Page 60: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1993)

GAMING VESSEL MARKET: Best Is To Come (Continued from page 60) the fourth casino boat that Service

Marine has built for Harrah's.

According to Tom Hensley, vice president of marketing for Service

Marine, the company is currently building two of these large boats for

Boyd Gaming Corp. and one for Ca- sino America.

He said that "customers are at- tracted to the boats nearly 200-feet long, and, 71-foot wide cabins which also have high ceilings. We have also developed an air conditioning system which leaves the cabins virtually smoke free."

Bender Shipbuilding is current- ly building seven vessels for seven separate owners, a feat possible because of the company's strong internal engineering staff (number- ing 100+ strong) and its array of 25 standard riverboat designs, which a potential owner can easily browse through to select the vessel to meet certain needs, said Mr. Hairston.

But beyond all the support and amenities, Mr. Hairston said sway-

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Circle 248 on Reader Service Card ing a casino vessel owner boils do to one thing: time. "The shor delivery time you have, the bet chance you have at getting a c( tract."

Mr. Hensley of Service Mari concurs, saying that "mass prodi tion assembly line methods" we employed in the construction of t\ recent newbuilds for Harrah's, whii resulted in "very fast delivery."

More Than Just A Boat

While the business for all yard involved in building casino vessel has indeed been welcome work, man view the market as doing far mor than keeping a handful of yard, busy. Many potential owner/opera tors are expected to give something back to the community, via urbar renewal along the shorefront where the casino vessel is based.

For example, Jazz Enterprise is charged with far more than con- tracting for the 19th century-style paddlewheeler Catfish Queen.

The corporation, which was just formed in mid-1992, is currently in the process of revitalizing the for- merly industrialized "Catfish Town."

The Catfish Town site will be a huge entertainment complex, stretching 100 yards off of the river, which will be complimentary to the riverboat.

According to Mr. Bradley, Jazz

Enterprises would be interested in building numerous additional ves- sels for the Baton Rouge site, should the legislation in Louisiana change to allow it.

Another ancillary benefit is ex- emplified by Bender acquiring the

Braithwaite, La. yard in February of this year. In an incredibly short period of time, a shipyard which had sat dormant for more than seven years by Mr. Hairston's calcula- tions, is currently building three vessels and employing 500.

According to Steven Norton, president of Argosy Gaming Co. in

Alton, 111., a company which was the first company to file and go into the business in Illinois back in 1991, local partnership and proposed de- velopment is a key to getting the permission necessary to build riverboat casinos in the first place.

Mr. Norton cited several locales, including the Baton Rouge, La. Cat- fish Queen project with Jazz, where

Argosy is working with local and state governments to help develop riverboat gaming sites.

For additional free information on the casino vessel builders mentioned in this story, please circle the ap- propriate number on the Reader

Service Card bound in this issue.

Avondale Industries, ..105

Bender Shipbuilding ..103

Service Marine ..106

Trinity Marine ..104 62 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News