Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Larry Mullin, the fast-talking glad-handing public face of the Sterling Casino gambling ship, bustles up and down the escalators in his slick navy suit, accosting the early-arriving staff with feel-good patter. "Here's one of our most beautiful waitresses," he says to a woman dressed in a provocative black bustier and bikini bottom, with matching black heels and stockings. "And here's one of our most talented bartenders." The employees smile awkwardly, not Advertisement sure exactly how to react. Mullin started as a bartender himself -- actually "assistant bar manager" at the old Mint Hotel in downtown Vegas -- but for the last four years he's been the frontman technically, director of advertising, marketing and sales for the biggest, most lavish "cruise to nowhere" ship in the world. (It's not actually the biggest gambling ship in the world, despite the claims of its brochures. That distinction goes to Caesars Indiana, on the Ohio River, which beats it in floor space, number of games, number of tables and just about every other statistical category.) Advertisement The Ambassador II is plenty impressive, however, often mistaken for one of the oceangoing cruise liners that depart frequently from Cape Canaveral. It's 440 feet long, with a beam of 68 feet and a top speed of 20 knots, so it fits right in with the behemoths of Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean and Holland America. The port here is the second-busiest cruise port in the world (the first being Port of Miami), but Sterling Casino consistently boards more passengers -- 2.5 million and counting -- than all the other ships combined. In March of this year alone, the ship had 160,812 passengers, easily making it one of the major tourist attractions in Florida. "And that's what we are," says Mullin. "An attraction. Not just a gambling ship. We're the sixth-largest attraction in Florida." "Here's my steel-drum player!" he erupts, happy to see the little Jamaican combo setting up to greet the passengers. "Now you ARE going to play the 'Love Boat' theme, aren't you? I had to get him to learn that one. These guys don't especially like the 'Love Boat' theme, but you've GOT to have the 'Love Boat' theme, right?" The steel drum player shrugs and grins, confessing that, yes, he intends to play the "Love Boat" theme as the passengers arrive, even though it's not his favorite song in the world. Advertisement Steel drums aside -- Mullin is so fond of them that he has them playing on the open-air lounge of the top deck as well -- the Sterling experience is pure Vegas. The five cocktail lounges are all replicas of famous lounge decor on the Strip in its heyday -- the Sands Lounge, the Dunes Lounge, the Sahara, etc. Five of the eight decks are laid out in classic Vegas style, with pits in the center and tangled ranks of slots fanning out in all directions. The hand-painted ceilings are 18 feet high, creating a spacious feeling you don't get on most gambling ships. And most of the staff comes from Vegas, including the dealers. "They love it here," says Mullin. "We get only the most experienced dealers, because on a five-hour cruise, you do have to work a little faster. But they like the short shifts and, of course, the Florida weather, so they tend to show up when we're hiring." For people accustomed to run-of-the-mill gambling ships, the Sterling is a revelation -- bigger, brassier, more like an authentic land-based casino. It's really in a class of its own, so huge that it can handle eight-to-ten-foot waves with no noticeable effect on days when the smaller ships might choose to stay in port. Advertisement "On these other ships," says Mullin, "they're small, they're uncomfortable. They bump you around. You don't wanna eat, you get sick. They have no windows. And a lot of these Florida ships try to reinvent gambling. They charge admission. They charge for drinks and food. Everything on this ship is free, including the buffets. Why reinvent it? Why not just do it the way Nevada does it? It works! If a guy plays a slot machine, buy him a drink. Buy him two or three drinks." Of course, there's no way to tell just exactly how well it's working, because Sterling Casino Lines is a closely held limited-liability corporation based in New York, with the ship itself flying a Bahamian flag. Since all the gambling takes place in international waters, the company is not required to make any public filings. When I ask about ownership, Mullin says, "The owners don't really want to be known. We don't talk about that." The only owner I was able to identify for sure is Archibald Cox Jr., the son of the Watergate lawyer, who is a New York attorney, investor and principal in several corporations. The rest of the limited-liability partners are anonymous but "based in New York." Advertisement Whoever they are, they must have known what they were doing when they spent $64 million on a Mediterranean ferry and converted it into a floating gambling palace. Although they do extensive advertising, most of the customers have heard about it from other customers, and on Saturdays the crowds can be especially wild. (There have been a few fights.) Wednesday nights, on the other hand, are the opposite: busloads of senior citizens arrive from all over Florida and bring the frenzy level WAY down. To pass the time during the 30 minutes it takes to get out and back from the 3-mile limit, Sterling has imported the "Legends in Concert" show from the Imperial Palace in Vegas. (Three casts a week are flown in from Nevada.) It's both the hokiest and one of the most beloved Vegas production shows, originally written and choreographed by John Stuart, with outstanding celebrity impersonators doing Neil Diamond, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Tom Jones, Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Madonna, Roy Orbison, Little Richard, Johnny Mathis, The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson, Liza Minelli, Judy Garland, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Kenny