SeaEscape cruises into Florida sunset with no return as onshore gambling evolves

 

By Jane Feehan

As Florida voters rejected gambling casinos, one-day cruises for betting grew in popularity during the 1980s and 90s.

One of these ocean-going casinos was SeaEscape. Over several decades, operators of the line changed, ships changed and so did home ports. This post is not a business history of the SeaEscape; it’s somewhat convoluted.  The focus will be on growth of the industry, its challenges and the role legalized gambling played with SeaEscape’s fortunes.

They advertised as “Florida’s original one-day cruise.” SeaEscape launched in 1982 from the Port of Palm Beach. Some news sources report that the “Rahn family” was behind the new business; other news sources report Scandinavian Sun or Scandinavian World Cruises was behind the initiative. The ship’s maiden voyage hosted 732 passengers. 

The line, which promised “everything for $89,” included a stop in Freeport, Bahamas, a meal, and lots of gambling. In subsequent years, their ships mostly sailed without a port stop but to international waters (or three miles offshore) where there were no restrictions on betting. SeaEscape ships also departed from Miami and Fort Lauderdale; soon after these one-day trips sailed from Tampa and Port Canaveral.  

By 1992 ocean-going casinos hosted 920,000 passengers yearly (averaging 1,400 guests per trip)—"one third of SOFLA’s cruise trade,” reported the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Passengers on these trips were not big-time gamblers. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, most spent an average of $9-$13 a day and slots were the main attraction—80 percent played the “one-arm bandits.”  Remaining passengers played table games. Betting limits ranged from $200-$2,000, not attractive to high rollers who preferred Las Vegas.

However, the concept was so popular and seemed to hold so much promise that the report of 920,000 passengers caught the attention of Steve Wynn, then-owner of the Mirage Hotel and Golden Nugget Casinos in Las Vegas. The gambling mogul mulled over the idea of building a casino ship and "fancy" hotel in Port Everglades. He probably foresaw the eventual approval of casino gambling so did not move forward with his concept.

Competition was stiff by 1992. At one time, 47 floating casinos operated from Florida. Meanwhile, troubles mounted for SeaEscape. The company, no longer held by the original owners, filed for bankruptcy in 1991. They had been dealing with competition, late or unpaid fines, port fees, taxes and insurance problems.  Several small fires at sea called into question the validity of their insurance. At that time, Fort Lauderdale and Miami were claimed as home ports.

In 1997, the “New SeaEscape” emerged, announcing new ships, sea “adventures” for $29.95 and party cruises for about $25. But new problems arose the following year when Florida’s Attorney General Bob Butterworth spearheaded efforts to curtail questionable one-day cruise practices. Undercover agents boarded ships to confirm gambling did not begin until at least three miles from the coast. Hidden GPS devices proved otherwise; the New SeaEscape was hit with a $190,000 fine for opening slots and tables before the three miles. Other problems followed with indictments in 2003 of the then-owners for matters unrelated to New SeaEscape.

The company struggled. They advertised their remaining ship as a wedding venue, for overnight New Year’s Eve festivities for $179 and other parties for as little as $25. Gambling glories were slipping away.

SeaEscape’s last cruise was in August 2008 after workers complained about not being paid. The company was unable to find financing or a new owner. Their sole ship was auctioned off by Broward County in October 2008. The highest bidder was investor Glenn Staub.

Gambling—blackjack—was approved in 2008. Casino gambling has been approved in bits and pieces since 1988 until today, when most of it resides on Seminole holdings such as Hard Rock Cafes in Hollywood and Tampa and at the Miccosukee Reservation. The next frontier seems to be online gambling.

But it wasn’t just onshore gambling that dealt the one-day cruises a blow. The rise of inexpensive vacation cruises with casinos as one form of onboard entertainment also played a role in the demise of day trips.  Entertainment venues and peoples’ tastes evolve.

As of this post, a one-day gambling trip is offered out of Port Canaveral:  Victory Casino Cruises.

 Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 21, 1982

Fort Lauderdale News, March 17, 1982

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Sept 15, 1982

South Florida Sun-SentinelS, Jun. 2, 1991

The Miami Herald, Oct. 21, 1991

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, May 17, 1992

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 15, 1993

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Mar. 23, 1997

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dec. 19, 1997

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dec. 20, 1997

South Florida Sun-Sentinel. June 5, 2003

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Aug. 12, 2008

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oct. 7, 2008

Tags: SeaEscape, New SeaEscape, one-day gambling cruises, gambling history, Port Everglades, floating casinos

Historic Cap's Place - Gambling raids, dining and famous customers

Cap’s Place

2765 NE 28^th CT

Lighthouse Point, 954-941-0418

By Jane Feehan

Built in 1928 and originally known as Club Unique, Cap’s Place in Lighthouse Point had a reputation for good food—and wide open gambling during the 1930s and 40s.

Raids on gambling establishments those years were intermittent, with threats to operations dependent on political winds. In February 1949, the state beverage department sent a “flying squad” of five agents in two cars throughout Broward County to clamp down on gambling by looking for liquor sales violations.

They lost their game when they entered Cap’s. Agents, with reporters in tow, saw gambling at the swank spot but were unable to make any arrests. Gambling at Cap’s took place in a building separated from the bar. If gambling and drinking had been co-mingled, they may have been in luck – and the management knew it; they did not bother to close the place during the raid. But there was another catch: the flying squad was unauthorized to make an arrest without a deputy sheriff or constable present. They were sent on their mission without either.

A note on the political climate that year: Gov. Fuller Warren had taken office a month earlier (Jan. 4, 1949). In 1950-51 a U.S. Senate Committee investigating gambling and the corruption of public officials accused Warren of funding his gubernatorial campaign with mob money. Gambling ceased at Cap’s Place in 1951.

