Although evening has come for the balmy Gulf Coast waters, a three-story ocean vessel glows with all the radiance of daylight as it slices through the open seas. An evening breeze washes over the deck and onto the faces of the passengers aboard Trade Winds Cruise Lines’s 200-foot-long ship. Inside, passengers partake in Las Vegas–style casino games late into the evening.

During each five-hour midday or nighttime cruise, dealers at blackjack and poker tables shuffle cards with a magician's dexterity, and an orchestra of ringing slot machines and tumbling coins add a jolly backup track to guests’ buffet-conquering victory dances. In the dining room, stately lunches and dinners come in buffet form, sating tummies growling from hours of luck testing, and bartenders whip up sumptuous drinks to keep throats hydrated.