Here is an old message I found from the sr111 board. Unfortunately the link no longer works though the site still exists. It looks like you have to be a member to get in now. At any rate apparently swissair along with several other carriers lobbied congress prior to the crash to have the right to offer gambling on their flights.

From the following site regarding inflight
gambling; "In response to the enactment of the Gorton
Amendment, 10 major international airlines formed a group
known as the International Airline Coalition on the
Rule of Law ("Coalition"). The members of the
Coalition include Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways,
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Japan
Airlines, Japan Air System, Qantas, Singapore Airlines,
and Swissair. The Coalition’s purpose is to lobby
Congress to repeal its ban on in-flight gambling with
regard to foreign registered aircraft." I
think you will find the following article interesting.
As you can see swissair and 9 other international
airlines lobbied congress in order to have gambling on
their
flights.
http://www.iaha.org/BottomLine/current/MarchGaming/blackjack.htm (link no longer works)

As my source who pointed this out told me, "the
Gaming Research & Review Journal is published by the
UNLV International Gaming Institute under the joint sponsorship of ACE
Denken Company, Ltd. and the Nevada Gaming Attorneys
Association."