Facts

One of the things that you should take note of when playing casino games on one of the best cruise ships is the rule on maritime boundaries. It is imperative that you are able to consider the laws of the territories that you are currently in as it would determine the legality of casinos.

Of course, knowing whether gambling is legal or not is the main purpose of having maritime boundaries. Most of the time territories need to identify where their area starts and ends because of the resources that will become available for them.

One of the longest-running disputes when it comes to territorial waters is how the sea should be divided. It is widely known that the dispute has been solved recently between Timor-Leste and Australia.

1989-1991

Since an Australian energy company and Indonesia started to take different sides of the Timor Sea, both countries decided to sign and ratify a treaty called Timor Gap Treaty. However, this treaty does not actually establish maritime boundaries but instead call for a 50-50 deal on the proceeds of the delineated portion of the Sea between Australia and East Timor.

August 1999

During the past years, Woodside has partnered with Shell for a joint exploration and drilling of the portion that Australia covers. However, the entirety of East Timor voted for independence during this year.

This, then, questioned future development plans as well as treaties and boundary terminations.

1999-2001

For Australia, more companies partnered with Woodside to begin oil production. This has resulted in a drastic increase in the tax revenues of Australia. Furthermore, the partnership between the top companies moved for the development of both the Bayu-Undan fields and Greater Sunrise fields.

July 2001

The fight of Timor for their independence against Indonesia finally came through. Timor-Leste had made it clear that they will not be bound by treaties which have been entered into by Indonesia from the previous years including the TGT. This time only Australia and East Timor have claims to the maritime area.

2002

During this year, a lot of things happened. An oil and gas company offered East Timor financial support against it expanded seabed boundary claims against Australia. Sometime after, Australia filed reservations to prevent the claims which are raised by Timor-Leste.

In mid-2002 Timor-Leste was permanently released from Indonesia and on the same day they have come up to an agreement with Australia for the Timor Sea Treaty. This is the treaty which replaced TGT initially entered by Australia and Indonesia.

2018

It was not until 2018 when Timor-Leste and Australia finally established their treaty which was established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In between these years, a lot of negotiations went through. Demands were made and issues arose. But in the end, all went well.

It is very tiring and time-consuming to resolve disputes when it comes to maritime boundaries. Which is why if you plan on playing casino games on some of the best cruise ships, you should consider cruise ships that follow routes with clear cut lines between territories. This way, you’ll be able to know when to gamble and when to lie low.