Has Royal Court been gone too far with its casino expansion plans?

You know, I've really started thinking about this after last week's news about the fact that Radiance of the Seas, a Radiance-class ship, had its pub removed in order to be replaced with a non-smoking casino.

And this is part of a bigger trend.

Now, over the years, I've actually been mostly in favor of the casino expansions.

I'm not a major gambler, just got enough to get to Prime, and then Prime being in the casino loyalty

program, and then I mostly just take advantage of the benefits that you get there. I mostly do it

for two reasons. One is for the free drinks in the casino bar, and the other is for hopefully a free

offer from the casino in the mail or online or both. You do get, when you get to prime

usually get a free cruise on top of that for being a prime member, but basically that's been my

mantra. And when you go on many ships, you've traditionally had to go into the casino, which is like one side non-smoking, one side smoking. I think we learned from airplanes in the 70s. That doesn't really work. The smoke goes on both sides. And it's not enjoyable. I never let it stop me, but there have been many times, in fact, where I've said,

you know, I'm not enjoying this, or I'm going to come, maybe to stop me, pause, I'll come back later on when it's not quite so smoky. Anyway, Royal Crimean started expanding its casino,

and I'm going to tell you why I like the benefits and then why this might have gone too far.

So by far, I think if you can control your gambling to a point where

you're not spending a ton of money, it requires a lot of self-control, because it's easy to say,

I'm going in there to get prime, and that's it, and you end up, you know, losing thousands of dollars.

I think I've gotten better about this. I certainly have gone into the casino always

with the idea that's entertainment. Something to do on board the ship. In the same way, I might go to the

pub, or I might go see a show, or I might go to the pool. It's something to do, and we usually come in

with whatever money I got in my pocket. Occasionally, I'll charge money to the onboard account

because I'm feeling like

I already am due but it my wife usually back yells at me because it backfires and anyway but for

the fact that you can let's assume that you get to prime I mean you're basically going to get a free

...