Cap’s, once known for quality seafood, green turtle steaks, and turtle egg pancakes, still operates and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The period of its significance is listed as 1929-1949. Cap’s legacy includes a meal delivered to Winston Churchill and his host Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1900 -1949), former lend-lease administrator and later Secretary of State who was vacationing in Pompano Beach. 

The separate building now holds a bar and a trove of historical photos. It’s accessible by boat and auto but most prefer to take Cap’s motor launch from the Lighthouse Point Marina. It’s worth an evening out but the food has its ups and downs.

I can’t think of another significant gambling house of that era that still stands in Broward County, perhaps not in Miami-Dade County, either. If someone knows of such a place, leave a post below.Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan. 

For a newsreel clip of his arrival in Miami, see: http://tinyurl.com/92x5axf
For more on Churchill at Hillsboro Beach in Broward county during WWII, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-titans-meet-in-pompano-beach-1941.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1949

U.S. Senate Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 1950

www.capsplace.com

Tags: Famous South Florida restaurants,  Broward County gambling during 1930s, 1940s, turtle steaks, where Winston Churchill and FDR dined, motor launch to restaurant, restaurant in Intracoastal  in Lighthouse Point, film industry researcher, historical researcher, Lighthouse Point history, Pompano Beach history, Hillsboro Mile, Hillsboro history

Hialeah Park opens in 1925 with creative betting

Hialeah Park
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory Postcard collection

Hialeah Park

East 4th Avenue
Hialeah, FL

https://hialeahparkcasino.com/

By Jane Feehan

Hialeah Park Race Track, developed by Missouri cattleman James Bright and aviation pioneer Glen Curtis, opened for thoroughbred races January 15, 1925.  Thousands of fans jammed the new park, nicknamed the “Longchamps of America,”* to watch horses run the one mile track.

The Miami Daily News reported the festivities; excerpts follow:

… Innovation after innovation greeted the thousands at the track this afternoon.

Unlike the grass lawns at other tracks, the Miami sward is a fast stretch of grey black tied concrete sweeping gently to the rail of the home stretch.

The band stand, a 20-foot enclosure that was sunken in the center of the lawn and surrounded by a high yellow daubed picket fence, was the stage for the famous Frank Novak band ...  Activity centered in the club house, a Spanish type structure. Two balconies were crowded with the smart set, a few dining between races in the beautiful buff and green paneled dining room.

Another Miami Daily News story of the same day anticipated the Hialeah visit of “Englishwoman bookmaker” Helen Vernet en route to the U.S. aboard the Mauritania. Claimed to be from one of oldest families in Great Britain, Vernet followed the horses to make fast money. She became a broker for Ladbroke and Company, the “largest turf commissioners in the world” where she handled more than $25 million in bets. She was anxious to see - and probably place a wager at - Hialeah.

She may have been disappointed with the betting situation at the Florida track. Pari-mutuel gambling was not legal then but track operators got creative. They developed an oral system of betting as well as a more complex “certificate plan” in which the betting tickets were sold as stocks (for one such system at the Pompano track in the 1920s see index for post about Judge Shippey).

Pari-mutuel betting was passed by the Florida legislature in May, 1931, but Governor Fuller Warren vetoed it because of a rumored (and later assessed as well-founded) payoff from a Dade County businessman. A month later, a compromise was reached in which each county, regardless of its size, would share equally in tax proceeds of pari-mutuels; it gave the Florida Senate enough votes to override the governor’s veto in June, 1931.

As for Hialeah Park Race Track, it was severely damaged by the 1926 hurricane. Joseph Widener and partner Edward R. Bradley purchased, renovated and re-opened the track in 1932 to wide and decades-long acclaim. The park closed in 2001 but opened again in 2009 and now offers a casino. Today Hialeah Park is on the National Register of Historic . Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Longchamps is a race track along the banks of the Seine River in Paris, France.
-----

Sources:

Miami Daily News, Jan. 15, 1925

Miami News, Aug. 8, 1978

www.hialeahparkracing.com


Tags: Hialeah history,  Miami history, Florida racing history, Florida gambling history, Florida history, film researcher, 

Off-track betting - not legal in Florida during 1950s and 60s but thriving

Hialeah racing 1959
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

During the 1950s and 60s and perhaps as far back as race tracks had been operating in South Florida,  illegal off-track betting was conducted openly and within the shadow of most racing parks.

Grandstand admission was $1.75 in 1960. After the seventh race, admission was free. Gambling enthusiasts who did not want to pay the entrance charge would hand a bet through a fence to a friend, family member or runner. In the 1950s and 60s a runner was paid 25 cents to place the bet at the window.

Track management looked the other way. They did not want to appear petty by requiring all to pay the entrance charge, especially when they—and the state—still got their 15 percent (1960) take on the bet. Besides, the quarter runner's fee rendered behind-the-fence-betting more expensive than from the grandstand. 

It was common to see women and children standing on the other side of fences, the “off-track” areas. Most were families visiting from states where children were allowed at race tracks so they brought them not knowing they were barred from entrance at Florida racing parks. So, fathers would enter and take bets through a fence from their wives.

I haven’t seen through-the-fence-off-track-betting in my lifetime but I’ll wager it’s not allowed anymore. And off-track betting is still illegal in Florida. Each pari-mutuel facility does offer televised viewing and wagering on selected race and game performances from other Florida facilities, other states, and even other country’s tracks and frontons.

Sources:

www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pmw/faq-pmw.html#offtrackbetting

Miami News, Jan. 10, 1960.

Tags: Florida gambling history, race track betting, Florida racetracks, off-track betting, OTB