One of the things that you should know before you start playing casino games on cruise ships is about the maritime boundaries and territorial laws.
If you have been playing casino games for quite a long time you would know that there are states and countries that haven’t legalized gambling yet.
The reason why we want to bring up the topic about maritime boundaries is because of the rivalry that has been happening between Australia and Timor.
Just recently, these countries have signed a treaty to formalize their share on the sea of interest. But before that went down a lot of things happened.
Why are these countries fighting over such an area? Here are some of the reasons why.
Marine Resources
What’s being discussed here is the Timor Sea, thus, it is just sensible to think that they are fighting over the marine resources. There are a lot of things that you can get from marine life. It is not just constricted towards fishing, it could also be about tourism especially when there are islands involved.
Hydrocarbon Resources
To be honest, this is the main reason why Australia and East Timor is in a dilemma. Australians have discovered a place called Great Sunrise in the Sea of Timor which was a natural gas field.
For many years now, a lot of big oil companies have partnered with each other in order to extract as much as they can. Before the treaty was signed Australia and East Timor were on a 50-50 agreement. This means that each country would get 50% of the gas revenues.
The Pipeline Issue
The first agreement made between Australia and East Timor was called CMATS. Now, this agreement did not tackle as to how the field shall be developed. On the side of East Timor, they wanted a pipeline which starts from the field and ends in the south coast where they can process the gas.
On the other hand, the commercial venture partners who were with the Australian government did not think of such an option as viable. Such dispute led both countries to an impasse which started the pursuit of East Timor to permanent maritime boundaries. This could potentially lead to advancing their pipeline interest.
Economic Status
The reason why East Timor is very eager to establish its maritime boundary against Australia is that they are afraid that their country would cease to generate revenue. Research shows that the resources they are using will deplete and last until 2020, after that they can only rely on their petroleum fund.
If such maritime boundaries are not properly identified, there is a great chance that gamblers would play in unauthorized territories.
For those who would still push through gambling on some of the world’s greatest cruise ships, make sure that you have already understood the rules of every territory the ship travels through.