Hi,
Would you please tell me what is the meaning of fake paddle wheeler and cargo retirees in the following text?
In 1990, The Mississippi legislature approved a bill that allowed river boat gambling, the idea being that a handful of fake paddle wheelers would churn up and down the river while their cargo of retirees played bingo and blackjack.
Thanks
Fake paddle wheelers are boats that are made to look like the old paddle-wheel steamers that used to be used in the nineteenth century, though these actually have modern engines and propellers. The retirees are old people who go on these boats to play the gambling games on board. Normally people riding on a boat are passengers , while freight carried on a boat is cargo , so calling the retirees cargo is slightly derogatory, as though the writer is implying that they don't qualify as passengers, and are being carried as though they were cattle or coal or some other kind of freight.
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Fake paddle wheelers are boats that are made to look like the old paddle-wheel steamers that used to be used in the nineteenth century, though these actually have modern engines and propellers. The retirees are old people who go on these boats to play the gambling games on board. Normally people riding on a boat are passengers, while freight carried on a boat is cargo, so calling