The ships get the flags of small island-countries, where there are almost no laws protecting the crew and only loosely regulated laws about things like gambling

The ships get the flags of small island-countries, where there are almost no laws protecting the crew and only loosely regulated laws about things like gambling, taxes and so on, things these companies misuse to garner profits. I believe there are 0 US flagged ships that are part of the cruise industry that in the U.S.