For sale: One boat. Casino not included
By Doug Moore
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/27/2006
EAST ST. LOUIS -- She last set sail seven years ago. At age 13, she's still a looker, proudly docked across from the Gateway Arch.
As dusk approaches, reflections from the neon paddlewheel lap at the water. The boat's exterior is a replica of a 19th-century sidewheeler riverboat, romanticizing the Mississippi River traffic when St. Louis was one of the country's largest cities.
Step inside the boat, though, and enter a mini-Las Vegas, with poker tables and slot machines among the games filling the boat's three levels. This is home to the Casino Queen.
For another year anyway.
By next summer, she will have outlived her original purpose - to hold up to 3,000 passengers as they try their luck at blackjack, baccarat, roulette and other games of chance.
The boat will be replaced by a larger facility being built in the casino parking lot. Commonly called a "boat in a moat," the new facility will sit on a floating barge in water not connected to the Mississippi River.
The Queen owners, though, don't plan to pull up anchor and let the well-seasoned vessel float downriver. Instead, they hope the boat can find a new use - under a new owner.
There is no minimum price on the table, but only serious offers will be entertained. Right now, advertising is limited to the Queen's website and conversations with brokers, who might have interested buyers. Casino Queen owners still need the boat for a year, and it will remain open until the new casino opens its doors.
No offer has been made, but there have been inquiries, said Casino Queen spokesman Ron O'Connor.
"Management is exploring a range of options," he said.
The boat is a downtown landmark, often ending up in photos tourists take of the Gateway Arch. But as competition grows, so must the efforts by Casino Queen owners. Those include abandoning the boat for a larger, one-level building that looks and feels like a traditional casino. The riverboat helped shape the St. Louis gaming market when it chugged into East St. Louis in 1993 from a shipyard in Pensacola, Fla., where it was built for gambling. But with its low ceilings and series of stairs, it can be tight to navigate in spots. And it has been impossible to effectively regulate the smoke from the dozens of ashtrays that are as much a part of gambling tables as cards and chips.
The key to the new, larger Casino Queen will be easier access, the owners say.
Currently, customers have to walk through a visitor center, which includes a nightclub and restaurant, down a tunnel that runs under Front Street and railroad tracks and onto the boat. The new facility, now under construction, will sit just southeast of the boat on the casino parking lot. The look is more opulent, more traditional, and, owners hope, more competitive.
Across the river, on Laclede's Landing, Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. is building a $400 million complex that it plans to open next year, adding a sixth casino to the St. Louis market. Casino Queen, meanwhile, is the first Illinois casino to leave the river with what will eventually be a $150 million complex.
To make the current Queen a gaming facility, it was wired with 2 million feet of electrical cable and a state-of-the-art surveillance system with 260 cameras. To give the boat its 19th-century charm, it took 1,000 gallons of paint, some of it now chipping from years of exposure.
The boat also has a pilothouse with a 360-degree view. The Queen is certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, meaning it is ready for open water.
"The value is worth a lot more" when it can cruise, said Arnie Euker, director of operations. "We could be ready to sail in 10 minutes." Engines are tested once a week, he said.
State regulators relaxed the law on casino boats cruising. As a result, the Queen last took gamblers out on the river on July 4, 1999.
The novelty of riverboat gambling has been pushed aside by customers who want better access to the slots and tables. As a result, finding a buyer in the gaming industry for the Casino Queen boat will be tough, said Roger Gros, editor of Global Gaming Business magazine.
"All the jurisdictions that have come online or will come online are more interested in floating barges or land facilities," Gros said. "In the U.S., there's no demand for riverboats. People don't like to get on them, float away and be stuck on them."
A more likely market is riverboat dinner and theater cruises, he said.
The boat will be sold as is, gaming machines and tables not included. Cashier cages, a slot repair room and the extravagant chandelier in the lobby stay.
Queen officials have not decided the fate of the visitor center and tunnel. |
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