Tweet
Floating casino set for Provincetown
Friday, 2 June 2000 8:35 (ET)
Floating casino set for Provincetown
PROVINCETOWN, Mass., June 2 (UPI) -- Skirting state laws, gamblers soon
will be able to place their bets on the high seas -- aboard a floating
casino operating out of Provincetown at the tip of Massachusetts' Cape Cod.
The 108-foot Midnight Gambler was expected to arrive in Provincetown this
weekend to prepare for two or three trips daily starting late next week.
The vessel, which can carry 225 passengers and crew, will sail to
international waters 3 miles offshore to avoid violating Massachusetts' laws
against casino gambling.
The Boston-based Atlantica Gaming Co. will operate the gambling cruises
from the privately owned Fisherman's Pier in the popular tourist
destination.
The Midnight Gambler, owned by Monte Carlo Concessions out of Boca Raton,
Fla., had been operating out of Fort Pierce, Fla., for the past six months.
Supporters said the operation, in the works for about a year, will give
tourists interested in gambling another reason to stay longer in
Provincetown, rather than head off to the Indian-run casinos in Connecticut.
Opponents, apparently, have little to say about the operation because it
will be run from a privately owned pier.
"We don't really have any control," Judith Oset, Provincetown's director
of permitting, said in Friday's Boston Herald.
There had been concerns over parking spaces because the town's population
grows to about 40,000 on a peak summer day from 3,500 in the winter months.
Local investor John E. Ciluzzi Jr. said those concerns have already been
addressed.
"We've kind of taken care of the parking issue beforehand," he told the
Herald. He said some 200 parking spaces have already been lined up for boat
customers.
Passengers will pay $29 each for the trip to international waters where
they will be able to risk their money on blackjack, poker, craps and slot
machines. There will also be food and entertainment.
The Provincetown operation follows a failed effort last year to run
gambling cruises out of Hyannis. That plan ran into strong local opposition.