The 600-passenger, 229-foot Victory Casino Cruises gambling ship recently launched its first public cruise out of Mayport, Florida, near Jacksonville. The vessel will offer five- to six-hour cruises two times a day, seven days a week, however gambling will not be allowed until the boat is three miles out to sea, about 40 minutes coming and going. It’s equipped with 300 slots, plus roulette, craps, blackjack, baccarat, poker, bingo and sports betting.
Victory operates one of five gambling boats in Florida, where there were 35 in the 1990s. Most recently SunCruz Casinos operated out of Mayport between 2001-2009 and closed suddenly. Jacks or Better Casino cruised out of Mayport from 2010 to December 2012.
Victory Chief Executive Officer Lester Bullock said the decline of gambling boats is due to the fact that “The Seminole Tribe got gaming. Boats in Tampa couldn’t compete.” He noted, with Seminole casinos, slots at parimutuel venues and Mississippi casinos nearby, Jacksonville and Port Canaveral, where Victory operates another casino ship, are the only logical ports.
Bullock said in his first year of operations at Mayport he expects 120,000 passengers, who pay a $10 boarding fee. Gamblers get free drinks and others can enjoy live entertainment. Bullock said slots make up 70 percent of his revenue. The ship employs 230 people with an estimated budget of $6 million a year.
But how many years the operation may last is questionable, said Nova Southeastern University law professor and gambling industry specialist Robert Jarvis. “It’s very difficult and ultimately fails. It’s such a capital-intensive operation. The Coast Guard has really cracked down. It used to be you could have a foreign crew for lower wages. But now you have to crew American.” Another uncertainty is that the weather “knocks you out. Some days you can’t sail, or if you do, you have a bad sail. People look out their windows and think it looks like bad weather. The fundamentals are just not there.”
But Bullock remains optimistic. His 1,100-passenger ship in Port Canaveral, averages 500 per cruise and carried 320,000 passengers last year. Bullock said 85 percent of the customers come from 50 miles away and tour operators drive two and a half hours to deliver customers. As a result, he said, “One of the reasons I know this would work is that we already get a lot of people from Jacksonville.”
People from Jacksonville also have the option to gamble at internet cafés, which are opening and re-opening throughout Duval County. The county was one of five in Florida where a special anti-gambling task force conducted raids on the cafés in April, when about 60 were operating in Jacksonville. Many did not shut down as ordered and now more are opening again.
Internet café owners said new software makes the games more like a legal sweepstakes than an illegal game of chance. Attorney Mitch Stone, who represents one of the owners targeted by the state, said, “I’m a little surprised to see that happening. My recommendation is let’s get a definitive answer from an appellate court. We’ll make a decision, and we’ll have to start getting some degree of conformation on who was right.” Meanwhile, he said, “The only advice I can tell people is if you open up, you’re playing with fire.”
The Florida Attorney General’s Office would not comment on the situation.
