Tuesday is supposed to be tax day, but a slice of the Pastrick Harbor in East Chicago, Ind., looks more like Fat Tuesday–after $200 million in decorations.
Showboat Mardi Gras Casino, the largest gambling boat in the United States, is set to open at 11 a.m. Tuesday. It will be the seventh casino in Indiana and the fourth within about a half-hour’s drive of Chicago.
“The idea is to provide our guests with a party 365 days a year,” said architect Robert E. Curtin, vice president of design and construction for Showboat Inc., “and what better party to provide than Mardi Gras?”
And $200 million buys quite a party for East Chicago. Showboat is longer than a football field, weighs 7,500 tons, has about 2,500 gambling positions and can carry a maximum of 3,750 passengers. It will be the fourth casino owned by Showboat Inc., which operates others in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Sydney.
Each of the boat’s four decks carries a Mardi Gras theme, with about 80 murals of jesters and jazz musicians. Gamblers will walk on imported Spanish marble and English woven carpet. Two cash machines are on each deck.
Showboat also invested $1.2 million on a hydraulic stage in the pavilion. Three jester statues are perched atop the “Mardi Gras Float,” which rises to reveal a live jazz band.
Revenues at surrounding casinos are expected to drop with Showboat’s opening.
State Rep. Louis Lang (D-Skokie), who last week proposed expanding Illinois gambling, said the opening of Showboat would exacerbate the problem of Illinois gamblers traveling to other states.
“If we have our people spending their money gambling in Gary and other parts of northwest Indiana,” Lang said, “there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have gambling in Cook County.”
Lorraine Nelson, communications manager for the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, said she expects receipts to drop at northwest Indiana’s other boats and at the Joliet casinos in the first few months of Showboat’s operation.
“When the supply increases, it takes a little bit longer for the demand to catch up,” Nelson said, “but as long as the market keeps growing, we’ll remain healthy.”
