Diamond Girl Riverboat On line casino: How It Ended Up within the Tough
Per week after operating our first story on the Diamond Girl, the tough sketch of the historic riverboat on line casino’s historical past can now be fleshed out, due to Don Sanders. He was the chief mate who helped sail the Diamond Girl from Bettendorf, Iowa down the Mississippi River to Biloxi, Miss. beneath Capt. Ken Murphy in August 1992.
The Diamond Girl was the primary authorized playing vessel launched into Iowa’s portion of the Mississippi River because the nineteenth century. It now sits caught within the mud the place it sank final yr in a Memphis lake. (Picture: MSN)
“How do I really feel taking a look at her like she is now?” Sanders stated, repeating On line casino.org’s query. “I’m pissed off that the Girl was uncared for and betrayed and wasn’t seemed over and stored afloat. I’m pissed that the egocentric, grasping —holes who owned her allowed her to sink and fill with muddy river water.”
Don Sanders, photographed when he captained the Gamers Riverboat On line casino at Metropolis, In poor health. (Picture: Don Sanders)
The Diamond Girl helped launched trendy playing in Iowa and Mississippi, which 30 years in the past, solely allowed it on water. The riverboat, christened in Bettendorf by “Wheel of Fortune” co-host Vanna White on April 1, 1991, sank final yr throughout a Mississippi River freeze close to Memphis, the place it had been saved in a marina since 2008. Now, the drought-receded Mississippi has uncovered her ravaged hull.
Sanders, 81, is retired and lives along with his spouse close to the Ohio River in Aurora, Ind.
“I’m operating out of time,” he stated, “And I’m pissed as a result of I, nor anybody else, can or will do something to deliver the Diamond Girl again – simply to get her afloat, cleaned up, and discover a new enterprise for her.”
Biloxi Blues
The riverboat’s builder, Bernie Goldstein, pulled her out of Iowa after solely a yr as a result of he wasn’t a fan of the state’s laws and tax charges. Sanders stated he recollects the voice of Capt. Ken throughout the weeklong journey downstream towards the Gulf, throughout which the Diamond Girl shoved a ticket barge in entrance of her.
The Diamond Girl, with Sanders aboard, pushes a ticket barge down the Mississippi in the direction of Biloxi in August 1992. (Picture: Anne Zeiger Assortment)
“Capt. Ken was one of many desired captains on the river,” Sanders stated. “On the best way down the river, he obtained not less than 10 different provides.”
As soon as in Biloxi, the Diamond Girl was tied to her sister boat, the Emerald Girl, then to the ticket barge and to the dock. The conglomeration turned the newly branded Isle of Capri dockside on line casino.
“The 2 boats had been nosed into the shore, with the ticket barge within the center,” Sanders recalled.
Murphy didn’t have the correct license to stick with the boat in Biloxi. In response to Sanders, his license lined the Mississippi and its tributaries, however not the Mississippi Sound, the place the Biloxi on line casino operated. So he determined to take a job opening the Gamers Riverboat On line casino in Metropolis, In poor health.
Sanders didn’t have that license, both, however he didn’t have Capt. Ken’s choices. So he went to high school for the license in New Orleans whereas a smelly fish warehouse was prepped to change into the Isle of Capri’s places of work. Upon his return, Sanders was named a captain of the Emerald Girl. (Every boat had 4 captains, who took shifts, even when the boats had been docked.)
“Biloxi didn’t pay a lot,” Sanders stated. “I had a younger household who was dwelling in Natchez, Miss. and I used to be commuting each two weeks. The Mississippi was like an odd land to them.”
Final Boat Leaving
When Goldstein’s firm, On line casino America, opened the Isle of Capri-Vicksburg on the Mississippi River 200 miles northwest of Biloxi, he requested Sanders to sail the Diamond Girl there. Goldstein had already deliberate to rehouse his Biloxi operations in an $18 million, two-story barge that will open in 1994.
Sanders turned the job down. As a substitute, he joined his outdated pal, Capt. Ken, on the Gamers Riverboat On line casino, which was nearer to his house in Northern Kentucky.
“I’m fortunate I didn’t go to Vicksburg,” Sanders stated.
After the Diamond Girl sailed there in August 1993, she was docked with the identical ticket barge, and each had been surrounded by a moat to kind the second Isle of Capri playing operation.
“I heard that the dike across the boat sprang a leak, and the captain who went there as a substitute of me was fired,” Sanders stated.
In 1994, the Diamond Girl was changed on the Isle of Capri-Vicksburg by a bigger dockside on line casino. How she ended up in Memphis 14 years later remains to be at present a thriller. The Riverside Park Marina, the place what’s left of the Diamond Girl rests at present, didn’t return voicemails left by On line casino.org.
“I used to be lengthy passed by then,” Sanders stated.
Keep tuned.
