Gambling Limit Reduced

"I'm smiling from ear to ear," Capt. Paul Forsberg of Montauk said yesterday morning after learning that a Federal District Court Judge in New York City declared that gambling cruise boats could start the roulette wheels spinning three miles from shore, instead of 12.

A fleet of floating gambling houses set sail last year from New York and other coastal ports. In doing so, boat owners, including Captain Forsberg, relied on the understanding that the boundary between state and Federal waters lay three miles from shore.

Last fall, however, Zachary Carter, the United States Attorney in Brooklyn, interpreted Federal maritime law differently, citing a 1996 amendment designed to keep potential criminal activities farther offshore.

On Monday, Judge Allyne R. Ross of Brooklyn's Federal District Court, ruled that the anti-crime amendment had not been written to exclude gambling.

"It's what we thought all along," Captain Forsberg said, adding that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had paid a visit to his Montauk offices in the fall shortly after Mr. Carter's ruling, and warned him to sail 12 miles before the gambling started or risk seizure of his boat.

He explained that weather conditions three miles offshore are far calmer than they are at 12 miles out.

"It's terrific. We can start in the spring and go longer into the fall. It helps us a lot," Captain Forsberg said.