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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- When someone asks to use the phone, here's your answer. CallAboard® provides public cellular telephone service for ferries, cruise ships, gambling vessels, dining yachts, work barges, island locations and other remote environments where conventional wired telephone service is not available. • Free public cellular telephones Monthly commissions* No long-term financial obligations Immediate hook-up No phone bills to handle No administrative burden Callers may charge phone calls directly to their major credit cards, phone company calling card, or call collect Billing information can be entered through the keypad, card reader, or given to live operators CallAboard® provides the best way for passengers, customers, and employees to stay in telephone contact without costing most companies any money. We deliver state-of-the-art public cellular telephone equipment, installation, service and bill processing FREE of charge to qualified organizations.** CallAboard® eliminates any need to time calls, oversee billing, perform service or attempt collection. CallAboard® will handle all of your public cellular communication needs and allow everyone to keep in touch! CallAboard A Service of CELLNET Corporation Call 1-800-CallAboard 11-800-225-5226-2731 400 Main Street, Suite 800, Stamford, CT 06901 -3004 Fax (203) 359-6826 • Call (203) 359-6333, Ext. 304 or 307 * Commission schedule will commence when phone usage exceeds monthly minimum. ** Based upon applicant's qualifications and specific application. 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