Rogers, Liberace -- and I'm sure I've left out a few. (The Michael Jackson impersonator is especially well received and often closes the show.) Advertisement For the "Legends" show, they have a cozy seventh-deck showroom that doubles as a lounge and video-poker parlor when the performers are finished. For those who aren't that fond of gambling, they also have masseuses available, a sketch artist and, for some reason, a guy who makes balloon animals. There's music everywhere, of course, with a dance floor on the top deck and all kinds of big giveaway items -- motorcycles, Jet Skis, boats, and one of those plexiglas booths where money swirls around you and you get to keep everything you can grab in 45 seconds. The ship's capacity is 1,744 bodies, which leaves room for about 1,550 gamblers after you subtract the crew of 200 on each of the twice-daily cruises. In high season, which is roughly January to April, the ship fills up early, and they end up with as many as 400 people waiting on the dock on "standby" status. (All cruises are advance-reservation only.) The Sterling is obviously a far cry from the first gambling ship of modern times, the Pride of Mississippi, which cruised the Gulf Coast beginning in 1988. Mullin was part of that operation, too, directing onboard operations for owner Sy Redd, the legendary founder of Bally's known as the "father of the slot machine." (Bally's eventually merged into the company that today is known as IGT, largest slot-machine manufacturer in the world.) Advertisement The Pride of Mississippi was actually bigger than Sterling, at 511 feet, in part because it had to spend more time at sea, but it had fewer amenities. The laws in that day enforced a 12-mile limit, banned gambling on American-flag vessels, and, to make sure no one used a flag of convenience, required that every vessel dock in a foreign part at least once every 28 days. So the ship would be open for three weeks for day cruises, then high rollers would be invited on a four-day cruise to Cancun, to satisfy the legal requirement. (Today the Pride of Mississippi is the Copa Casino, permanently docked in Gulfport.) Unlike the clanging metal stairs of the older ships, Sterling is all escalators, all the time. Other luxury features include a VIP lounge with plush $3000 couches and satellite TV, the private Captain's Table room for groups ("We had a postal convention last week -- 14 buses!"), a picnic area on the observation deck, and two non-stop buffets that are complimentary regardless of whether you're gambling or not. Since it IS the largest operation of its kind, I ask Mullin why the investors chose Cape Canaveral, halfway up the coast of Florida, instead of the tourist-rich Port of Miami. Advertisement "The problem is," he said, "they don't HAVE that many tourist attractions in Miami. For a gambling ship you need three things. Conducive weather. Tourism -- Miami doesn't have attractions, but Orlando does. And the third thing is empty-nesters for the day cruises. You can't fill a boat in the daytime without people who don't work in the daytime. Miami gets the Europeans, but our tourism is all Americans." Mullin is a journeyman in casino sales, coming to Sterling from the Oasis Casino in Mesquite, Nevada, after long stints at the Sahara Tahoe and Sahara Vegas. He was obviously hired on the basis of his ebullient non-stop salesmanship and his ability to make friends in communities that are often skeptical of gambling ships. "We're in 11 chambers of commerce," he says. "I'm the chairman of the tourism and marketing commission of the Orlando Convention Authority. Also involved with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. We're involved in everything." The goodwill campaign has apparently worked. Sterling is listed in every tourist brochure in a 200-mile radius, at a time when rival SunCruz is having constant hassles with local governmental bodies. Sterling hasn't hurt SunCruz's business at all, however. SunCruz operates a much smaller ship but has had an increasing passenger count over the past four years. Sterling appears to be so huge that it's enlarging the whole market. Advertisement One reason it's politically peaceful here is that Port Canaveral is an isolated military and industrial space that doesn't really impinge on the bar, restaurant, beach and motel businesses of surrounding communities. The port authority, in fact, is such a booster for shipping that they're thinking about building a new $50 million terminal to attract even larger liners. The biggest project of them all would be a ship called America World City, to be built in Port Canaveral and, when completed, would be the largest cruise ship in the world (6,200 passengers, 1,250 feet). A New York-based group announced the project 10 years ago, but has yet to raise the $1 billion estimated cost, even though they still insist the ship will eventually be built. Meanwhile, Sterling rules the port as everybody's best friend. Cue the "Love Boat" theme. E-mail Joe Bob Briggs, "The Vegas Guy," at [email protected] or visit Joe Bob's Web site at www.joebobbriggs.com. Snail-mail: P.O. Box 2002, Dallas, Texas, 75221. SIDEBAR ... STERLING CASINO 108 Jetty Drive, Cape Canaveral, Fla. Theme: Classic Vegas on Water Opened: 1998 Total investment: $64 million Known for: "Legends in Concert" in the lounge Marketing niche: Orlando tourists, retirees, locals Gambler's Intensity: Medium Advertisement Cocktail speed: Rapid Dealers: Friendly Bosses: Personable Tables: 50 Rare games: Five-times-odds on craps is as rare as it gets. Slots: 1,000 Rooms: None, but they have agreements with beachfront hotels in Cocoa Beach and can book reservations for you. Surrounding area: Located in a protected cove near Cocoa Beach, part of Port Canaveral, which includes several huge terminals for oceangoing cruise lines as well as the rival SunCruz Casino, a mile up the road. Web site: sterlingcasinolines.com Overall rating: 87 Joe Bob's bankroll: Down $60 after some fast-moving Mini Baccarat: total to date +$5
