[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 316 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 316

  To amend the Act popularly known as the Johnson Act to restore the 
     effectiveness of State laws over gambling cruises-to-nowhere.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 6, 1999

  Mr. Wolf (for himself, Mr. Gilchrest, and Mr. Shays) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation 
                           and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Act popularly known as the Johnson Act to restore the 
     effectiveness of State laws over gambling cruises-to-nowhere.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cruises-to-Nowhere Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds and declares the following:
            (1) Gambling cruises-to-nowhere are voyages in which a 
        vessel departs a State, sails 3 miles into international waters 
        for the primary purpose of offering gambling beyond the 
        jurisdiction of Federal and State laws prohibiting that 
        activity, and returns to the same State.
            (2) Legal authorities have ruled that existing State laws 
        cannot stop the operation of gambling cruises-to-nowhere, on 
        the basis that the Congress preempted such State laws by the 
        enactment of an obscure amendment buried in a 1992 law entitled 
        ``An Act to provide for the designation of the Flower Garden 
        Banks National Marine Sanctuary'' (Public Law 102-251).
            (3) Gambling cruises-to-nowhere offer high-stakes, untaxed, 
        unpoliced, and unregulated casino gambling.
            (4) Accordingly, it is necessary to make absolutely clear 
        that gambling cruises-to-nowhere enjoy no special exception 
        from the operation of existing or future State laws and that 
        relevant Federal law is not intended to preempt, supersede, or 
        weaken the authority of States to apply their own laws to 
        gambling cruises-to-nowhere.

SEC. 3. STATE AUTHORITY OVER CRUISES-TO-NOWHERE.

    Section 5 of the Act of January 2, 1951, entitled ``An Act to 
prohibit transportation of gambling devices in interstate and foreign 
commerce'' (15 U.S.C. 1175; popularly known as the Johnson Act), is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)(2)(A), by striking ``enacted''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d) No Preemption of State Laws.--Nothing in this section shall 
be construed to preempt the law of any State or possession of the 
United States.''.
                                 <all>