop doing this and since this has happened, I have received a lot of disgruntled posts let’s say referring to me as a 'snitch' and some other choice words."

Heald, as he always is, was gracious in response to people insulting him.

"I do understand the disappointment. I’m sure that the card game was a lot of fun and perhaps you can play without money changing hands. I hope so. But I hope you understand that I had to report this," he added.

Heald fires back on one claim

When a cruise line does something that stops passengers from doing something, it often gets accused of being profit-motivated. That happened, for example, when Royal Caribbean (RCL) changed its policy regarding bringing wine onboard.

Under the old rules, a solo traveler over 21 could bring two bottles of wine on board on embarkation day. That has been changed to one per 21-year-old passenger up to a total of two per cabin.

People did not like that change and accused the cruise line of doing it to increase on-board alcohol sales. Heald has faced the same blowback for his actions.   

"And for those in the group saying that we only are banning this so people would go running to our casino and spend their money there, well that is not the case. There are various laws about gambling on our ships and as the company representative, I had no choice but to report it," he wrote.

Heald tried hard to show sympathy for those involved.

"I am sure that all she wanted to do was provide some extra fun but when we see people holding fistful of dollar bills then this is just not something we can allow. Gambling with dice or cards for money organized by a group leader is not allowed. It is really truly that simple," he added.