[SunnySide]

"Yup...it has to do with the law allowing "riverboat" gambling. They load passengers, go on a trip for awhile and come back. It's the law. They have to be moving."

Not in all cases. See casino in Metropolis IL. I beleive it doesn't even have an engine in it. Just a barge on the river ie., legally it is not on "land" so it made it through the legal loop hole.

[GOP_Proud]

Yeah, I stand corrected. It's different in all states. In some they have to move, I think.

[Coldwater Creek]

Tunica gambling does not move either.

[KC Burke]

While in the early days of riverboat Casino gaming there was a requirement to be able to actually cruise the vessel, most of the state gaming authorities relented on that requirement as the U. S. Coast Guard began to stop it for safety concerns at various times. In the Mississippi coast, I don't think they ever cruised.

So the barges became more floor-structure only elements or the boats floated in basins. Then basins were built with the walls and roofs on foundations below the basins with the floors alone the floating element.

In most states however, the barge even if it a a floor alone, is a fully certified, air-tight, U. S. Coast Guard certified barge, vessel registration and everything.