Word: riverboat
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...passengers as they come up the gangplank of the Mississippi River's newest paddle-wheeler, Emerald Lady. A Dixieland band lays down tune after tune, while a jokester on stilts tosses colorful doubloons. Waitresses with feathers jutting from their hair sashay through wood-paneled rooms, offering cocktails. As the riverboat pulls out of Fort Madison, Iowa, and steams up and down the Mississippi on a three-hour excursion into the 19th century, it is easy to get swept up in the hoopla. So easy that one can almost forget what this anachronistic cruise is really about: money and risk...
With the launch of the Emerald Lady last month, Fort Madison became the fourth of Iowa's Mississippi River towns to take a chance on riverboat gambling as a lure for tourism and a cure for economic woes. The others launched floating casinos on April Fools' Day. Now all are praying the joke won't be on them. Iowa's notion of melding nostalgic river travel with America's gambling addiction is already stoking competition up and down the river. Among the potential ventures...
...Mark Twain's day, riverboat gambling brought romance and roguery to the Mississippi River. Now Iowans are betting that it will bring tax revenues and jobs. Last week legalized floating casinos returned to the river for the first time in nearly a century. Three ships, the Diamond Lady, the President and the Casino Belle, left from separate Iowa port cities. They were loaded with slot machines, blackjack tables and roulette wheels as well as bettors who pay from $7.95 for a breakfast cruise to $40 for a weekend jaunt...
Iowa lawmakers approved riverboat gambling three years ago in the hope of creating jobs in shoreside communities hurt by the declining fortunes of local farm-equipment manufacturers. The state will get 20% of gross receipts and expects to take in $11 million annually. To head off criticism that the government is tempting people to bet the rent check, state lawmakers put limits of $5 on bets and $200 on any gambler's losses in a single day. Iowa will lose its monopoly on floating crap games this summer, when gambling boats start leaving from the Illinois side of the river...
...invade the Bible Belt? Hell, yes, say Baptist ministers along the Mississippi, where TV spots recently carried the voice of a frantic mother begging for help from 911 to rescue her daughter from the evils of gambling. The source of the Baptists' consternation is a growing movement to revive riverboat casinos. They fear that the floating games will bring bawdy music, painted women and public intoxication. On the other side of this fire- and-brimstone debate are the chambers of commerce of such Mississippi River towns as Natchez and Vicksburg. They insist that legalizing games of chance on the river...