"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less," said Humpty Dumpty to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s sequel to his 1865 masterpiece, Alice in Wonderland. Or, as a well-known elected official also known for his ability to parse words recently put it, "It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is."
A similar through the looking glass experience awaits those whose task it is to define what does and what does not constitute a "vessel" for the purposes of dockside casino gaming. The exercise is not just one of semantics; issues ranging from equipment financing to mortgage lending to the nature of the rights an injured worker may all depend to some extent on whether or not a dockside casino is considered a vessel.
